What is strategic plan – Term Paper

Balanced scorecard examples

Use of Strategic Management and Knowledge Management Theory and Research to Analyze the Current Environment of Health First

The most valuable resources available in any given company are human skills, expertise, and relationship. Knowledge management is about taking advantage of these precious assets. As such, Health First vision statement revolves around knowledge management. The vision statement is: “Skilled and dedicated people delivering high quality, patient-centered care that improves lives and communities” (Health First, 2017).To capitalize on this asset, Health First has established an education and training center where its staff can attend some lessons to perfect their skills. Health First Education and Training Center also ensures that the local community is educated. As a result, members of the community are invited to enroll in various programs offered at the centers. Additionally, Health First frequently sponsors its staff to attend some international workshops that aim at improving the quality of health care (Health First, 2017).

The health environment is also competitive, and Health First strives to remain competitive in the provision of outpatient and wellness services, which comprises of fitness centers, aging services home care among others. To remain distinctive and unique from other health care providers, Health First has come up with “My First Health- Online Tools” whereby patients can manage their medication, take a health assessment and track the health of their health status plus that of their family. Through this tool, schedule your appointments for bone density and screen mammogram. Patients can also submit the request to schedule for MRI’s and pre-register for all diagnosis services at East three days in advance. The other interesting part is that patients can pay their bills online. (Health First, 2017).

Use of Strategic Planning Tools and Research to Determine Alternative Strategies 

The TOS matrix provides a set of strategies through analyzing the internal capacity of Health First and external capacity of health care industry. It is a matching tool that constructs four main strategies which are SO, WO, ST, and WT. the explanation of Health First strategies is shown below.

TOW ANALYSIS

HEATH FIRST Internal strength 

• outstanding medical staff,

• excellent medical facilities,

• commitment to the community

• healthcare quality and

• high level of organization efficiency

Internal Weaknesses

adequate resources

organizational structure that limit collaboration among employees

External Opportunities 

• Collaboration from the community 

• Technological advancement 

• Growing healthcare program SO Strategies

• Increased presence in the region

• Penetrating the region to offer quality service

• Patient satisfactory

• Offering new services

WO strategies 

• Minimize the cost of operation

• Use of information technology

• Collaboration with local healthcare centers  

External Threats 

Increased demand of physician within the industry

Competition

Increased population for elderly ST Strategies

Offering cost efficient services

Take advantage of technological advances 

Updating of medical equipment’s

Allow local community participation  WT Strategies

Assess living condition of the elderly and other demographic factors

Business strategy

Health First can use SO strategies to grab the external opportunities by using internal strength. For instance, the organization is recognized as one of the best in the region yet the competitors are expanding their market share. As such, health First should focus on using its well-trained employees to remain competitive. Health First can use WO strategies with the intention of improving its internal weakness by using opportunities. For instance, the organization might find itself in a situation whereby its opportunity such technological advancement are increasing yet there are not any skilled employees to drive the organization (Salar & Salar, (2014.

Furthermore, ST strategies can help Health First to minimize the impacts of external threats by using its internal strength. For instance, with its experienced workforce, it can avoid external threats such increased completion in service delivery. Lastly, their   WT strategies that are used by organizations which are not in stable position and this might not be the case with Health First. Analysis of Potential Long-term Opportunities and Operational Components(Salar & Salar, (2014.

Analysis of Potential Long-term Opportunities and Operational Components

There are some operational components essential that are essential in the strategic planning process. The health First has invested in its employees, and this remains a long-term opportunity to the organization. Employees play an important role in strategic planning since they take part in critical strategic planning decisions. Notably, employees are individuals, who are on the ground at all time, and their contribution is vital, for instance, any decisions regarding any community extension services, the management should involve the officers on the ground.

Another vital component of the strategic planning process is finance that plays an essential role in making financial goals achievable. The balanced scorecard supports the role that finance plays in establishing and monitoring precise and measurable financial, strategic goals on the integrated basis. Therefore, First Health should utilize its financial resources effectively to generate additional cash for future investment.

There are potential long opportunities within the health sector that Health First can enjoy.  To begin with, the organization has established a training center for both employees and the local community which remains one of its strength. This does not necessarily remain a long term investment but rather an opportunity. As such, most of its employees will continue to be productive even with the changes in the health industry. Also, Health First has launched some programs that attracts the participation of the locals. Since most individuals will enroll in various programs offered by the established education health center. It means that the society will have expertise that will amplify some of the programs that the organization is implementing at the moment. Notably, encroachment in technology is a long-term opportunity in the health industry something that as has made service delivery more efficient, for, example, electronic medical records, and future advancements.  Health First should focus on service differentiation whereby it analyzes its competitors and ensures that it remains unique in its service delivery.

Evaluation of the effect of the strategy formulation

Strategic formulation is part of strategic management process that includes assessment and identification the current mission and strategic objectives. The steps involved in strategic management directly affects employees. For instance, Health First employees will require individual skills and expertise necessary to drive the organization towards the set goals. In its training center, the staffs are undergone various health programs and are sent to attend various global health workshops.

The strategic formulation attracts more organization resources primarily finance. Health First to requires choosing appropriate course of action to attain the defined goals. The formulation of strategy allows the organization to carefully focus on the changes in the environment and be ready to deal with some of these changes. Currently, Health First has limited service lines and marketing deficiencies. The strategy formulation will enable the organization to evaluate the overall healthcare industry regarding the size of the market, new market entries, and an industrial threat to improve its marketing efficiency. All these attract financial investment that the organization incurs. (Perera & 2012).

Conclusively, strategy implementation is critical to the successful of any organization including health care organization. The paper has overall focused on balance scorecard as one of the management tools in the health industry. The health industry has become complicated, and every health service provider is looking for ways of operating. Consequently, this paper has focused on SWOT analysis as a management tool in the health care organization. Health care organizations should critically analyze their internal and external environment to find information essential for decision making. Strategic formulation comes with some benefits, and this only occurs if the strategy is well implemented since some of them do fail, and the paper has shown some of the advantages. Strategy formulation is essential for any business, but it does not guarantee success it is not properly implemented.

References

Andersson, A. C. (2013). Quality Improvement in Healthcare: Experiences from a Swedish County Council Initiative (Doctoral dissertation, Linköping University Electronic Press) Retrieved from http://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:616665/fulltext01.pdf.

Health First (2017). Health First Profile. Retrieved from https://www.health-first.org/about_us/index.cfm

Leal-Rodríguez, A., Leal-Millán, A., Roldán-Salgueiro, J. L., & Ortega-Gutiérrez, J. (2013). Knowledge management and the effectiveness of innovation outcomes: The role of cultural barriers. Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management, 11(1), 62-71.

Njagi, L., & Kombo, H. (2014). Effect of Strategy Implementation on Performance of Commercial Banks in Kenya. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(13), 62-67. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.912.73&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Salar, M., & Salar, O. (2014). Determining pros and cons of franchising by using SWOT analysis. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 122, 515-519. Retrieved http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814014025