Negative And Positive Factors For Universal Hospital †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Negative And Positive Factors For Universal Hospital. Answer: Introduction Universal hospital, AL Ain city, Abu Dhabi is one of the major hospital chains in the United Arab Emirates with having diverse range of services. This includes neurosciences to obesity and dentistry. Moreover, there are expanding their base in the United Arab Emirates with opening more hospitals (Malik, Abdallah Hussain, 2016). However, in the current scenario, the competition is increasing in the heath care sector and with the entry of the global brands, it is more important for Universal hospital to determine and identify their positive and negative factors and initiate strategic options accordingly. In addition, it is also important for them to determine the available strategic options for their business enhancements. This report will discuss about the negative and positive factors for Universal hospital, AL Ain city. In accordance to these factors, different strategic options will be discussed in relation to the Ansoff matrix. SWOT analysis of Universal hospital Strengths One of the major strengths of the Universal hospital is the brand value. This is due to the reason that Universal hospital is one of the major chains of hospitals entire region of United Arab Emirates (Ramaswamy Ozcan, 2016). Their enhanced and positive brand value helps them to attract more customers compared to others. Universal hospital is present in the centre of the city and just 2o minutes drive from the Abu Dhabi International Airport. Thus, they are having the strength of location advantage. They are having diversified services as offerings. For instances, patients will have the facilities of neurological treatment along with dentistry and different pathological services (Qiu, 2014). Hence, this can be treated as their strengths due to the reason that with having the diverse service offerings, diverse range of customers can get attracted. Universal hospital is having their number of branches across United Arab Emirates. Thus, their capability is their strengths due to the reason that with having number of branches across United Arab Emirates, the target customer segments are more. Therefore, more target customer segments reflects more generation of the revenue (Spiess et al., 2014). According to the information available from the official website of Universal hospital, they are having state of art facilities of providing latest medical treatment to the patients. The technology of them is at par of the global standards and is latest in the industry. Thus, it helps them to create positive word of mouth among the customers and it also helps them to retain their existing customers effectively. Weaknesses One of the major weaknesses of them is the status of late entrant in the market. This is due to the reason that Universal hospital was founded just a few years ago. However, before their foundation, there are other hospitals already being established in the domestic market. Hence, it is difficult for them to compete with the established players being a new comer in the market. Access to the resources is also limited for them as they have just entered the health care market. Some other established players in the same industry are having more access to the capital. This is restricting Universal hospital to invest more in different departments as accordance to the industrial requirement. They are only having their presence in the domestic market of the United Arab Emirates. Thus, their market presence and opportunities are also limited with not having any opportunity to tap the global or foreign customers. This is another reason for them to trail behind their global competitors. With not having the global presence, their brand value is also not getting enhanced or exposed. Differentiation strategy is not present in the business strategies of Universal hospital. This can also be considered as one of their key weaknesses due to the reason that without having the differentiation strategy, it is difficult for Universal hospital to create distinctive image in the market and to stay ahead in the competition (Ray Gehani, 2013). In addition, without having the differentiation strategy, it is also difficult for them to attract customers by offering distinctive service offerings. It is limiting their sources of gaining competitive advantages (Lechner Gudmundsson, 2014). Opportunities Average customer income in the global market for the major section of population is increasing. Thus, it will be an opportunity for Universal hospital to tap this growing market. The more will be the income of the global population, the more potential will be the market opportunities. In the current time, the intensity of diseases and health concerns for the people are increasing, which will be an opportunity for Universal hospital to increase their market share and each. Customer preference for having modern day health care is increasing and thus it is an opportunity for Universal hospital to attract more customers. Economy of the United Arab Emirates is rapidly increasing along with purchasing power of the average population (Kamal Hassan Saadi Halbouni, 2013). Thus, demand for having proper health care is increasing and it is a huge opportunity for the Universal hospital. Threats One of the threats for Universal hospital in their business operation is the threat of new entrants. United Arab Emirates is attracting huge foreign investment in the recent time and thus more global players are entering in the health care sector (Omri, 2014). This is increasing the threat of more competition in the market. It is important for Universal hospital to be effective enough in cutting of the competition. Economic recession is another potential threat for them due to the reason that purchasing power of the customers will get reduced with having economic recession and they may get less attracted towards the higher end health care services (Cowling et al., 2015). Rapid advancement in the technology is another potential threat for the Universal hospital due to the reason that it will incur added cost for them in frequently changing existing technologies. Thus, they should adopt sustainable approach to the initiation of technology. Growth strategies of Universal hospital Figure: 1 Market growth strategies Market development strategy The first element is the market development strategy. With the help of this strategy, Universal hospital can develop new markets with their existing service offerings. Universal hospital can enter in foreign market in the Middle Eastern regions with their medical facilities (Malysheva et al., 2016). This will help in having more number of target segments with the same service offerings. In addition, they have gained enough expertise in the health care sector, which will help them to enter in the foreign market effectively. They should have their branches in the domestic regions also where currently they are not present. Market penetration strategy Market penetration strategy will help Universal hospital to further penetrate in the existing market with the existing service offerings. In this case, pricing strategy will play a huge role (Johanson Mattsson, 2015). This is due to the reason that if they can offer their service in more affordable and competitive price levels, then more customer segments can get attracted and will have more market share in the existing market. This strategy will also enable Universal hospital to invest less in having a viable strategic option. Product development strategy Initiation of the product development strategy will help Universal hospital to develop newer service offerings for the existing market. Thus, it will help them to target the existing market holistically by offering different level of services. For instance, apart from the existing services of the Universal hospital, newer services such as cancer treatment facilities will help them to target more diverse range of customers in the existing market and thus the customer segments will get increased (Zeschky, Winterhalter Gassmann, 2014). It will also cost less compared to the product diversification strategy due to the reason that developing products in the related business line of Universal hospital will ensure that less cost and expertise is required in developing new products. Market diversification strategy Diversification strategy will enable Universal hospital to develop and offer new service in the new market. For instance, Universal hospital can have medical schools and colleges for education along with their hospitals. These schools can be built in the new locations with having higher number of potential medical graduates. This will help them to reduce the dependency from the single business line of only having hospitals and can have diversified range of businesses (Bowen, Baker Powell, 2015). In addition with the help of the market diversification strategy, they will be able to set their footprints in the new markets. Unrelated diversification strategies It is recommended that Universal hospitals can have medical colleges and training institutes nursing in different locations. This will help to tap the education sector also. Moreover, this will also help universal hospital to have their sourcing of the human resources without external assistances. Integrative growth strategies It is recommended that universal hospital should initiate vertical backward integration should be initiated. This is due to the reason that with the help of the backward integration, the cost of sourcing raw materials will get reduced for them. Universal hospital can acquire the firms, which will enable them to have own manufacturing facilities of their raw materials. Forward integration is already being initiated by the Universal hospital due to the reason that they already cater to the end customers with their service offerings (Glock Kim, 2015). However, it is also being recommended they should offer the customer service and medicine support by their own. Initiation of the horizontal integration will help them in cutting off the competition and creating more market share in less time. It is recommended that they should go for the initiation of the merger strategy with the established health care players in other markets in order to gain market presence in the global market. Merging with the health care organizations in the foreign market will help to leverage on the brand value of the partnered firm in operating in the foreign markets. Conclusion Thus, it can be concluded that there are various strategic options available for Universal hospital in developing their future business. This essay discussed about the positive and negative factors for Universal hospital in order to determine their business effectiveness and competitiveness in dealing with the market challenges. Various issues and challenges are being identified in this essay. In accordance to these challenges, different strategic options are being discussed in this essay. 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