Strategic Management - Positive Cultural And Ethical Implications - Bad Strategy - Assessment Answer

Strategic Management Assignment

Assignment Task

• Use SAFe and Rumelt’s Criteria to assess or evaluate our new strategy(s). Need NOT be perfect fit on all dimensions. This is particularly so for alternative strategies. (can stick to current strategy but make changes, clearly justify current strategy and give meaningful changes)
• Justifiable to the industry life cycle stage that the organization is in? (introduction, growth, maturity.. – likely to be at growth or near end of growth, reaching maturity (get newspaper articles)
• Where resources or competences are inadequate or unavailable, say it, but go on to state that they will be acquired and will be discussed in the section under implementation.
• Explain positive cultural and ethical implications. (likely no issues)
• Explain how your recommendation(s) avoid ‘bad strategy’. (rumelt’s bad strategy)

Introduction

Financial

Baptcare institution is a nonprofit organization that operates in Victoria and Tasmania in Australia. The organization was established to support the youths, aged care services, people with disability, and low income and other asylum seekers. The institution began in 1945 as a Baptist home for the elderly people. Considering that the organization is a non-profitable organization it does not rely on it consumers and customer for sustenance and development. For that reason the institution tends to suffer a lot for lack of finances especially if there is fluctuation in terms of customers and needs from the consumers. It must also be noted that the health care services continue to increase with increased demand for aged care people in the Australian country. The governments support in the sector has also been minimal and hence it is projected that the number of aged people is expected to increase by 2022 (National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (NHHR), 2014). Moreover, the living standards continue to increase and so is the cost to provide for the elderly people and other asylum seekers. The organization therefore fully relies on the government funding and donations something that can be easily interrupted. In addition, such funds usually follow long and tedious bureaucracies hence making spending difficult (O’Reilly, 2015). Moreover, the organization is unable to come up with new and state of the art buildings for expansions due to lack of enough funding from the government and donors. The organization is unable to also come up with the latest machinery and equipment to sustain the patients. Due to lack of financial muscles the company is also suffering a lot of competition from profit making organizations that are able to come up with funds to sustain their plans.

Customer

The number of aged people in Australia has been projected to increase by 2022 by 24% according to Australian statistics (Altman and Frist, 2015). It therefore means that the government has to be equipped to deal with the increasing demand for aged care health facilities. As the population continue to rise so is the need for aged care, youth facilities, and poor people in the society. For that reason, the organization is expected to have a lot of customers in the next five years. However, there is a growing concern for the organization since it is a nonprofit making organization. Other organizations providing similar care and charging certain fees and amenities seems to attract a lot of customer something that is creating a big competition for Baptcare. In addition, most of the customers also tend to avoid the non-profitable aged care organizations due to the concerns of the type and quality of services offered there of course due to limitation in financing (Joynt and Jha). Strategic evaluation reveals that if the organization does not compete to improve its services and offer quality care it is likely to face shortage of customers most of which will be willing to pay for better quality services. However, since the introduction of the sanctuary of the asylum seekers most of which are refugees and waiting to return to their home country and the recent crisis in European countries the number of customers is still very high.

Learning and Growth

Since the inception of Baptcare in Australia after the end of WWII the organization has experienced a lot of growth and development in terms of education and support for its customers. The organization depends on volunteers who make it from all parts of the world to support the poor and aged people. Most of these volunteers are interns who come to share their expertise with the organization. In addition, most of the donors and government also ensure that they send most of the trainees and qualified professionals to the organization to share their skills and support with the organization (Beeuwkes and Buntin, 2011). The government send lecturers who offer 5-10 minutes daily training at subsidized costs. Moreover, donors especially from the health care system have always ensured continued support in terms of training and lecturing. The ability of the organization to merge with other organizations offering the same services has also helped bring a lot of talent and skill to the organization. For example, the merger with Mercy Health an organization funded and supported by the Catholic sisters has helped bring a lot of innovation and efficiencies in terms of learning and growth in the organization. However, it must be cautioned that the organization is facing stiff competition due to redundancies in terms of the quality of education and growth offered to its staff hence leading to very stiff competition from other players. Moreover, the aged care industry in Australia is one of the most regulated industry and hence Baptcare must ensure that it improves its quality and services in order to remain relevant in the industry.

Internal Business Perspectives

A close analysis at the internal business services at the organization indicate that the organization is not sufficiently running and hence incurring a lot of losses. The losses arise due to redundancies and duplications of systems most of which can easily be duplicated by other stiff competitors in the industry. Moreover, lack of enough financial support is also creating constraints for the organization especially due to a lot of regulations by the government (Productivity Commission 2015). Baptcare must also ensure that they diversify their business strategies in order to fend competition from the rest of stiff competitors. It has been noted that the IT systems and environmental sustainability projects are similar to those offered by the stiff competitors. It is therefore reasonable that Baptcare engage in business strategy differentiation in order to gain competitive advantage. However, the organization continues to outshine its rivals in terms of services due to the ability of the organization staff to penetrate deep into the community and offer door to door services to the elderly in the society. Moreover, the mergers has also gave the organization its competitive advantage hence ensuring that the internal business environment is raised higher. The government subsidized services also continue to help the institution to grow. The daily training and lectures and the rotational programs that are done in the organization also help in reducing the costs of production.