Strategic Planning and Using Market Information Systems

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Explain the Importance of Strategy Planning

Strategic planning can be defined as an acceptable systematic process in which an organization takes in deciding important matters. Strategy planning is basically having a master plan for all the other plans in the organization.

Strategy planning is therefore a very important process in any organization. This is because it helps predict the future. This means that an organization can be able to foresee the problems that can negatively impact the organization and thus avoiding them. It gives overall direction that is taken by an organizational management.

In other words, it outlines strategies to be used by each department in an organization. These include marketing, finance and human resource. The departmental strategies developed; aim at achieving organizational success at large. It is however important to note that strategic planning do not dwell much on product panning ,the process of production or even the cash flow but they are just parts that contribute to whole organization. It is thus planning as a corporate whole (Burkhart and Reuss, 1993).

Describe the Five Main Steps That Have To Be Taken To Build a Strategic Plan for a Health Care Organization

Health care organizations today are forced to make proper decisions that will improve their image. This is only achieved through sound strategic planning. A strategic plan in this case is the document that outlines the reason for their existence, rationale and the direction they intend to take in order to achieve their goals. In addition, the plan shows the actions to be taken and how the performance is measured.

To build a strategic plan for a health care organization, one should first start by executive summary section. This is basically the plan. It includes background information and its goals. This section is considered the most crucial because it is the only section read by people in charge of decision making.

It should thus be written in a convincing manner. The second step is the overview. This is information on the operating environment. It entails the characteristics and the challenge that may be encountered as well as the means to solve them. External assessment is the third stage while building a health care strategic plan. This is a synopsis of this particular field. It entails trends in the industry in the region where the organization is situated as well as outside. It is thus external factors that influence the organization.

In the internal assessment step, the operations of an organization are discussed. In other words, it gives details on management and the way goals are to be accomplished. Moreover it explains the viability and sustainability of the project. The last step is the appendices which show the supporting documents. Examples of these documents are research literature and other key data (Kovner and Neuhauser, 1990).

Describe What Goes Into the Use of an Environmental Analysis; Include How the Use of SWOT Analysis and Five Forces Analysis Enrich the Strategic Planning Process

Environmental analysis in a health care organization is done using SWOT and Five Force Analysis. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) is applicable in that, an organization can identify its strengths and weaknesses by analyzing its resources and capabilities. Opportunities are identified as a result of engaging in environmental activities and threats are detected from current and projected actions.

Both the SWOT Analysis and Five Force Analysis are used to enrich the strategic planning process in that, SWOT evaluates the organizational environment while Five Force Analysis directs on strategic implementation. Organizations can therefore identify changing forces, their position and the existing gap in relation to the needs.

Describe the Three Main Components of a Health Care Marketing Information System (MIS)

A health care marketing information system (MIS) is a set of actions established in order to analyze and plan for the anticipated marketing decision information.

This is done on regular basis to ensure continuity. It is applicable in various aspects of marketing among them being in management, operations and in strategizing. A health care MIS should be composed of internal company information. These include the services they offer, their clients or patients, customer service reports among others. In addition, it should contain marketing intelligence.

This is information acquired through research from the patients, community and other organizations. This information is acquired with an aim of understanding the market and being able to adjust in it. Lastly it is composed of market research. This is where the health care undertakes studies in relation to their marketing strategy. This is to get more information on top of internal and market intelligence information (Swayne, Duncan and Ginter, 2009).

Describe At Least Three Methods That Can Be Used By a Health Care Organization to Gather and Respond to Marketing Intelligence on Opportunities and Threats

Health care organizations need to regularly gather and respond to marketing intelligence for them to survive in the market. They can do so by market research. This entails primary data collection. The data could be about the patients, a certain disease or their competitors. Documents and records can also be used to provide information that can be used in a health care organization.

For example from records and documents, an organization can study their clients in terms of numbers, regularity and their needs. Moreover, health care organizations can gather and respond to marketing intelligence through other major sources such government offices and libraries. This is because they are responsible of publishing and storing information on various fields among them being health care organizations.

References

Burkhart, P. & Reuss, S. (1993). Successful Strategic Planning. Sage Publications.

Kovner, A. & Neuhauser, D. (1990). Health Services Management. NY: Health Administration Press.

Swayne, L. Duncan, J. & Ginter, P. (2009). Strategic Management of Healthcare Organizations (6th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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