新东方：转型新考验

It was June 2012. New Oriental Education & Technology Group's budget meeting for fiscal 2013 had just conclucded, but a few questions still bothered Mr. Michael Yu, New Oriental's Founder and Chairman. In the past few years, there had been significant changes in China’s education and training market; strong rivals appeared in almost every segment of the market. Traditional teaching methods became outmoded due to the increasingly individualized needs of students and the rapid development of the Internet. Although New Oriental had maintained growth in revenue and profit year after year, it still had to take precautions against potential risks. In fact, New Oriental had been transforming since 2008: Class sizes shrank, and there was a shift from traditional teaching models to ones that combined online and offline instruction. However, the transformation was bound to bring new challenges: Which corresponding changes were needed for the new organizational structure? How could the increasingly prominent talent/teacher shortage be quickly addressed? How could New Oriental accelerate the construction of an education platform integrating online solutions?