Running head: STRATEGIC CHOICE AND EVALUATION 1 STRATEGIC CHOICE AND EVALUATION 13 Introduction Organizations are forced to develop and implement various strategies to deal with emerging issues in the business environment. Trends in the external and internal environment of the organization demand development of new strategies for the organization in order to ensure that the business remains viable. The strategic choice of the organization is critical for the achievement of both short term and long term goals of the organization. Organizational leaders and analysts must therefore conduct a thorough evaluation of various strategic alternatives by analyzing the risks involved, organizational capabilities, external environment, and whether the strategies form a good fit with the objectives and values of the organization. (Peng and Dess, 2013) Comment by Jag Tiwari: Too strong words. They have a choice either do it or don’t. A good strategic choice will ensure that the organization operates to its maximum potential and achieves exemplary performance. The strategic approach that the organization adopts will depend on the organizational culture, organizational structure and leadership style. (Abu-Jarour, 2014) However, the bottom line is that organizations will design strategic plans that seek to improve customer satisfaction and service quality, gain competitive advantage, improve business processes, attract and retain employees and to manage costs. Comment by Jag Tiwari: Here you are giving a choice and not the above Comment by Jag Tiwari: I don’t think this word is needed here. It is use for transition Strategic alternatives In developing and adopting a strategic choice, an organization has to take into consideration various strategic alternatives that are crucial in making a decision. An important step in this process includes identification and evaluation of the best strategic alternatives for the organization. Evaluation is done on the basis of suitability, feasibility and sustainability of the strategy. (Jasper and Crossan, 2012) Common strategic alternatives to consider include value discipline, generic strategy and the grand strategy. This paper will analyze these alternatives in relation to Gentiva Health Care Inc. strategic plan. The strategy will be important for the company to deal with the rising competition in the health care services industry. In addition, the strategy will also enable the company to build capacity to handle the rising demand for personalized health care services in the country as well as building a strong customer base for its products and services. Comment by Jag Tiwari: I wasn’t clear on your alternatives. Are you say that these strategies are your alternatives. Gentiva Strategic Goals Gaining competitive advantage in the healthcare services industry is a major strategic goal for Gentiva. (MarketWatch, 2014) The company has to develop strategies to ensure that it remains the.

1. Running head: STRATEGIC CHOICE AND EVALUATION
1
STRATEGIC CHOICE AND EVALUATION
13
Introduction
Organizations are forced to develop and implement various
strategies to deal with emerging issues in the business
environment. Trends in the external and internal environment of
the organization demand development of new strategies for the
organization in order to ensure that the business remains viable.
The strategic choice of the organization is critical for the
achievement of both short term and long term goals of the
organization. Organizational leaders and analysts must therefore
conduct a thorough evaluation of various strategic alternatives
by analyzing the risks involved, organizational capabilities,
external environment, and whether the strategies form a good fit
with the objectives and values of the organization. (Peng and
Dess, 2013) Comment by Jag Tiwari: Too strong words.
They have a choice either do it or don’t.
A good strategic choice will ensure that the organization
operates to its maximum potential and achieves exemplary
performance. The strategic approach that the organization
adopts will depend on the organizational culture, organizational
structure and leadership style. (Abu-Jarour, 2014) However, the
bottom line is that organizations will design strategic plans that
seek to improve customer satisfaction and service quality, gain
competitive advantage, improve business processes, attract and
retain employees and to manage costs. Comment by Jag
Tiwari: Here you are giving a choice and not the above
Comment by Jag Tiwari: I don’t think this word is needed
here. It is use for transition
Strategic alternatives

2. In developing and adopting a strategic choice, an organization
has to take into consideration various strategic alternatives that
are crucial in making a decision. An important step in this
process includes identification and evaluation of the best
strategic alternatives for the organization. Evaluation is done on
the basis of suitability, feasibility and sustainability of the
strategy. (Jasper and Crossan, 2012) Common strategic
alternatives to consider include value discipline, generic
strategy and the grand strategy. This paper will analyze these
alternatives in relation to Gentiva Health Care Inc. strategic
plan. The strategy will be important for the company to deal
with the rising competition in the health care services industry.
In addition, the strategy will also enable the company to build
capacity to handle the rising demand for personalized health
care services in the country as well as building a strong
customer base for its products and services. Comment by Jag
Tiwari: I wasn’t clear on your alternatives. Are you say that
these strategies are your alternatives.
Gentiva Strategic Goals
Gaining competitive advantage in the healthcare services
industry is a major strategic goal for Gentiva. (MarketWatch,
2014) The company has to develop strategies to ensure that it
remains the best choice for customers. Comment by Jag
Tiwari: What are the strategies?
In addition, Gentiva aims at achieving exemplary customer
relations. The company’s business model involves establishment
of direct relationships with customers. The company offers
personalized medical services to customers at their own
convenient time and place. (Gentiva.com, 2014) Taking quality
healthcare services to the patient’s homes is a revolutionary
way of service provision in the health care industry. However,
this requires exemplary customer relations through efficient
delivery and support, communication and understanding of
specific needs of customers.
Gentiva also aims at winning the loyalty of customers by
establishing a personalized relationship with every customer. In

3. addition, programs such as providing monetary assistance to
customers aim at achieving customer loyalty. (Gentiva.com,
2014) Comment by Jag Tiwari: What is the personalized
relationship?
Another strategic goal for Gentiva is creating a stronger
distribution network for its products and services. The company
is looking to increase its locations in the country in order to
build a stronger customer base. It is therefore developing
strategies to market its products in more locations and profiling
customers in the new locations. (Gentiva.com, 2014)
Gentiva’s Best Value Discipline
The best value discipline is critical in ensuring that the selected
strategy correlates well with the objectives and values of the
organization. The best value discipline for Gentiva is customer
intimacy. (Gentiva.com, 2014) Customer is the main driver of
any business. Customer intimacy is therefore crucial for the
organization.
Gentiva offers personalized health care services to customers
and is therefore keen on establishing a strong intimacy with its
customers. Customer intimacy involves understanding the
specific needs of every customer and providing them with
services that give them maximum satisfaction. The mission of
Gentiva is to offer high quality health care services in the most
convenient way for the customers. (Gentiva.com, 2014) The
company has the responsibility to enhance the quality of life of
the American people by promoting healthy lifestyles and
providing high quality medical attention to patients. The
management of Gentiva together with all its employees ought to
work together to create and maintain exemplary customer
intimacy. The management should design and implement
effective customer relation and marketing programs in order to
attract and maintain customers. On the other hand, the
employees should exercise professionalism and uphold high
ethical standards in the way that they handle patients.
Customer-oriented strategies adopted by Gentiva are suitable
for its strategic goals. The strategies are also sustainable

4. because there is growing demand for personalized health care
services. Comment by Jag Tiwari: Is ethical standards a
requirement by Gentiva. If so, it should be noted.
Generic Strategy
The generic strategy is extremely important for an organization
especially in highly competitive industries such as the U.S
health care industry. Gaining competitive advantage is a major
strategic objective of Gentiva. The company’s generic strategy
is a differentiation strategy. Gentiva seeks to differentiate itself
from other industry players by adding unique features to its
products and services. Such features include offering monetary
support to patients under its care and profiling customers in
order to establish their specific needs, location and lifestyle.
Profiling customers helps the company to establish a strong
relationship with every customer. This makes customers to
develop loyalty towards Gentiva because they will always feel
that the company best understands their specific healthcare
needs. (Gentiva.com, 2014) Comment by Jag Tiwari: How
does profiling help build this strong relationship?
In addition, the company provides an opportunity for its
customers to access high quality medical care to its customers
at their own convenient time and place. The company provides
the most modern and effective heath care treatment as well as
access to modern medical equipment to its patients. Focusing on
the changing health care needs of patients through personalized
healthcare has enabled the company to achieve significant
growth and to gain competitive advantage.
Grand strategy
The grand strategy is critical for an organization to achieve its
long term strategic goals. This strategy integrates the elements
of best value discipline and generic strategy in developing a
sustainable long-term plan for the organization. The grand
strategy involves business diversification, market growth and
development, and innovative product development. This
strategy also has to be suitable and sustainable for the
organization. (Peng and Dess, 2013) Market growth and

5. development strategy works well for Gentiva. The company has
great potential to expand its market penetration through
effective marketing programs and expansion strategies. The
company can increase the number of locations in the country in
order to reach more customers. Educating potential customers
on the uniqueness and quality of the company’s products and
services is likely to enhance market growth for Gentiva. The
company can identify market segments in the country and
design promotional and growth programs that are in line with
the social and cultural backgrounds of each specific market
segment.
To achieve the desired market growth and development, Gentiva
can also enhance the current partnerships with other players in
the industry such as pharmaceutical firms and biotechnology
firms. In addition, the company can enter into new partnerships
in different locations within the country to strengthen its
penetration in the market. Partnering with medical technology
firms and innovation firms can also enhance diversification and
development of new and existing products for the company.
Recommendation
In order to achieve both long-term and short-term strategic
goals for Gentiva, a combination of the best value discipline,
generic strategy and the grand strategy is recommended. One
strategy may not be effective enough to achieve the desired
outcome. The grand strategy should therefore be adopted and
implemented by Gentiva. The other strategies should also be
factored in to supplement the grand strategy thus creating a
strong, suitable and sustainable strategic plan for the company.
The market growth and development strategy should be the
center of the company’s strategic plan. The differentiation
strategy and customer intimacy can only be effective if the
company achieves growth in its customer base. Differentiation
strategy and customer intimacy are customer based strategies.
Thus, the actions of the company should focus on attracting
more customers through market growth and development
strategies as well as the differentiation strategy. The next focus

6. should be on establishing strong relationships with the new and
existing customers using the customer intimacy strategy.
Conclusion
Gentiva HealthCare Inc. can develop and implement an
effective strategic master plan through a combination of
strategies that will collectively ensure that the company
achieves its goals. Implementation of the combined strategies
will help the company to fulfill the needs and expectations of
its customers, shareholders, employees, partners, suppliers and
the community.
References
Jasper, M., and Crossan, F. (2012) .What is strategic
management? Journal of nursing management, 20(7), pp. 838 –
846
Abu- Jarour, S. F. (2014) Strategic Management of Human
Resources, International Journal of Business and Social
Science, 5(1)
Peng, M, W. and Dess,G. (2013), Editorial: Strategic
management: current and future directions, Journal of
leadership & organizational studies, 20(4), pp. 373 – 374
MarketWatch, (2014). 10-Q: GENTIVA HEALTH SERVICES
INC. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-q-gentiva-health-
services-inc-2013-08-02
Gentiva.com, (2014). Gentiva - Great Healthcare Has Come

7. Home® | America’s Home Healthcare Leader.
http://www.gentiva.com
Jag’s additional comments:
This is a great paper Anu. Please see my comments above and I
have a few additional. You need to add a cover page to go with
your paper and your references needs to be on its own page.
You need to connect your conclusion with the rest of your
paper. Your references should be in alphabetical order.
Introduction
Organizations are forced to develop and implement various
strategies to deal with emerging issues in the business
environment. Trends in the external and internal environment of
the organization demand development of new strategies for the
organization in order to ensure that the business remains viable.
The strategic choice of the organization is critical for the
achievement of both short term and long term goals of the
organization. Organizational leaders and analysts must therefore
conduct a thorough evaluation of various strategic alternatives
by analyzing the risks involved, organizational capabilities,
external environment, and whether the strategies form a good fit
with the objectives and values of the organization. (Peng and
Dess, 2013)
A good strategic choice will ensure that the organization
operates to its maximum potential and achieves exemplary
performance. The strategic approach that the organization
adopts will however depend on the organizational culture,
organizational structure and leadership style. (Abu-Jarour,
2014) However, the bottom line is that organizations will design
strategic plans that seek to improve customer satisfaction and
service quality, gain competitive advantage, improve business
processes, attract and retain employees and to manage costs.
Strategic alternatives
In developing and adopting a strategic choice, an organization
has to take into consideration various strategic alternatives that

8. are crucial in making a decision. An important step in this
process includes identification and evaluation of the best
strategic alternatives for the organization. Evaluation is done on
the basis of suitability, feasibility and sustainability of the
strategy. (Jasper and Crossan, 2012) Common strategic
alternatives to consider include value discipline, generic
strategy and the grand strategy. This paper will analyze these
alternatives in relation to Gentiva Health Care Inc. strategic
plan. The strategy will be important for the company to deal
with the rising competition in the health care services industry.
In addition, the strategy will also enable the company to build
capacity to handle the rising demand for personalized health
care services in the country as well as building a strong
customer base for its products and services.
Gentiva strategic goals
Gaining competitive advantage in the healthcare services
industry is a major strategic goal for Gentiva. (MarketWatch,
2014) The company has to develop strategies to ensure that it
remains the best choice for customers.
In addition, Gentiva aims at achieving exemplary customer
relations. The company’s business model involves establishment
of direct relationships with customers. The company offers
personalized medical services to customers at their own
convenient time and place. (Gentiva.com, 2014) Taking quality
healthcare services to the patient’s homes is a revolutionary
way of service provision in the health care industry. This
requires exemplary customer relations through efficient delivery
and support, communication and understanding of specific
needs of customers.
Gentiva also aims at winning the loyalty of customers by
establishing a personalized relationship with every customer. In
addition, programs such as providing monetary assistance to
customers aim at achieving customer loyalty. (Gentiva.com,
2014)
Another strategic goal for Gentiva is creating a stronger
distribution network for its products and services. The company

9. is looking to increase its locations in the country in order to
build a stronger customer base. It is therefore developing
strategies to market its products in more locations and profiling
customers in the new locations. (Gentiva.com, 2014)
Gentiva’s Best Value Discipline
The best value discipline is critical in ensuring that the selected
strategy correlates well with the objectives and values of the
organization. The best value discipline for Gentiva is customer
intimacy. (Gentiva.com, 2014) Customer is the main driver of
any business. Customer intimacy is therefore crucial for the
organization. Comment by Sarah Kampe: One suggestion is to
expand upon how Gentiva focuses on individually customizing
their products per each customer, i.e. medicinal
supplies/requirements for optimal improvement.
Gentiva offers personalized health care services to customers
and is therefore keen on establishing a strong intimacy with its
customers. Customer intimacy involves understanding the
specific needs of every customer and providing them with
services that give them maximum satisfaction. The mission of
Gentiva is to offer high quality health care services in the most
convenient way for the customers. (Gentiva.com, 2014) The
company has the responsibility to enhance the quality of life of
the American people by promoting healthy lifestyles and
providing high quality medical attention to patients. The
management of Gentiva together with all its employees ought to
work together to create and maintain exemplary customer
intimacy. The management should design and implement
effective customer relation programs and marketing programs in
order to attract and maintain customers. On the other hand, the
employees should exercise professionalism and uphold high
ethical standards in the way that they handle patients.
Customer-oriented strategies adopted by Gentiva are suitable
for its strategic goals. The strategies are also sustainable
because there is growing demand for personalized health care
services. Comment by Sarah Kampe: This is probably passive
voice.

10. Generic Strategy
The generic strategy is extremely important for an organization
especially in highly competitive industries such as the U.S
health care industry. Gaining competitive advantage is a major
strategic objective of Gentiva. In this regard, the company’s
generic strategy is a differentiation strategy. The company seeks
to differentiate itself from other industry players by adding
unique features to its products and services. Such features
include offering monetary support to patients under its care and
profiling customers in order to establish their specific needs,
location and lifestyle. Profiling customers helps the company to
establish a strong relationship with every customer. This makes
customers to develop loyalty towards Gentiva because they will
always feel that the company best understands their specific
health care needs. (Gentiva.com, 2014)
In addition, the company provides an opportunity for its
customers to access high quality medical care to its customers
at their own convenient time and place. The company provides
the most modern and effective heath care treatment as well as
access to modern medical equipment to its patients. Focusing on
the changing health care needs of patients through personalized
health care has enabled the company to achieve significant
growth and to gain competitive advantage.
Grand strategy
The grand strategy is critical for an organization to achieve its
long term strategic goals. This strategy integrates the elements
of best value discipline and generic strategy in developing a
sustainable long-term plan for the organization. The grand
strategy involves business diversification, market growth and
development, and innovative product development. This
strategy also has to be suitable and sustainable for the
organization. (Peng and Dess, 2013) Market growth and
development strategy works well for Gentiva. The company has
great potential to expand its market penetration through
effective marketing programs and expansion strategies. The
company can increase the number of locations in the country in

11. order to reach more customers. Educating potential customers
on the uniqueness and quality of the company’s products and
services is likely to enhance market growth for Gentiva. The
company can identify market segments in the country and
design promotional and growth programs that are in line with
the social and cultural backgrounds of each specific market
segment.
In order to achieve the desired market growth and development,
Gentiva can also enhance the current partnerships with other
players in the industry such as pharmaceutical firms and
biotechnology firms. In addition, the company can enter into
new partnerships in different locations within the country to
strengthen its penetration in the market. Partnering with medical
technology firms and innovation firms can also enhance
diversification and development of new and existing products
for the company. Comment by Sarah Kampe: I think this
section is strong, wouldn’t change it.
Recommendation
In order to achieve both the long term and short term strategic
goals for Gentiva, a combination of the best value discipline,
generic strategy and the grand strategy is recommended.
Implmenting only one strategy may not be effective enough to
achieve the desired outcome. The grand strategy should
therefore be adopted and implemented by Gentiva. The other
strategies should also be factored in to supplement the grand
strategy thus creating a strong, suitable and sustainable
strategic plan for the company. The market growth and
development strategy should be the center of the company’s
strategic plan. The differentiation strategy and customer
intimacy can only be effective if the company achieves growth
in its customer base. Differentiation strategy and customer
intimacy are customer based strategies. Thus, the actions of the
company should focus on attracting more customers through
market growth and development strategies as well as the
differentiation strategy. The next focus should be on
establishing strong relationships with the new and existing

12. customers using the customer intimacy strategy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Gentiva HealthCare Inc. can develop and
implement an effective strategic master plan through a
combination of strategies that will collectively ensure that the
company achieves its goals. Implementation of the combined
strategies will help the company to fulfill the needs and
expectations of its customers, shareholders, employees,
partners, suppliers and the community.
Anu,
Great start, I haven’t even begun my paper and you already have
a working draft! Your paper looks strong, although I think you
tend to write in a passive voice (so do I). I think your paper
meets all of the requirements in the outline and focuses on the
potential growth of Gentiva HealthCare. Thanks for getting us
all started this week.
References
Jasper, M., and Crossan, F. (2012) .What is strategic
management? Journal of nursing management, 20(7), pp. 838 –
846
Abu- Jarour, S. F. (2014) Strategic Management of Human
Resources, International Journal of Business and Social
Science, 5(1)

13. Peng, M, W. and Dess,G. (2013), Editorial: Strategic
management: current and future directions, Journal of
leadership & organizational studies, 20(4), pp. 373 – 374
MarketWatch, (2014). 10-Q: GENTIVA HEALTH SERVICES
INC. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-q-gentiva-health-
services-inc-2013-08-02
Gentiva.com, (2014). Gentiva - Great Healthcare Has Come
Home® | America’s Home Healthcare Leader.
http://www.gentiva.com
Comments from Dena Spratt
Great rough draft! i didn't see where is was rough at...lol. You
talk about the current strategies with the company, define how
they are executing them, and then gave recommendation on how
they can increase performance. Good paper.