Festo LX Expansion Odyssey: Unlocking Opportunities in the Learning Platform Universe

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In the project course Digital Strategy Lab, we aimed to evaluate strategies for a potential business expansion for the learning platform provider Festo LX. By integrating its content into external platforms, Festo LX could potentially address a wider customer base and therefore increase its sales.

Goal

The goal of this project was to assess the learning platform market and to formulate strategic recommendations for potential collaborations with external learning platforms.

Methodology

Our comprehensive approach involved both primary and secondary research methodologies. We conducted 27 interviews across industrial firms, educational institutions, and individuals with technical backgrounds. Simultaneously, we scrutinized Festo LX's content and analyzed competitors and diverse learning platforms. Employing tools like perceptual maps, SWOT analyses, and SWOT strategies facilitated data interpretation.

Results

After analyzing the data, we grouped our findings into several categories to give a clear summary. First, the seven overarching topics that Festo LX covers in its content portfolio were structured into general, moderate and deep content. Subsequently, we categorized our evaluated learning platforms based on their content breadth and depth. Big Players (e.g. LinkedIn Learning or Coursera) are comprehensive platforms that offer a wide range of courses. Smaller General Platforms (e.g. Skillshare or Pinktum) provide general management content, but without a technical focus. Technical Platforms (e.g. Amatrol or Mathworks) focus on specialized and in-depth education in technical and scientific fields. Based on our categorizations, we realized that Festo LX’s moderate and deep content is specifically relevant for Big Players and Technical Platforms, whereas Smaller General Platforms would need general and moderate content.

Furthermore, we formulated SWOT analyses for each platform category and developed strategies based on them. Festo LX can address Big Players' market by leveraging industry expertise and deep content to fill existing gaps. Recognizing that global industrial firms gravitate towards Big Players, while smaller companies prefer Smaller General Platforms, the latter presents a first-mover advantage yet to integrate technical content. Festo LX's quality assurance and high-level content can bridge potential non-acceptance gaps for Smaller General Platforms. Technical Platforms are specifically appreciated by industrial firms because of the nature of their industries. Because the market is currently unsaturated, this provides a significant and the most promising market opportunity for Festo LX’s expertise and its capabilities of individualizing content and providing a user-friendly design.

Based on our insights, we derived a uniform strategy implementation process for each platform category: Festo LX can prepare for its collaborations by developing convincing content presentations. It should approach its potential partners with well-formulated arguments derived from our SWOT analyses. In the content design phase, the implementation of starter packages and the development of individualized content nuggets are key. By advertising the content and evaluating it with certain KPIs, the success of the content integration can be guaranteed.

Cooperation Partner

• Festo Didactic
  Rechbergstrasse 3 73770
  Denkendorf Baden-Wurttemberg
  Germany
  www.festo.com/at/de/

Contact Person

• Dr. Ute Gebhard
  ute.gebhard@festo.com

Student Team

• Daniel Eder

• Gloria Eder

• Katharina Koiner

• Valentina Priester

• Karoline Wölfer

Project Manager

• Caroline Fabian, M.Sc., M.Sc.

• Shtefi Mladenovska, M.Sc.