The Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations Essay
Value-Adding Strategies
Effective strategic management helps an organization assess and monitor operations within it to ensure achievement of the set objectives. One of the aspects of strategic management is internal environmental analysis, which is done to determine organizational strengths and weaknesses. The results of internal environmental analysis are used in the formulation of strategies that improve on the weaknesses and capitalize on the strengths to create a competitive advantage. This essay will discuss the link between internal environment analysis and value-adding support strategies; explain the linkage between value-adding strategies and action plans; and the differences in marketing of physical goods and service marketing. The Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations Essay
The Linkage between Internal Environmental Analysis and the Value-Adding Service Delivery and Support Strategies
An internal environmental analysis is a review of an organization’s operations, vision, production capacity, marketing strategies, and leadership. The results of internal environmental analysis are used to evaluate organizational competencies, competitive edge, and opportunities for growth. In addition, the results are used in the decision-making and strategy formulation processes (Ginter, et al., 2018). From an internal environmental analysis, an organization is able to identify its threats and risk factors likely to emerge internally and develop ways of mitigating against them. It helps an organization prepare adequately for any foreseeable eventualities in the future. The analysis reveals the current state of affairs in the organization, which helps in the advancement of value-added delivery of services. For instance, if an organization discovers that it has poor customer service, it can formulate a plan to improve the service by training its staff and hiring more customer service staff. This plan will add value to service delivery by improving the customer experience.
Value-adding strategies refer to differentiation approaches and steps taken by an organization to outshine their competitors. This means that the organization will put their best foot forward to offer services or products that meet the needs of their clients. An organization can use internal environmental analysis to improve its overall performance by building services and support strategies that add value to the organization (Nikolova et al., 2022). Value-adding strategies help an organization increase its competitiveness, improve its weaknesses, and minimize risk factors that may hinder good performance. Internal analysis helps managers formulate viable, value-adding strategies that position a company to compete more effectively in the market. Value-adding service delivery and support strategies and internal environmental analysis are interlined and correlated. The Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations Essay
The value chain represents an organization’s internal activities of transforming inputs into outputs. An internal environmental analysis helps in determining the weaknesses in the value chain and strategies that can be employed to add value to the final product or increase differentiation for client satisfaction. Information derived from internal analysis helps in the formation of support strategies that strengthen a firm’s infrastructure, procurement processes, product development, and logistics (Nikolova et al., 2022). Value-adding support strategies play an important role in the creation of a conducive working environment; information flows; reporting structures; financial needs; and human resource requirements. Support strategies complement internal operations by facilitating the accomplishment of value-adding service delivery strategies.
Link between Value-adding strategies and Action Plans
Change management is a crucial part in the provision of care and services. Organizations are constantly applying evidence-based practices to improve service delivery and quality of care, especially in the healthcare sector. Other factors that trigger changes include changes in client demands and preferences; changes in government regulations and legislation; economic changes; and technological innovations. Effective planning is required in actualizing a change process. Value-adding strategies are change management plans aimed at helping an organization achieve the desired goals (Ginter et al., 2018). Effective implementation of change depends on the implementation of plans based on the set goals. In effect, an action plan is made to achieve the intended objectives. The Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations Essay
An action plan is a document outlining steps to be taken by an organization to achieve specific goals. It helps an organization identify value-promoting strategies. Therefore, value-adding strategies are linked to the action plan through the formulation of marketing objectives and actualization techniques (Cotter et al., 2018). Action plan objectives describe what a firm will achieve from its marketing activities. Value-adding strategies define how the action plan objectives will be achieved. Objectives describe the intended outcomes, while strategies are measures to be taken to achieve those outcomes. An action plan contains a list of activities and completion dates for each activity. The completion dates guide the implementation of value-adding strategies.
Successful implementation of an action plan results in the realization of value-adding outcomes. It is through an action plan that an organization is able to meet the goals of value-adding strategies (). It is necessary to conduct an internal analysis to check a company’s resources and identify those that will be required to achieve the desired goals. Value-adding strategies should be formulated after the identification of the required resources. Value-adding strategies are linked to action plans in the sense that action plans facilitate strategy launch and management to realize the achievement of value-adding strategies (Cotter et al., 2018). The categorization of value-adding strategies aids in the completion of tasks and assignments in the action plan. The Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations Essay
Differences between marketing of a service and marketing of a physical good
Product marketing involves market analysis, promotion, sales, product delivery, and customer feedback. The marketing services in product marketing are aligned to sell a specific product to a specific target market (Rekettye, 2019). Service marketing refers to the promotion of economic activities offered by an individual or a company. The main objective of a service is to provide a solution to a person’s problems. Service marketing differs from product marketing in several ways and requires different strategies. When marketing a product, consideration of the place of marketing, mode of promotion, price, and the product itself is required. In service marketing, factors such as price, place, promotion, product, proof, process, and people come into play. Services are intangible, variable, and inseparable, and it is difficult to examine before purchase or compare the quality with similar services (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2021). Therefore, when pricing a service, one is required to prove that it is of the right quality and consistent with the needs of a client. A product is tangible, and a client can examine, test, and compare it to other similar products before purchasing. When pricing a physical product, its benefits are explained in relation to customer needs. A physical good is returnable if the customer is not satisfied with its quality. Services are often non-returnable, and a client can only express dissatisfaction if it does not meet their expected quality, or avoid repeat service. Promotion of physical goods is easier since they can be felt and touched. Promotion of services is quite difficult since people can only experience it.
Service marketing is based on relationships, while product marketing is based on value. When a customer is satisfied with the value received, they can come back for a similar service in the future. When a marketed product fulfills a customer’s requirements, it offers value, and the customer is likely to make a repeat purchase. A service marketer is often required to demonstrate the quality of the process and provide proof of a reasonable outcome. The success of most services offered is based on the reputation of the service provider (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2021). It is possible to maintain consistent quality in a physical product with the proper control system. Therefore, a marketer can be sure that the quality of the product they are marketing is consistent whether the customer is making a first-time or repeat purchase. The consistency of quality when offering services depends on the people offering the service. Also, it is harder to standardize and control variability in service input and output (Hole et al., 2018). Therefore, it becomes hard to maintain consistency, which is one of the challenges in service marketing. In product marketing, the company promotes a good whose ownership is transferrable or resaleable to another party. Conversely, in service marketing, the ownership of a service cannot be transferred or resold to another party. The Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations Essay
Products can be transported from one place to another using different distribution channels. A customer can access a product from where they are, unlike in service marketing, where the services are location-based since they cannot be transported (Hole et al., 2018). A customer has to visit the service provider or vice versa. In product marketing, a product has a separate entity from its manufacturer and can be inventoried. On the contrary, services are inseparable from their source, making their production and consumption simultaneous. Products offered by a specific company under a particular segment are standardized (Rekettye, 2019). Therefore, the process of making a custom-made product as per a customer’s requirements is difficult. In contrast, services are variable and easy to customize. A product’s imagery grabs the attention of clients quickly, which encourages sales. Conversely, a service is non-imagery and can only be visualized or experienced, which makes the response to marketing services slow. Lastly, in service marketing, a customer is actively involved in the production process to create the service product, either through self-service (such as when using an ATM machine) or by cooperating with the service personnel, such as in hotels and hospitals. In contrast, a customer is passive in the manufacturing process of a product.
Conclusion
Strategic management is essential as it helps an organization with proper planning, prudent use of resources, and alignment of strategy to organizational goals. The linkage between internal environmental analysis and value-adding service delivery is important in helping organizations to maintain a competitive advantage and increase their market share. Formulation of marketing objectives and strategies for actualizing them is an important part of linking value-adding strategies to action plans. A marketer needs to know the differences between service marketing and product marketing in order to come up with practical approaches to encourage sales. The Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations Essay
References
Cotter, C., Gerber, P., & Schutte, N. (2018). Transforming learning and development into a strategic value-adding business solution: A conceptual and business-minded framework. Economics, Management and Marketing (AC-EMM), 142.
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Hole, Y., Pawar, S., & Bhaskar, M. P. (2018). Service marketing and quality strategies. Periodicals of Engineering and Natural Sciences (PEN), 6(1), 182-196.
Nikolova, M., Tabassum, N., & Nayak, B. S. (2022). The Internal Organisational Environment in Amazon. In Modern Corporations and Strategies at Work (pp. 35-71). Springer, Singapore.
Rekettye, G. (2019). Value Creation 4.0-Marketing Products in the 21st Century. Transnational Press London.
Wirtz, J., & Lovelock, C. (2021). Services marketing: People, technology, strategy. World Scientific. The Strategic Management of Health Care Organizations Essay