Strategic Alternatives Strategy, as we have seen so far, is a culmination of achieving goals in an ethical manner. We have covered the different levels of strategy from corporate based to organizational unit. In this lecture, we will review the different types of strategy and how and when to use them. The first type of strategy that we will review is that of directional strategy. This particular strategy is the most basic in operating requirements. Direction is set by overarching mission and vision statements. One thing to keep in mind is that it is often necessary to step back and view the organization from a 50 foot view. Often, managers are so caught up in the day to day operations that it is difficult to understand if the organization is still adhering to the large scale strategic plan. The next type is that of adaptive strategy. Once the overall direction has been determined, the organization can set its sights on whether to expand, decrease, or maintain its current operations. In this type of strategy we would also find the organizational desire to enter into new areas or change the current offerings. As mentioned earlier, many organizations choose to specialize in niche markets. One must be careful about moving into a niche as once the commitment is made to specialize, the organization limits its ability to quickly move into other areas should regulations or other forces necessitate a change. Market entry strategies, the third strategy alternative, are developed once the organization decides to either expand or alter the product offering. As you learned in a previous week, it is absolutely imperative to have a firm understanding of competition. It would be very hard to enter a niche market if your competition controls the patents or other valuable resources. The fourth strategy is that of competitive alignment. Once an organization determines that it would like to change market focus, the competitive approach would come into effect. These strategies would include whether to market locally, nationally, or both. Other areas of focus would be revenue stream, supply and demand, and length of time before competition would equal or surpass your offerings. In the Civil War, a Confederate General by the name of N.B. Forrest was asked why he was experiencing such overwhelming success. He replied by stating that he was “the furstest with the mostest.” Being the first one into a new market certainly has its advantages. However, competition will undoubtingly follow. The last strategy to discuss is that of implementation strategies. As you have surmised, each strategy builds on the previous. This final strategy is action related. Organizations often get so worried about planning and making sure that each contingency is addressed that they miss their window of opportunity. In summary, many experts would argue that the wrong action is better than no action. If an organization chooses the wrong path, it at least gains valuable understanding of other o.

1. Strategic Alternatives
Strategy, as we have seen so far, is a culmination of achieving
goals in an ethical manner. We have covered the different levels
of strategy from corporate based to organizational unit. In this
lecture, we will review the different types of strategy and how
and when to use them.
The first type of strategy that we will review is that
of directional strategy. This particular strategy is the most basic
in operating requirements. Direction is set by overarching
mission and vision statements. One thing to keep in mind is that
it is often necessary to step back and view the organization from
a 50 foot view. Often, managers are so caught up in the day to
day operations that it is difficult to understand if the
organization is still adhering to the large scale strategic plan.
The next type is that of adaptive strategy. Once the overall
direction has been determined, the organization can set its
sights on whether to expand, decrease, or maintain its current
operations. In this type of strategy we would also find the
organizational desire to enter into new areas or change the
current offerings. As mentioned earlier, many organizations
choose to specialize in niche markets. One must be careful
about moving into a niche as once the commitment is made to
specialize, the organization limits its ability to quickly move
into other areas should regulations or other forces necessitate a
change.
Market entry strategies, the third strategy alternative, are
developed once the organization decides to either expand or
alter the product offering. As you learned in a previous week, it
is absolutely imperative to have a firm understanding of
competition. It would be very hard to enter a niche market if
your competition controls the patents or other valuable
resources.
The fourth strategy is that of competitive alignment. Once an
organization determines that it would like to change market

2. focus, the competitive approach would come into effect. These
strategies would include whether to market locally, nationally,
or both. Other areas of focus would be revenue stream, supply
and demand, and length of time before competition would equal
or surpass your offerings. In the Civil War, a Confederate
General by the name of N.B. Forrest was asked why he was
experiencing such overwhelming success. He replied by stating
that he was “the furstest with the mostest.” Being the first one
into a new market certainly has its advantages. However,
competition will undoubtingly follow.
The last strategy to discuss is that of implementation strategies.
As you have surmised, each strategy builds on the previous.
This final strategy is action related. Organizations often get so
worried about planning and making sure that each contingency
is addressed that they miss their window of opportunity. In
summary, many experts would argue that the wrong action is
better than no action. If an organization chooses the wrong path,
it at least gains valuable understanding of other options.
Without action, organizations move nowhere and are quickly
overrun.
W6 Lecture 2 "Assessing the Current Strategy"
Healthcare Strategic Management
Assessing the Current Strategy
In lecture 1 of this week, we concluded by suggesting that the
wrong action is better than no action. While this may be true,
this statement raises several questions. The first is, how do we
know that we went down the wrong path? And the second
question is what do we do once we have come to this
realization?
A mistake that new managers make is refusing to admit that
they were wrong. How many of us have been involved with a
plan that we know was failing yet the organization continues to
support the train wreck? An inexperienced manager starts to
point fingers and the blame game quickly ensues. Unfortunately,

3. in such circumstances, organizations often lose their most
talented employees due to a lack of trust. It has been said that
people do not quit organizations, people quit people. One can
only wonder if Ford lost talent when it chose to not modify and
make their cars safer.
The organization must be able to step back and ask itself how
well is the current strategy working? First and foremost, this
would require that the employees were aware of the strategy in
the first place! Although this sounds like common sense, several
recent surveys indicate that less than half of all employees
know what their mission statement entails. If an employee does
not know the mission of the organization, odds are probably
against them knowing the overarching corporate strategy. The
question of how well the organization is performing with its
current strategy requires both a qualitative as well as
a quantitative analysis.
In a qualitative analysis, the organization surmises such
indicators of health as employee morale, degree to which
employees have embraced the plan, and both customer
satisfaction and customer loyalty. In the long run, customer
loyalty proves more valuable than customer satisfaction. As a
patient, if you are satisfied with the care you receive from a
physician, you will more than likely continue to see him or her.
However, if a clinic opens up that is more convenient (closer,
better hours, etc), although being satisfied with your original
provider, you may switch doctors. If you were a loyal patient,
regardless of convenience, you would not consider switching.
Many organizations have realized the value of loyalty over
satisfaction and are currently working towards building
customers for life.
Although a qualitative analysis provides great indicators as to
whether or not we are following the correct strategy, nothing
surpasses the hard facts. While financial results are not
measured overnight, an organization must establish measuring
points to determine cost-value relationships. Most organizations
review such information monthly; however with more effective

4. patient managing, financial status can be measured in real time.
Unless you are Amazon.com, odds are you would like to
experience financial growth in as short as time as possible.
Amazon.com’s original business plan surmised that it would not
be profitable for 4 to 5 years!
Another quantitative component that has qualitative tendencies
is indeed customer satisfaction. Many companies, including
those from the health industry, are turning to the Net Promoter
Score. Developed by Fred Reichheld in 2003, the NPS is
growing in use. Let’s review a quick example to determine what
the NPS entails and how the score is derived. Imagine that you
had chronic low back pain and wanted at all costs to avoid any
open surgeries. Through your primary care physician, you are
referred to a local pain clinic specializing in non-intrusive pain
control techniques.
Before you walk into the clinic’s door for treatment, you have a
certain expectation of what the visit will entail. For this
example’s sake, let’s quantify the expectation and believe that
your pain will be reduced by 50% and as a result you walk in
assuming that your visit will be mediocre or a 6 out of 10.
However, after receiving treatment, you find that your pain has
been reduced by 80%! You now rate the clinic 9 out of 10. At
this point, you are so excited about your outcomes that you
want to tell someone. Perhaps you know someone with similar
pain conditions and you actively refer them to the clinic. Or,
better yet, you post on social media just how great your
experience was. You are now an active “promoter” of this pain
clinic. This is truly more powerful than the best advertising.
Conversely, let’s now assume that you went into the clinic and
found that your pain was not reduced, or in the worst case
scenario, actually increased. Despite spending time and money,
there was no noticeable improvement or even a worsening of
condition. As a result, you now rate your visit a 2 out of 10 or
even a 1 out of 10. You now actively post on social media just
how disappointed you were and you recommend for your friends
and acquaintances to avoid this clinic. Twenty years ago, if you

5. were disappointed, as in the case above, the rule of thumb was
that you would tell seven people about your poor experience.
Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, you now
tell 700! Today’s organizations have employees actually
assigned to monitor social media in an effort to counter such
posts before they can cause too much damage to reputation.
The NPS is derived on the percentage of individuals who would
actively fall into the “promoter” category as noted above.
Although normally derived from a Likert scale of 1 to 10, it is
up to the organization to determine at which point on the scale
is an individual a “promoter” and at what point are they a
“detractor.” Many organizations assume that customers who
give a score of 8 or above are in fact promoters, whereas those
who score their satisfaction a 5 or below would be a detractor.
Individuals who score a 6 or a 7 in this scoring example would
be neutrally based and would not alter the NPS score.
Therefore, the score could be anywhere from -100 where all
customers are detractors up to a +100 where all customers are
promoters. Organizations at or above 40% on the NPS are
considered to be doing very well.
In conclusion, an organization must clearly define its strategy
and ensure that all employees are fully aware of such. This will
increase overall employee morale as most employees want to be
involved in something greater than themselves. Organizations
must also pre-determine measuring points to assess both
qualitative and quantitative factors. When organizations move
their measuring points to fit the strategy, the likelihood of
success greatly diminishes.
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lankPage?cmd=view&content_id=_4879378_1&course_id=_591
82_1

6. BBA 3201, Principles of Marketing 1
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit III
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
3. Use a target market to develop marketing mix.
3.1 Describe an example of marketing mix used in a given
industry.
4. Relate the importance of product positioning to brand
strategy.
4.1 Identify product positioning and brand strategies used in
business.
Course/Unit
Learning Outcomes
Learning Activity
3.1
Unit Lesson
Video: The Four P's, Part 1: Product and Pricing
Video: The Four P's, Part 2: Place and Promotion
Video: Social Media for Business Marketing
Article: “Social Responsibility & Ethics in Marketing”
Unit III Research Project
4.1

7. Unit Lesson
Video: The Four P's, Part 1: Product and Pricing
Video: The Four P's, Part 2: Place and Promotion
Video: Social Media for Business Marketing
Article: “Social Responsibility & Ethics in Marketing”
Unit III Research Project
Reading Assignment
You can access the following article by clicking the link below.
Note: The videos in the Anastasia resource are
optional.
Anastasia. (2015). Social responsibility & ethics in marketing.
Retrieved from
https://www.cleverism.com/social-responsibility-ethics-
marketing/
In order to access the following resources, click the links
below. Note: The transcript for each video is
available to view and/or print by clicking on the “Show
Transcript” tab on the right side of the video page.
You are only required to view the following portion of the video
below: Segment 1 titled "Overview and The
First P: Product" (4:21 in length).
Hopewell, L. D. (Producer), & Deege, R. (Director). (1998).
The four P's, part 1: Product and pricing [Video
file]. Retrieved from
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&url=http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPla
ylists.aspx?wID=273866&xtid=10142&loid=9498

8. You are required to view the video below in full (15:29).
Hopewell, L. D. (Producer), & Deege, R. (Director). (1998).
The four P's, part 2: Place and promotion [Video
file]. Retrieved from
https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS
&url=http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPla
ylists.aspx?wID=273866&xtid=10143
UNIT III STUDY GUIDE
The Marketing Mix
https://www.cleverism.com/social-responsibility-ethics-
marketing/
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&xtid=10142&loid=9498
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&url=http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=273866
&xtid=10142&loid=9498
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&url=http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=273866
&xtid=10143
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&url=http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=273866
&xtid=10143

9. BBA 3201, Principles of Marketing 2
UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title
You are only required to view the following portion of the video
below: Segment 1 (1:34 in length).
Kloza, B. (Producer). (2014). Social media for business
marketing [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS
&url=http://fod.infobase.com/Port
alPlaylists.aspx?wID=273866&xtid=53459
Unit Lesson
Click here to access the Unit III Lesson presentation. (Click
here to access the PDF version of this
presentation.)
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&xtid=53459
https://online.columbiasouthern.edu/bbcswebdav/xid-
78838955_1
https://online.columbiasouthern.edu/bbcswebdav/xid-
78838956_1