Reference no: EM133141470

Question - An article titled "Tuition industry gets more crowded, but players are upbeat about the prospects" by Lai, Leila in the Business Times on 8 July 2021, reported that "Singapore's falling birth rate ... has not stopped the tuition industry from growing... from S$1.5 billion in 2017 to $1.68 billion in 2019". However, "industry players have noticed competition getting keener of late, not only in terms of more providers muscling in on their turf, but also in terms of parents who are now savvier about their choices". As a result, "the sum of profits and losses before tax nearly halved, from S$123.1 million in 2017 to S$64 million in 2019. The percentage of profit-making companies to loss-making companies hovered around 42 per cent versus 58 per cent from 2017 to 2020". The same article also reported that "another trend is that the pandemic has accelerated the use of technology, including the rise of virtual rather than physical classes." This would mean the need "to invest more in staff, classroom and technology" to provide "more engaging learning experience" and to implement effective cost control. The first step to effective costs control is to understand and classify costs according to different purposes. Sources: [1] The Business Times (8 July 2021), "Tuition industry gets more crowded, but players are upbeat about the prospects", Lai, Leila.

Discuss the meaning "Costs can be classified differently for different purposes".