Key Strategic Factors of Golden Years Village - Research Paper Example

?Introduction Healthcare is one of the important components of welfare programs of the government. In the recent times, increasing cost of healthcaredeliverables have become major concern, both for the public and the government who is bearing the major cost. With increasing life expectancies, the population of elderly has significantly increased, resulting in higher cost of healthcare services on the younger generation. The need to meet the challenges of health care needs of the older people, alternative measures must be developed. CCRC or ‘Continuing Care retirement Community’ projects have evolved as standalone industries that meet the growing demands of healthcare issues of people in their post retirement period. The Golden Years Village is a CCRC project that primarily provides multifaceted post retirement healthcare services to elderly population above sixty years of age in Portsmouth, Pennsylvania. The paper would discuss the project as ‘for profit organization’, using SWOT analysis. Key strategic factors of Golden Years Village Strengths GYV has more than 29 years of experience in the area of meeting the healthcare needs of elder population and understands the myriad problems of old age It runs cost effective programs that give residents options of individual services and housing facilities as well as meeting their wider needs of personal requirements of assisted living and personalized nursing. The vast campus of GYV is also equipped with state of the art recreational activities which help the residents to de-stress and actively enjoy life. Uses technology to enhance operational efficiency. Despite previous losses, its profitability indicator is better than its rivals. Weakness Due to stringent government rules and regulation, cannot increase prices of its product to meet the increasingly higher cost of healthcare deliverable. The organizational structure is mechanistic and prefers stability and resists change. The centralized power significantly reduces empowered decision making capabilities of employees which adversely impacts performance and efficiency. Does not have strategic market plans for its products and mainly relies on word to mouth publicity as its major market ploy. It lacks financial resources to meet new challenges Opportunities The increasing number of aged population offers huge opportunities to expand its products to suit the growing demands of the people. Threat The major threat is from the new entrants that are ‘for profit’ organizations and who are better equipped to offer customized packages to customers. Wider implications of key strategic factors Golden Years Village is endowed with sprawling area and has expert human competencies that can utilize space and become more creative in their products and services. Ward et al. (1984) claim that 20% of the population is between the age group (60-69) while 65% is above 80 years of age! With increased life expectancy, population of elderly has rapidly grown. Hence there are huge opportunities for GYV to expand its products and services to meet the fast changing preferences of elderly population. The advancing technology has created more awareness amongst aged people and empowered people with myriad options. At the same time, awareness has also resulted in advance planning of post retirement period. GHY therefore should introduce new products that meet the changing requirements of people. People want to be more active and maintain healthy lifestyle. Hence, introducing alternative healthcare imperatives like yoga, meditation, naturopathy etc, would be hugely attractive as they offer holistic healing that takes into consideration the physical, mental and social aspect of the individuals. Ernst et al. (2004) have defined alternative medicine as diagnosis, treatment and/or prevention which complements mainstream by contributing and satisfying a demand that is neither met by convention nor by widening the conceptual frameworks of medicine. It helps people with better sense of wellbeing. Since, CCRC has emerged as an industry, GYV must ensure that it becomes more flexible in its strategic plans and follows organic structure which thrives on information sharing and easily accepts change. Participatory approach and collective decision making empowers workforce which improve and improvises performance outcome through better ideas and creative inputs that helps to gain leverage against rivals. Aggressive marketing of its products is the need of the hour. GYV must develop independent team of marketers who can aggressively market their products. The various value added features would enhance the quality of the products and services and at the same time, provide GYV with opportunities to increase the prices. The most distressing facet of advancing age is the loss of relationship vis-a-vis family that deprives them of the emotional support. Hence, interacting with children and volunteers on regular basis would huge fill the gap of family. GYV has high credibility in the industry and therefore, it can afford to experiment with new programs and alternative healthcare deliverables, especially yoga, meditation and naturopathy. Strategic Alternatives GYV is committed to provide high class medical services to the older population and works towards innovative health schemes designed to improve the quality of their lives. The sprawling campus is added incentives for old people as it provides them freedom to live as they wish to do. The various products and services of GYV meet the healthcare needs of the elderly clients. GYV has established market credibility and it must redefine its market strategy to exploit emerging new opportunities in the area of healthcare. The restructuring of GYV into organic organization is important as innovation and creative approach facilitates competitive advantage. This type of organization is better because the contemporary business environment has become hugely competitive and one needs to be flexible in its business strategy to meet the challenges of the time. Strategic Choices The niche market position of GYV is strong element of competitive advantage which it must maintain through evolving entrepreneur creativity. It must foster business relationship with organizations that complement its product and services. It must forge partnership with schools and voluntary agencies who can interact with the inmates of GYV and fulfill the gap created by lack of family. It must also attempt to continuously learn to innovate, both in terms of services and managerial leadership initiatives. The LONG experience of GYV in catering to the healthcare needs of the aged has provided it with STRONG element of competitive advantage. Implementation Corporate strategy The organization must restructure itself and become more adaptive to changes. The decentralization of power would expedite implementation of programs and changes that is necessitated by changing dynamics of contemporary business. GYV also needs to redefine its market strategy and introduce more aggressive media to market it products and services. It should expand its products and also identify areas where it can diversify. Resources While GYV enjoys relatively experienced human resources, it must also recruit more young people who can bring in vitality and new dynamic ideas to suit the changing needs of people in their post retirement period. The new avenues of financial resources should also be identified which can support the ambitious plans of expansion of GYV. GYV must promote a culture of empowerment and provide its staff with continuous learning environment so that they are abreast of changes and evolve with them to meet new challenges. The use of technology is intrinsic part GYV managerial leadership initiatives and significantly impacts operational and managerial efficiency. Evaluation and Control For regular monitoring of its various activities and program initiatives, it should have strategic managers who can evaluate programs effectively to ensure their success. Indeed, it is imperative that effective evaluation and control mechanism must be developed which would facilitate its growth and diversification plans. (words: 1251) Reference Ernst E., Cohen, M H., and Stone, J. (2004). Ethical problems arising in evidence based complementary and alternative medicine. J Med Ethics; 30:156–159. Ward, R; LaGory, M and Sherman, S. (1984). The Aging Experience: An Introduction to Social Gerontology. 2nd Ed. NY: Harper & Row. Case Study. Golden Years Village. Read More