Term Paper on "Strategic Management"

Term Paper 4 pages (1285 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

An adaptive strategy is one where the external environment is analyzed, and the strategy is formulated in response to those environmental conditions (O'Donovan & Flower, 2013). Because HMA misread the environment, its strategy is inappropriate. An adaptive strategy will allow it to recognize the decline of Riverview and seek out ways to reverse the decline, strategies that will be quite a bit more radical than the maintenance strategies HMA has sought for Riverview thus far.

Student #3.

The product life cycle highlights the path of a product from its introduction to growth to maturity and then to decline (Lorette,2014). The strategy of a company should vary depending on the stage of the life cycle. In the case of Riverview, the organization offers a wide range of products and services. It therefore needs to have a strategy adapted to the needs of each one individually. It is difficult, in a competitive environment, to have a one-size-fits-all strategy. The marketing of each service will inherently change, including things like pricing. Some of the troubles are Riverview are likely attributable to the hospital not handling different services according to their lifestyles.

An adaptive strategy should therefore reflect, among other factors, the product life cycle. The adaptive strategy can acknowledge that there is competition in some services, and that is costing Riverview declining patient counts. So the optimal way for Riverview to handle this is to adapt its strategy depending on life cycle factors, and on the competition in the marketplace. To do so would bring the strategies that it is using for different services more in line with what is going to be competitive in the marketplace. It is important for management to always understand the external environment, and the stage of the life cycle, and ensure that strategy is well-aligned with these things, in order not to lose patients to other facilities.

Reflection. I learned from this exercise that it is important to not let strategy get away from you. If there is a decline in the business, there will likely be multiple factors at work. To understand those factors, a good starting point is to understand the life cycle. You could be losing business because your technology is old (decline) while competitors have new technology (growth). Furthermore, strategies need to adapt to the current environment.

To apply this to the working world is interesting, because when you are out there, you can very easily get caught up in doing the same thing all the time, every day, and never really thinking about the big picture. But the big picture is often quite important, including for example product life cycle, and the different elements of the environment. When you take the time to think about these big picture things, the result is going to be a better adaptive strategy that will ultimately help the organization to do better, something that was causing problems for Riverview. So it is always good to bear in mind in the real world that you have to think about strategy, and ensure that it is up-to-date with current conditions.

References

BCG. (2014). Adaptive advantage. Boston Consulting Group. Retrieved November 17, 2014 from http://www.bcg.com/about_bcg/institutes/strategy_institute/adaptive_advantage.aspx

Bower, J. (2001). Not all M&As are alike -- and that matters. Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. Retrieved November 17, 2014 from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/2123.html

Lorette, K. (2014). How would the marketing mix change at different stages of the product life cycle. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved November 17, 2014 from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/would-marketing-mix-change-different-stages-product-life-cycle-3283.html

O'Donovan, D. & Flower, N. (2013). The strategic plan is dead. Long live strategy. Stanford Social Innovation Review. Retrieved November 17, 2014 from http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/the_strategic_plan_is_dead._long_live_strategy

QuickMBA. (2010). The product life cycle. QuickMBA. Retrieved November 17, 2014 from http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/product/lifecycle/ READ MORE

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