According to Jaci (2000), for any business to succeed, it must serve a particular need in the society. This requirement implies a market for a company’s goods or services. The market is one of the environmental factors one needs to take into consideration before thinking about starting a business.
Efficient Clinics was a business idea that was born out of the need to provide effective, quality health care for marginalized populations. The company started off with one health facility and eventually opened up various branches in low-income areas of the city. Currently, it has ten branches spread throughout the city. One of the primary environmental factors that acted as an opportunity for starting the Efficient Clinics was the inefficiencies in government operated health facilities.
A visit to a government-run health center will shock even the heartless. The facilities are run down and unkempt; the cleanliness is a foreign word to the management. In fact patients fear going there even when they are sick, as they risk going home with other infections from the hospital. The nurses are underpaid and unmotivated, making them heartless. It’s not an uncommon sight for nurses to just sit around and chat while emergency cases are overflowing at the casualty department. Even when one gets lucky to find a government health facility that works, the prescribed medication is mainly unavailable, and a patient will end up buying the prescribed medicines at a private pharmacy or chemist. Efficient Clinics were started to do the opposite of the health facilities operated by the government.
Non-Implementation of Government policies or non-implementation of the right government policies has led to slow economic growth in the county. This factor together with an increasing population has resulted to an economic slowdown. This has led to high unemployment levels, both for the well-educated and those with little formal education in the country. In this kind of an environment, the clinics saw the opportunity to hire the best nurses at lower wages. According to Easterly (1992), such employees tend to stay longer with the company.
The fact that the target market for Efficient Clinics was the low-income group was another challenge that the business faced. Being a private clinic, Efficient Clinics’ source of funding for its operation was a puzzle. Borrowing from friends, relatives and even banks was possible. Personal savings could also be used. However, the sources of income were unsustainable as the will need to be paid one day. After an analysis of how much the target market spends on over-the-counter drugs, and other prescriptions from doctors, we realized that if we capitalized on turnover, we can still break even and worry about profit later Clark (2007). We decided that because there is a vast population living in those areas, we could buy medicines in bulk and prescribe to the patients. In fact the Efficient Clinics’ charges ended up being very cost effective compared to buying drugs at the Chemist or Pharmacy.
Changes in the purchasing patterns of the organization’s target market in recent years.
There have been changes in our clients’ purchasing patterns in recent years. The economy of the country has worsened over the years. This has pushed some lower middle-class people into a lower class. Unfortunately, lower class people have been driven into abject poverty. Our target market is using our services less and only when it is critical.
Environment Factors that will have an effect on the future of Efficient Clinics
In future, we are expecting that people will change their negative perceptions about the private sector. Most people still consider private clinics as a mere money-making venture at the expense of the suffering patient. This social perception change will be in our favor as more individuals in the populace will become consumers of the services we are offering.
New governments get voted in with the promises of new strategies to solve the economic issues in the country. If a party comes into power and implements sound economic policies leading to economic growth, there will be an improved uptake of our services. The opposite is true that if the economy gets worse, the uptake of our services will drop. More people will have to wait, persevere and only show up at the clinics when their situation is critical. Sometimes they will show up when it’s already too late, and the doctors and nurses can do little to help them.
Technological advancement has played a very critical role in the Efficient Clinics’ services delivery and profitability. There are various mobile phone platforms and applications that have significantly improved our services delivery to the patient. Some apps that remind the patient to take their medicines include MotionPHR and MedsLog and Children Vaccination Reminder App.
In recent years, the country has experienced a surge in the number of private clinics in the country. This increased competition which threatens the well-being of Efficient Clinics. We expect this trend to continue, and we are strategizing on how to retain Efficient Clinics’ market share in this competitive environment.
The proliferation of clinics will be bad for the whole sector. This is because some unscrupulous criminal elements will get a chance to masquerade as doctors, gain money, harm the patient. This bad publicity will catch up with all the businesses operating in this sector. The government should, therefore, come up with urgent measures to regulate the number of clinics in the country, the qualifications of the personnel in those hospital and location (environment) under which the clinics operate.
The differentiation strategy the company should undertake to weather competition
In this era of stiff competition, there is a need to make sure that Efficient Clinics stand out from this crowded field of health providers. One of Efficient Clinics’ differentiation strategies is the pricing. Having been on the market longer, Efficient Clinics can offer low- quality prices to the patients. Given the economic situation in the country, low prices will still win customer approval. Efficient Clinics will also depend on its long existence and its reputation in the market as yet another of its differentiation strategies. The clinics have been existence for a long time without a scandal of any kind. This will enable the company to be head and shoulders above the other clinics.
Lessons learned from the Geek Squad case study
People used to look down upon geeks or nerds because of their introvert nature. Now geeks rule the world through computers from manufacturing, programming, repair, and data recovery. The nerds stuck at it, did what they had to do and that’s why they are prospering. It has taken many years for their niche market to arrive, but they persevered. This is a classic example of market differentiation strategy.
References
Easterly, W. (1992). How do national policies affect long-run growth?: A research agenda. Washington, D.C: World Bank.
Clark, Marc. (2007). The Manager’s Toolkit: 61 Building Blocks for Success. Electronic & Database Pub.
Jaci, C. (2000).Entrepreneurship 101. Long Island Business News
Whittington, R. (2014). 2014 Wiley CPA excel exam review focus notes: Business environment and concepts. Hoboken, N.J: J. Wiley & Sons.
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