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Pragmatum strives to be
leading supplemental education provider for three core
subjects - English, Mathematics and Science. The company
develops content in these three disciplines and packages
them in different modules under different brands to
meet the needs of customer. Founded in 2004, the company
has 6 counseling centers in NCR region, 15 employees
and 350 students. The company expects to have 1000 students
in 2008. The company owns the fastest growing brand
in IIT JEE in Delhi and is expand vertically in Math,
Science and English Coaching for students in Class 9
– 12. The company is profitable with operating margin
of 25%. The Key success factors for Pragmatum are:
- Standardized content:
Pragmatum believes in Education by Objectives. With
this philosophy in mind the company has invested in
building standardized content modules that can put
together to meet an objective. This makes the course
progress independent of the faculty. This allows us
to tap into a wider market of instructors to exercise
cost control while delivering high quality education.
- Low cost of operations:
Pragmatum partners with schools to use their facilities
for its coaching locations. The schools provide excellent
infrastructure and locations that are convenient to
students. We also keep small counseling center for
interaction with parents. This gives us flexibility
to open classroom centers at multiple locations without
adding to cost substantially.
- Technology: The
Company has a tie up with HughesNet to deliver its
lectures to remote areas using VSAT backbone. The
company has built a unique online testing and content
distribution platform. This platform is used to test
students online, to distribute video lectures, to
distribute assignments and also to create a community
of students with similar career aspirations. This
has made the availability of content 24X7 while reducing
the cost of operations for Pragmatum. The company
expects that its investment in online technologies
will enable it to gain scale quickly in future.
- Low customer acquisition
cost: We are the only education setup in India
to have a direct sales force that caters to the need
of individual students and parent unlike others who
rely entirely on advertising. This innovative personalized
marketing approach has resulted in low customer acquisition
cost.
The
Business Model
Pragmatum
is focused on three biggest career foundation skills
Mathematics, English and Science. We build and/or buy
structured content modules in these three areas. This
expertise built in these areas is then packaged to end-users
as Programs based on their objectives. For instance
for students who have aspirations to become engineers
there is a package called "The Power Coaching"
for engineering. Each Program is broken down to each
and every lecture, tests and feedback sessions. This
reduces the need for domain expert faculty members to
teach and hence makes the model highly scalable.
Pragmatum
delivers this content through its own physical centers,
partners (franchises) and online channels. The company
embraces technology to make the distribution of content
highly available. It is currently using an online platform
and VSAT channel of HughesNet to distribute its content.
The lectures are recorded such that students can access
them from home. This high quality standardized content
with highly-available delivery makes Pragmatum approach
scalable and cost-effective.
The company
has built a powerful direct sales force to counsel students
and parents. The unique personalized sales approach
has given the company leverage over its competition
by reducing its cost per customer acquisition. The combination
of standardized content, highly-available distribution
and cost-effective personalized sales approach form
the key components of business strategy. The company
will invest in standardized content and distribution
channels as it expects that with inherent economies
in these components the costs to service will continue
to go down as the quality of education will go up.
Key
Success Factors
- Structured Content
- Education by Objectives
- Content built/bought
as modules
- Assignments,
Tests, Feedback
- Modules Packaged
into Programs sold under a brand
- Eliminates need
for domain expert faculty member
- Productive sessions
- Eliminates the
need for writing lecture notes
- Content available
online before lectures
- Technology Platform
- Hughes Partnership
to distribute lectures using VSAT to
- Online platform
- Performance tracking
and feedback
- Online videos
of lectures
- Library of content
- Testing platform
- Community of students
grouped by objectives
- Low cost of Operations
- Tie up with schools
to use their facilities for coaching
- Excellent infrastructure,
Convenient location, Low Cost
- Centralized faculty
training
- Low salaries
as little need for heavy weight faculty member
- Hustle
- Personalized Marketing
- Direct Sales Force
to meet Student and Parent
- Design specific packages
depending on the need of student
- Low cost of acquisition
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