Strategic Analysis of Lynda Com

COURSERA | UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
FOBS- Strategic Analysis of

Lynda.com
Final Project
Mohamed Kadri Marketing Consultant

2/22/2014
This final project is intended to analyze Lynda.coms competitive situation and make recommendations
for actions to improve their current competitive position. This final project is submitted to courser in
reference to Foundation of Business Strategy Course.
FOBS- Strategic Analysis of Lynda.com 2014
Executive Summary
This strategic analysis is prepared to assess the current competitive position of Lynda.com in the
training industry with more emphasis on eLearning industry. In recent years, there has been an
increased shifting towards eLearning over the traditional training classes. In addition, trends towards
updated web technologies concerning virtual classroom training have a great influence on the consumer
behavior. Governments and Universities support these types of classes from a macroeconomic
perspective which should increase its market share versus other traditional training classes. A global
corporate training market ranges between $250bn and $300bn. North America corporate training
market in the region varies between $120-150bn. All forecasters predict a continual shift from
classroom based training to eLearning and blended solutions and hence greater investment in eLearning
over the next five years (Graph 1).
Statistically, ELearning is a $56.2 Billion business (Graph 2) and is likely to double in size before 2015.
The U.S. and Europe utilize 70% of the worlds eLearning, but the fastest growing eLearning markets are
outside of North America. E learning expenditure outside the US has higher growth in corporate, around
8% per annum average globally around 45% of spending on training and eLearning is external. The
eLearning industry is very competitive but there are vast verities of external opportunities.
By 2015, Asia will account for the second highest expenditures after North America. Eastern Europe, the
Middle East, and Africa represent significant long-term revenue opportunities.
There are four main strategic groups in eLearning industry that shape the current competition.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Free Online Courses Providers.

Off-the-shelf Content Providers.
Bespoke Content Developers Providers.
Online Video Tutorials Providers.
You can revise Table (1) to dig more regarding these strategic groups.
Online video tutorials group shapes the main direct current competitors to Lynda.com nowadays. They
vary in their competition in respect to their capabilities. We can identify the following:
1. Average competitors like TrainSimple, Learnable, CodeSchool, VTC, Tuts + Premium
2. Strong competitors like Udemy, KelbyOne, DigitalTutors, TreeHouse
You can revise Table (2) to dig more regarding these direct competitors to Lynda.com.
Lynda.com is an online video library of educational and training tutorials. Since the beginning,
Lynda.com has been focused on tech content ( web design, imagery and photography) , offering how-to
videos on some of the most popular apps from Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, and Microsoft on everything
from web design to learning to use Excel in a way that doesnt make you want to blow your brains out.
Copyright Mohamed Kadri Marketing & Training Consultant -All Rights Reserved
Page 2
Founded in the 90s, Lynda as a cofounder of Lynda.com started to teach to university level. Then she
published her first book on web design. After that Lynda and her husband Bruce Cofounder of
Lynda.com rent a computer lab at a local high school. At this time they had their physical school. But
after 9/11, travel budgets dried up and training budgets dried up. Lynda and her husband had the idea
of putting the videos online and starting them as a subscription business as opposed to selling them off
one by one, and this is really where lynda.com took off.
When they first made the online training library, they had a growing business in selling CDs and DVDROMs. They struggled after that to attain certain position as a monthly subscription company.
Now, Lynda.com video courses are taught by industry experts, working professionals, and veteran
teachers. In 2010, Lynda delivered over 1,000 hours of content, and while it provides its paid online
learning content to individuals. . Lynda hit $70 million in revenues in 2011. . Lynda.com is serving up a
wide variety of customer base for a monthly subscription fee of about $25. Lynda currently has over 1-2
million paying members and saw 42 million uniques in 2011.
During the era when they started their business as a membership subscription, a one teacher asked
them to build a system that enable her to see reports for their students. They started to create a school
version to their customers.
Today Lynda.com works with some educational institutions as well as companies, like Disney, Time
Warner, Sony, Pixar, ABC, and HBO to supplement their learning content. They diversify their products
into two main categories:
1. Individual Membership.
2. Enterprise Products.
a. Business Solutions.
b. Education Solutions.
c. Government Solution.
They keep up and running with the updated technologies. They built an IOS App and Android App for
their online training library to catch up the current trends towards these new channels of learning.
Now Lynda.com is one of the pioneers in the online video training solution but how they can preserve
their leadership within this highly competitive industry? How could they invent new strategies to gain
more position within this promising industry? How they can cope with the industry structure changed?
How can they adjust their current strategies to cope with all these current opportunities and guard
against its current weakness and external environment threats? How can they analyze their current
capabilities to gain more position within the industry?
First of all, we have to identify and analyze the major players around Lynda.com internally and
externally. Then we can introduce some recommendations to Lynda.coms board of directors to let
them better position Lynda.com among their competitors.
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Environmental Analysis for Lynda.com (Exhibit 1)
Sociocultural Influencers
Demographic Treand
Increasing Trends for Acquiring High-tech

Learning among social cultures
Growing tendencies for acquiring
eLearning among all social classes
Passive learning (informal learning)
through social media
Increase demands for Online Learning

amoung workforce and young ages.
Increase Numbers of populations who are
aware with Internet and computer overall
usage.
Technological Development
Macroeconomic Inputs
Domination of the Web Technology in

every life aspects
Blended Learning classese substitution of
traditionla classes with high impact of the
overall performance of these learners .
Increaase the Overall Spending on training

specially eLearning programs
Corporate spending on their workforce
concerning training and education
Economic recession for the major
contributor of Lynda.com's market share.
Student loan debt is over 1 $ Trillion.
Political-Legal Pressure
Governmental & Universities new
regulation to encourage eLearning.
Copyright & Content Creation Awareness
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Lynda.com SWOT Analysis (Exhibit 2)
Website updates with comfortable userexperience

Extensive Varities of Courses in various
subjects with frequent updates
No interactive part of their online courses
Excellent Depth of the overall Topic

Knowledge
No Assessment for Certificate of

Accomplishments
Competitive Cost with High Quality
No Tracks & Bundles for Strategic Courses
Industry Expert Authors
Focus on English Speakers Only
Content Produced In-house
No forums or blogs for their current

subscribers to interact under their supervision
High Quality Production Videos (HD) with

excellent voice narration
Instructor & Authors Loyalties
Prerequisites & Levels Sorting for their online
courses
Internal Firam
Capabilities
Lynda.com SWOT
External
Competitive
Environment
Massive Growth of e Learning Industry
Corporate Adaptability of e Learning

Programs
Growing Interest in programming & Coding
Education
High threat of Entry
Substitute of Free Courses Service

Providers
High Barganing Power of Buyers
Extensive use of Graphic implementation
Intense Rivarly within the Industry
Vast Web Development Expansion

Technologies
Global Competition
High tutution fees in US
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Five Forces Analysis for Lynda.com (Exhibit 3)
Threat of Entry
Bargaining
Power of
Suppliers
Intensity
of Rivarly
Bargaining
Power of
Buyers
Threat of
Substitutes
1. Rivalry
a. Tacit Coordination between the major competitors players among the same strategic
group. (+)
b. Replacement of traditional on-class training with blended learning solutions. (+)
c. High production volume and moderate profit margins for monthly subscription
business.(-)
d. High range of competitors and strategic groups with global competition (-)
2. Entry
a. Low barriers to enter eLearning market (-)
b. Low barriers to scale globally (-)
c. High sunk costs (+)
d. High Competitive advantage for premium incumbent players (+)
3. Substitutes
a. Free Learning Online Courses (-)
b. High Switching Cost (+) [Subscribers cant easily change his/her online platform
because it is a type of customer experience]
c. Corporate switch to other strategic groups like bespoke or on-the-shelf content
providers.(-)
4. Buyers
a. Numerous options for new online trainees to choose between different online course
providers.(-)
5. Suppliers
a. Increase number of authors favor to Lynda.com. (-)
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Capabilities Analysis for Lynda.com (Exhibit 4)
Core Capability The Premium provider of high-tech Video Tutorials for Graphic & Software & Web
Design with other complimentary courses authored by the most recognizable trainers & authors in
their industries.
Process
Aligned
System
High Learning curve with more than 17 years of delivering video

tutorials.
High Brand Equity that was built with years of investment.
The mindset of Lynda.com board of directors to Focuse on the product
before the profit.
Higly maintained website with paid services.
Strong Servers that tolerate the increased bandwidth.
Commitment to sustainable practices.
17 years of past video tutorials.
The process &

Systems and
People
reinforce each
other to build
capabilities.
Sustainable
People
Cofounders are industry insiders.

Talented employess with updated professional skills.
Positive cultures for their employees to innovate and work smoothly.
Well-paid authors loyal to Lynda.com with 90% of their revenues from
this company.
Highly trained engineers to manage Lynda.com website.
The capability is
Inimitable and
durable.
Built over
unique
historical path.
Competitive Life Cycle Analysis (Exhibit 5)

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Emergent
Phase
Cloud
Technologies
Competitive
Life Cycle
Mature Phase
Growth Phase
Traditionl
Onsite
Training
eLearning
Web
Platforms
So we do recommend Lynda.com to capture two main types of future action strategies & plans
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I.
Urgent Actions
BUILD TRACKS & BUNDLES FROM THEIR CURRENT ONLINE COURSES

Lynda.com has different videos from more than one author for each field of training. Their competitors
have designed packages for each field of expertise to facilitate the thorough understanding for their
subscribers to pursue any professional career. For example, TrainSimple has designed a Certified Web
Designer Course bundle with these courses:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
II.
HTML Fundamental
CSS3 Fundamental
CSS3 Typography
CSS3 Box Model
Fireworks CS6 Fundamentals
HTML5 Structure and Semantic
CSS3 Layouts
JavaScript Fundamental
JavaScript Fundamental 2
NEW STRATEGY FOR GRANTING THEIR CERTIFICATE OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Lynda.com grants their certificates to all their subscribers upon watching the course videos. Lynda.com
doesnt have any kind of assessment for their subscribers before granting them a certificate of
accomplishments. Other strategic groups assess their online learners with multiple quizzes, assignments
and even a final exam or assignment to evaluate their online learners. For a short term, Lynda.com
subscribers will not burden more effort to gain their online certificates but Lynda.coms certificates will
be depreciated in the workplace market because some of Lynda.com subscribers will try to convince
their employers that they have mastered certain field. This strategy will end up with bad reputation for
Lynda.com certificates as Lynda.com are granting their certificates to come subscribers who dont
possess certain competencies.
Apart from that Lynda.com grant some certificates for some tips courses. These courses should have
different kind of prove for their accomplishments.
III.
INTERACTIVE ENGAGEMENT FOR THEIR ONLINE COURSES

The video tutorials are not the only way to introduce eLearning. Although videos are considered the
most sources of traffic online and they capture a lot of audiences, there are other ways of eLearning that
engage online learners. Video production at Lynda.com is very professional. They have big capabilities in
this area with excellent voice narration and on-site video production. But Lynda.com should not lock
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them in producing their courses with video tutorial only, they should have an integrated environment
that enables online learners to engage more with their contents.
Alison for example is one of the starters in this type of eLearning. The early course Alison ABC IT Literacy
was designed to let online learner interact with the course content. These technologies are currently
evolving and Lynda.com should do a preservative action to cope with these new updates.
Lynda.com has a very professional staff of programming engineers. They can research more in this
sector and capture new insights for these updated technologies and put a blueprint for interactive
courses that integrates with their training video tutorials.
IV.
MORE SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT
The increasing recognition of the importance of the informal learning has been come about. By the
current ease of access of social media tools, individuals are already managing their informal learning
online. Groups and Forums are scattered everywhere. Anyone can ask any question and get a reply from
a skilled person. Lynda.com should increase their customer online engagement by constructing social
media channels for their eLearning environment. These channels should be running with professional
bloggers who are at the cutting edge in their industry. They should manage comments and share new
ideas to put Lynda.com ahead away from their competitors.
V.
CREATE COMPLIMENTARY ITEMS FOR THEIR ONLINE VIDEO LIBRARY

Learnable as one of Lynda.com competitors has created some complimentary items for their eLearning
environment. These books and events act as new media for their web development and web design
courses. Their learners contend that their mission is become easier. They can find extra items without
more searching online.
Also KelbyOne has complimentary items like books with extra cost for their subscribers. Lynda.com
should diversify their training material to cover more items with their online video library. Any learners
who want to master any kind of career path should have more items to let him/her broadly view the
subject from different perspective.
VI.
MORE DISCOUNT FOR THEIR YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION

Upon subscribing with Learnable, you can get $75 discount for six months subscription and $199
discount for yearly subscription. Lynda.com should have extra discount for their yearly subscribers to
encourage them to pay for their yearly subscription. Pricing strategy for yearly subscription is almost the
same with monthly subscription. This pricing strategy dont motivate Lynda.com online learner to
purchase more months in respect to their online subscription.
Also KelbyOne has 50% discount for their annual subscription. They have the same price of Lynda.com
for their monthly subscription but if you pay for annual subscription, it will cost you $249 only.
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Digital-tutors also have the same strategy. They have semi-annual price strategy. This cost plan saves
$45 from their monthly subscription. Upon registering for annual plan, you can save $141. Here you will
pay $399 for an annual subscription.
Lynda.com should have their own pricing strategy which can imitate competitors strategies.
I.
Long Term Actions
NEW STRATEGY TO SCALE INTERNATIONALLY
Lynda.com should focus on the current growing economies internationally. The fastest growing
eLearning markets are outside of North America. Lynda should invent new strategies to penetrate these
markets. Lynda herself stated We are interested in taking Lynda.com international; in localized many
different languages.
II.
NEW STRATEGY TO PENETRATE CORPORATES
With reference to trainingindustry.com statistical analysis, corporate training is one of the big consumer
in the training industry. Lynda.com should diversify more in respects to this lucrative sector. Enterprise
products should have a distinct business unit at Lynda.com. Lynda.com has the overall capabilities to
start a new venture like this. They should plan more for their enterprise products.
III.
NEW STRATEGY FOR FUTURE ACADEMIC BUYERS
As the academic buyers emerges as top buyers in the next five years, Lynda.com should start a new
partnerships or strategic alliances with top universities to let them precede their current competitors in
this upcoming market expansion.Lynda.com should have their blueprint strategy apart from free online
course providers like Coursera and Edx.
IV.
NEW STRATEGY TO ACCREDIT & AFFILIATE THEIR COURSE CONTENT
Lynda.com should try to gain accreditation for their courses. They can build bundles as discussed earlier
of learning paths then seek for a reputed provider to guide them on how to accredit these learning
paths. These credits may help Lynda.com subscribers to be credited at certain institution or colleagues
levels.It has been announced that Lynda.com will receive $103 million in growth equity from Accel
Partners and Spectrum Equity, with contributions from Meritech Capital Partners. Accel and Spectrum
will both get a seat on Lynda.coms board of directors. This will increase Lynda.com capital position for
any future ventures.
Case Study Details
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Industry Background
TrainingIndustry.com uses data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis along with data collected
from annual Top Training Company studies to assess training industry current position for corporates.
They announced that a global corporate training market ranges between $250bn and $300bn. North
America corporate training market in the region varies between $120-150bn.
$300.00
$250.00
$200.00
$150.00
$100.00
$50.00
$0.00
2012
2011
2010
2009
This data does not include expenditures related to consumers' spend for training programs (individuals
taking training courses for personal or non-work related development). It does include dollars paid by
corporations to educational institutions for corporate training initiatives. All forecasters predict a
continual shift from classroom based training to eLearning and blended solutions and hence greater
investment in eLearning over the next five years.
On the other hand, e Learning was begun in 1998 and is now 15 years old! People now eLearn all sort
of new things. Online learning, e-learning, learning technologies, educational technologies, digital
learning, will continue to grow and grow, become more prevalent, and more a central part of teaching
and learning in higher education.
Statistically, ELearning is a $56.2 Billion business and is likely to double in size before 2015.The U.S. and
Europe utilize 70% of the worlds eLearning, but the fastest growing eLearning markets are outside of
North America. E learning expenditure outside the US has higher growth in corporate, around 8% per
annum average globally around 45% of spending on training and eLearning is external. The eLearning
industry is very competitive but there are vast verities of external opportunities
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40
35
30
25
US
20
Outside US
15
10
5
0
Corporate are still top buyers, will see the academic buyers emerge as top buyers in next five years and
demand for eLearning solutions will continue to grow. 72% of companies surveyed report that
eLearning keeps them on top of their industry changes. Corporations save 50-70% when they replace
instructor-based training with eLearning. ELearning classes are generally 25-60% shorter in duration
than traditional classes. 23% of employees leave their jobs because the position lacks opportunity for
development and training. Online is proven to increase knowledge retention by 25-60%.
By 2015, Asia will account for the second highest expenditures after North America. Eastern Europe, the
Middle East, and Africa represent significant long-term revenue opportunities.
Strategic Groups in the eLearning industry
There are four main strategic groups in eLearning industry that shape the current competition.
No
Strategic Group
Examples
Free Online Courses.
Coursera, EDX, UDACITY,SAYLOR,ALISON
Off-the-shelf Content Providers
Skillsoft, Element K, CrossKnowledge, Third Force
Bespoke Content Developers
Line, Kineo, Epic, CM Group, Cognitive Arts, Redtry
Online Video Tutorials
Lynda, Digital-tutor, CreativeLife, Kelbyone, VTC, Treehouse
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I.
FREE ONLINE COURSE PROVIDERS
First of all, we will discuss the free online course providers. We can configure these types of players in
respect to this group:
1. Coursera
It is a learning platform which is used by many colleagues and universities to provide various
courses free online for many students. Coursera involves active participation in classes
including coursework, quizzes, forum discussion, projects, assignmentsetc. Upon
completion, some courses provide a Statement of Accomplishment or a Verified Certificate for
students who pass the courses.
2. Edx
This is similar to coursera that it partners with universities and offer MOOCs for several
weeks. Also as courser, it involves active participation in classes. Some reputable universities
are using their platform include Harvard University and MIT.
3. Upacity
It provides free courses in mainly computer science and math topics. You also receives a
certificate of completion when you successfully complete the course.
4. Saylor
It is also an online website which also offers college-type courses. The extra benefit that it
offers that these courses may also be used to credit at some institutions such as Excelsior
College and Thomas Edison State College but you have to pay additional fees in order to use a
course for college credits.
5. Alison
It is a training & educational website that relies on advertising in respect to their revenues.
They offer courses as well as diplomas. You can get a certificate of accomplishment upon
paying for them. Depending on which course you choose, the material may be presented
through slides, audios, videos, animation and a combination of them. Most courses involve a
few multiple quizzes and a multiple choice final assessment. To be qualified in any course, you
must earn 80% or more to get your certificate or diploma.
II.
OFF-THE-SHELF CONTENT PROVIDERS

Skillsoft is one of the pioneer in the field of learning with a long history of innovation with 207 M
in 2009. Skillsoft provides cloud-based learning solutions for our customers worldwide, who range
from global enterprises, government and education customers to mid-sized and small businesses.
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Skillsoft courses, books and videos have been developed by industry-leading learning experts to
ensure that they build talent and develop a more knowledgeable, productive and valuable
workforce.
Their customer support teams draw on a wealth of in-house experience and a comprehensive
learning e-library to develop both packaged and custom learning programs tailored to their
customers' needs. They currently serve over 5,000 customers and more than 13,000,000 learners
worldwide and provide continuing, hands-on support to assist them in maximizing their ongoing
success.
III.
BESPOKE CONTENT DEVELOPERS

Kineo is a global workplace learning company that helps businesses improve their performance
through learning and technology. They are a trusted partner to many of the worlds leading
organizations.
They design learning solutions that deliver measurable results. These solutions range from custom
e-learning to accredited programmes to hosted learning management platforms. Part of the City &
Guilds Group, Kineo supports businesses with all aspects of skills development and training.
They can draw on the extensive resources of the wider Group, which includes the Institute of
Leadership and Management. City & Guilds is a major force in workplace learning offering more
than 500 qualifications across 28 industries; and working with over 10,000 centers and training
providers in 80 countries around the world. Over two million learners work towards a City & Guilds
qualification every year.
IV.
ONLINE VIDEO TUTORIALS

This group comprises the main direct competitors to Lynda.com. There are apparent competitors in
this group which is shown in Table 2
Name
Train Simple
Capabilities
Average
Objectives
Adobe Software and
Web Technologies
Strategy
Low monthly
Subscription
Learnable
Average
Web Development and

Design
Code School
Average
Web Code Building

Courses
Average monthly
Subscription and higher
discount for yearly
subscription
Average monthly
Subscription and
Average Pro for Team
Reporting
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Average
Programming & Web

Design
Average monthly
Subscription
Tuts + Premium
Average
Scattered Technology
Courses Envato
Project
Total Training
Average Competitive
Software & Adobe &

Graphics
Udemy
Competitive
Focus on Business
Training
Average monthly
discount for yearly
subscription
Average monthly
discount for yearly
subscription
High Price for
Individual Courses
KelbyOne
Competitive
Photographers Affiliate
Education
Digital Tutors
Competitive
CG, 3D, 2D, VXF, CAD
Tree House
Competitive
Web Design and Web

Development
VTC
Average monthly
discount for yearly
subscription
Moderately High
Monthly Subscription
and higher discount for
yearly subscription
Average monthly
discount for yearly
subscription
Lynda Background
Lynda.com is an online video library of educational and training tutorials. Since the beginning,
Lynda.com has been focused on tech content ( web design, imaginary and photography) , offering howto videos on some of the most popular apps from Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, and Microsoft on
everything from web design to learning to use Excel in a way that doesnt make you want to blow your
brains out.
Founded in the 90s, Lynda as a cofounder of Lynda.com started to teach to university level. Then she
published her first book on web design. After that Lynda and her husband Bruce Cofounder of
Lynda.com rent a computer lab at a local high school. At this time they had their physical school. But
after 9/11, travel budgets dried up and training budgets dried up. Lynda and her husband had the idea
of putting the videos online and starting them as a subscription business as opposed to selling them off
one by one, and this is really where lynda.com took off.
When they first made the online training library, they had a growing business in selling CDs and DVDROMs. They struggled after that to attain certain position as a monthly subscription company.
Page 16
Now, Lyndas video courses are taught by industry experts, working professionals, and veteran teachers.
In 2010, Lynda delivered over 1,000 hours of content, and while it provides its paid online learning
content to individuals. . Lynda hit $70 million in revenues in 2011. . Lynda.com is serving up a wide
variety of customer base for a monthly subscription fee of about $25. Lynda currently has over 1 million
paying members and saw 42 million uniques over the last 12 months a 20 percent increase from the
year prior.
During the era when they started their business as a membership subscription, a one teacher asked
them to build a system that enable her to see reports for their students. They started to create a school
version to their customers.
Today it also works with nearly all of the Ivy League schools as well as companies, like Disney, Time
Warner, Sony, Pixar, ABC, and HBO to supplement their learning content. They diversify their products
into two main categories:
3. Individual Membership.
4. Enterprise Products.
a. Business Solutions.
b. Education Solutions.
c. Government Solution.
They keep up and running with the updated technologies. They built an IOS App and Android App for
their online training library to catch up the current trends towards these new channels of learning.
Now Lynda.com is one of the pioneers in the online video training solution but how they can preserve
their leadership within this highly competitive industry? How could they invent new strategies to gain
more position within this promising industry? How they can cope with the industry structure changed?
How can they adjust their current strategies to cope with all these current opportunities and guard
against its current weakness and external environment threats? How can they analyze their current
capabilities to gain more position within the industry?
We will try to address these issues in the upcoming sections.
First, upon analyzing the macro environment in respect to Lynda.com, we can identify these factors that
influence Lynda.com
1. Sociocultural
a. There are increasing treads for acquiring high-tech learning among social cultures.
b. There are growing tendencies for acquiring eLearning among all social classes.
c. There is informal passive learning that is shaped nowadays with social media.
2. Demographic
a. There are increase demands for online learning.
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b. The education awareness of populations is dramatically increasing with more internet

and computer usage.
3. Technology
a. Web Technology dominates all our life aspects.
b. Blended learning classes substitute some of traditional classes with high impact of the
overall performance of these learners.
4. Macroeconomics
a. There is an increase of the overall spending on training specifically eLearning platforms.
b. Corporates spends more on their workforce for their training and education.
c. Economic recessions for some areas that contribute to Lynda.coms market share may
push them to invest more in others areas.
d. The big loan debt for students in U.S. which is over $ 1 Trillion may increase the
likelihood of their business opportunities.
5. Political-Legal
a. There are new regulations from Governments & Universities to encourage eLearning
platforms.
b. Copyright awareness globally will encourage Lynda.com to create more contents.
Second, the external and internal environment to Lynda.com is very crucial. We have the internal firma
capability and the external competitive environment. We can sort these variables in respect to these
two factors:
1. Internal Firm capabilities
a. Strengths
i. Lynda.com has extensive verities of courses in various subjects with frequent
updates for these courses.
ii. The excellent depth of the overall topic knowledge characterizes Lynda.com
courses.
iii. Prerequisites & Levels sorting are the major characteristics for Lynda.com
courses.
iv. They have competitive costs with high quality courses.
v. All their content is produced in-house.
vi. There videos are produced with high quality with excellent voices and HD.
vii. Their instructors are loyal to them by a base paid salary which covers almost
90% of their annual revenues and a share of the revenue generated byu their
content based on the videos popularity.
viii. The subscribers are experiencing multiple website updates that contribute to
their comfortable user experience.
b. Weakness
i. There are no tracks or bundles assigned for their courses to be differentiated as
strategic courses with different sub courses.
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ii. There have no interactive & dynamic courses that engage their subscribers
more and more.
iii. There are focusing only on English speakers audiences.
iv. The lack of structured forums or blogs for their subscribers to let them interact
more regarding their current studied subject.
2. External Competitive environment
a. Opportunities
i. There is a massive growth as mentioned earlier in the overall eLearning
industry.
ii. Corporates are more likely to adapt eLearning programs over traditional training
methods.
iii. The urgent growing interest in programming & coding education may qualify
Lynda.com to better position.
iv. The massive use of graphic implementation in the current business will make
Lynda.com online courses more appealing.
v. The vast verities of web development and application will increase Lynda.com
courses acquaintance.
vi. The high tuition fees at the University levels will give Lynda.com better position.
b. Threats
i. There is more chance for an entry to this industry.
ii. The substitutes of online free courses online will decrease the target audience
for some specific subjects at Lynda.com training library.
iii. The different competitors in this industry may qualify buyers for higher
bargaining power.
iv. There is a frequent increase for global suppliers which increase the overall
rivalry in this industry.
Third, with the reference to Porters five forces, we can figure out some of the influences to Lynda.com.
Some factors may contribute to the Lynda.com positively and some of them may contribute negatively.
We identified those factors.
1. Intensity of Rivarly
a. Decrease the intensity of rivalry
i. The tacit coordination of prices between the major player competitors of the
online video.
ii. The predicted replacement of the traditional on-class training with a blended
learning on complete eLearning platforms.
b. Increase the intensity of rivalry
i. The high production volume and moderates margins of the monthly
subscribers.
2. Threat of Entry
a. Increase the threat of entry
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i. Low barriers to enter eLearning market.

ii. Low barriers to scale globally.
b. Decrease the threat of entry
i. High sunk costs
ii. High competitive advantages for the incumbent players like Lynda.com
3. Threat of substitutes
a. Increase the threat of entry
i. The frequent of increase of the Free Learning Online Provider like Coursera and
Edx.
ii. The corporate awareness of other strategic groups like Bespoke and Off-theShelf content providers.
b. Decrease the threat of entry
i. The high switching cost between the different providers as the trainee cant
change their online platform easily as it is an overall experience.
4. Threat of Buyers & Suppliers
a. There is an increase in the bargaining power of buyers and decrease in the bargaining
power of suppliers.
b. The numerous options for buyers to choose between different course providers may
contribute for this bargaining power.
c. The frequent increase of the highly knowledgeable audiences will increase the
numbers of authors which may lead to the bargaining power of suppliers favor to
Lynda.com and their competitors.
Forth, the internal capabilities and their alignment and sustainability will make Lynda.com analyze its
major strength and reinforce them. The major core capability for Lynda.com is that it is the premium
provider of the high-tech video tutorials in Graphic & Software & Web Design and other complimentary
courses authored by the most recognizable trainers & authors in their industries. We can also identify
the major three sources of capabilities:
1. People
a. The major cofounders of Lynda.com are industry insider.
b. Lynda.com has talented employees with updated professional skills.
c. There is positive culture for their employees to innovate and work smoothly.
d. The website is managed by highly trained engineers.
e. The well-paid authors who are loyal to Lynda.com.
2. Process
a. The high learning curve in respect to eLearning industry with more than 17 years of
delivering video tutorials
b. The mindset of Lynda.com board of directors to focus on the product before profit.
c. The high brand equity that was built with years of investment.
3. System
a. There website is highly maintained with paid services from Microsoft.
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b. They have strong servers that tolerate the daily increase of their bandwidth
consumption.
These capabilities are aligned with each other. Lynda.com boards of directors are concerned a lot about
the people & process alignment. Lynda.com has an inimitable and durable capability. But they have to
continue to invest more in their workforce to maintain these capabilities.
Fifth, the competitive life cycle for the training dynamic market environment for Lynda.com has to be
considered from these phases.
1. Emergent Phase
The cloud computing is emerged nowadays with a great emphasis from the technology
leaders to acquire this update. Lynda.com should consider this update and act
accordingly.
2. Growing Phase
The eLearning web platforms are the dominant era of eLearning in these current days.
Lynda.com should continue their updates in respect to this cash flow sector.
3. Mature Phase
Traditional on-site training is in the shakeout period. Lynda.com should continue their
online investment and try to harvest any on-site training they offer.
We conclude from these analyses that Lynda.com has a big opportunity to become a market leader and
maintain their reputed competitive position with some differentiation to catch more opportunities
which will impact their brand loyalty and sales revenue.
References
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
http://trainingindustry.com
http://elearningindustry.com
http://lynda.com
http://steverayson.kineo.com
http://rajeshthambala.blogspot.com
Lynda Weinman Speech.
Bruce Heavin Speech.
All Lynda.com competitors websites
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Strategic Analysis of Lynda Com

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COURSERA | UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

FOBS- Strategic Analysis of

Mohamed Kadri Marketing Consultant

FOBS- Strategic Analysis of Lynda.com 2014

Free Online Courses Providers.

FOBS- Strategic Analysis of Lynda.com 2014

FOBS- Strategic Analysis of Lynda.com 2014

Environmental Analysis for Lynda.com (Exhibit 1)

Increasing Trends for Acquiring High-tech

Increase demands for Online Learning

Domination of the Web Technology in

Increaase the Overall Spending on training

FOBS- Strategic Analysis of Lynda.com 2014

Lynda.com SWOT Analysis (Exhibit 2)

Website updates with comfortable userexperience

No interactive part of their online courses

Excellent Depth of the overall Topic

No Assessment for Certificate of

Competitive Cost with High Quality

No Tracks & Bundles for Strategic Courses

Industry Expert Authors

Focus on English Speakers Only

Content Produced In-house

No forums or blogs for their current

High Quality Production Videos (HD) with

Massive Growth of e Learning Industry

Corporate Adaptability of e Learning

High threat of Entry

Substitute of Free Courses Service

Extensive use of Graphic implementation

Intense Rivarly within the Industry

Vast Web Development Expansion

High tutution fees in US

FOBS- Strategic Analysis of Lynda.com 2014

Five Forces Analysis for Lynda.com (Exhibit 3)

FOBS- Strategic Analysis of Lynda.com 2014

High Learning curve with more than 17 years of delivering video

The process &

Cofounders are industry insiders.

Competitive Life Cycle Analysis (Exhibit 5)

FOBS- Strategic Analysis of Lynda.com 2014

FOBS- Strategic Analysis of Lynda.com 2014

BUILD TRACKS & BUNDLES FROM THEIR CURRENT ONLINE COURSES

NEW STRATEGY FOR GRANTING THEIR CERTIFICATE OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS

INTERACTIVE ENGAGEMENT FOR THEIR ONLINE COURSES

FOBS- Strategic Analysis of Lynda.com 2014

MORE SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT

CREATE COMPLIMENTARY ITEMS FOR THEIR ONLINE VIDEO LIBRARY

MORE DISCOUNT FOR THEIR YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION

FOBS- Strategic Analysis of Lynda.com 2014

Long Term Actions

NEW STRATEGY TO SCALE INTERNATIONALLY

NEW STRATEGY TO PENETRATE CORPORATES

NEW STRATEGY FOR FUTURE ACADEMIC BUYERS

NEW STRATEGY TO ACCREDIT & AFFILIATE THEIR COURSE CONTENT

Case Study Details

FOBS- Strategic Analysis of Lynda.com 2014

FOBS- Strategic Analysis of Lynda.com 2014

Free Online Courses.

Coursera, EDX, UDACITY,SAYLOR,ALISON

Off-the-shelf Content Providers

Skillsoft, Element K, CrossKnowledge, Third Force

Bespoke Content Developers

Line, Kineo, Epic, CM Group, Cognitive Arts, Redtry