Mod 8 Discussion Question: Communicating the Strategy and Developing Action Plans

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Welcome to Module 8! This module demonstrates how a strategy may be translated into organizational objectives and action plans to ensure that they are coordinated and make the best use of human, physical, and financial resources. The focus of this module is on communicating the overall strategy to those who must develop specific action plans to accomplish the strategy and provide them with a consistent format for implementation.

Summary: The development of action plans should be thought of as an essential part of strategic management. This module discussed important implementation activities such as ensuring that the budgeting system allocated resources according to strategic priorities and the performance evaluation system rewarded people for contributing to the strategy as well as the tactics of health care organizations. The integrative nature of strategic management was underscored.

Discussion Question:

List the important components of action plans. Which component do you think is the most important? The least important? Explain your response.

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What are the primary characteristics of action plan objectives? Are these characteristics descriptive of good organizational strategic goals? Why or why not?

Mod 7 Discussion Question: Value-Adding Support Strategies

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Welcome to Module 7! This module examines the role of organizational culture, organizational structure, and strategic resources in implementing strategy. Value-adding support strategies are based on the elements of the lower portion of the value chain and are the means for accomplishing the decisions made in strategy formulation. These value chain components determine the organizational context and are vital in effective strategy implementation.

Summary: The value-adding support strategies provide a powerful means to change the organization and create a competitive advantage, especially because some of the value assign support activities are less visible to those outside the organization, making a competitive advantage much more difficult to imitate or duplicate. Decisions concerning the organization’s culture, structure, and resources are strategic and should be made by strategic thinkers.

Discussion Question:

Why is culture change so difficult in health care organizations? What are some ways strategic managers could make culture change easier?

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Which do you think changes first, strategy or structure? After formulating your answer and making your case, argue the opposite position.

Mod 6 Discussion Question: Strategy Implementation

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Welcome to Module 6! Strategic momentum entails putting strategies to work, strategy evaluation and control, and strategic awareness. Implementation requires that strategic managers shape and coordinate the value chain components and ensure that the organization’s action plans are direct to selected strategies. This module addresses the development of implementation plans through either maintaining or changing the pre-service, point-of-service, and after-service strategies.

Discussion Question:

Explain the difference between pre-service, point-of-service, and after-service. What elements are central to each? Provide an example of how an organization might create a competitive advantage in each of these areas.

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Discuss the various ways that health care providers can define the market that they want to serve.

Module 5 Discussion Question: Evaluation of Alternatives and Strategic Choice

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Module 5 Overview: Welcome to Module 5! This module provides an in-depth discussion of how to evaluate the strategic alternatives within each strategy type in the decision chain. These evaluation methods do not make the strategy decision but, rather, are constructs or maps for helping strategists think about the organization and its relative situation, thus enabling them to understand the potential risks and rewards of strategic choices.

Summary: Several strategic alternatives are available to health care organizations. To initiate strategic thinking and planning, the organization must have a process in place for understanding the internal and external environments and methods for evaluating strategic alternatives. This module provided several frameworks for evaluating adaptive strategies, market entry strategies, and competitive strategies. Methods to evaluate the adaptive strategies include the TOWS matrix, PLC analysis, portfolio analysis, and extended portfolio matrix analysis, SPACE analysis, and program evaluation. Market entry strategies are selected after the appropriate adaptive strategy is identified, which allows for expansion and maintenance of scope. Lastly, competitive strategies, which include strategic posturing and positioning strategies, are evaluated and selected.

Discussion Question:

Describe the product life cycle. How is it useful for thinking about the adaptive strategy of a health care organization? Why is the length of the product life cycle important for strategy formulation? What adaptive strategic alternatives are indicated for each stage of the product life cycle?

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Identify appropriate adaptive strategic alternatives for each quadrant in the expanded portfolio matrix.