Unit 7 Business Strategy Oasis Dental Care Assignment
Introduction
This is a business strategy. The Oasis Dental Care project is designed to help students grasp the notion of strategy, strategic planning, and the need of developing new business strategies in order to expand and flourish in today’s competitive environment. Following a business environment audit, strategic position analysis, and stakeholder analysis, a future strategy would be established for the selected corporation. To get this fundamental knowledge, Oasis Dental Care, a UK-based company that currently provides services in several regions of the UK and Ireland, was chosen.
Oasis dental care, a part of Oasis healthcare, operates more than 300 dental clinics and employs over 2500 dental professionals.
Task 1
1.1 Missions, Visions, Objectives, Goals and Core Competencies Informing Strategic Planning
Every business has certain goals and objectives that it wishes to attain, and the procedures taken to reach these goals and objectives are referred to as strategy. It is the process through which the firm makes decisions and plans activities to develop and flourish. Strategic planning is the process of identifying future desired goals, selecting how to achieve these goals by taking into account many elements such as the company’s resources, potential, external influences, and so on, and eventually implementing the chosen strategy. The process is heavily impacted and driven by the company’s purpose, vision, objectives, and core competencies, which steer management toward desired positions and aid in discovering firms” unique abilities and potential (BPP Learning Media, 2013).The mission of a firm is to describe what it accomplishes, but the vision is the desired future position. Goals are the objectives that the firm wishes to achieve, while core competencies are the organization’s distinctive qualities and capabilities that provide a competitive edge over others.
Using Oasis Dental Care as an example, we can see how these fundamental factors inform an organization’s strategic planning. The objective of the organisation that serves individuals and addresses their dental care requirements is to “make people smile.” This mission statement assists the firm in outlining the services supplied as well as identifying target consumer segments, which aids in making suitable strategic decisions and successful planning.
The vision is to be known as the “go-to brand for dentistry” by serving people’s oral health care requirements in a timely and highly effective manner. The vision of an organisation outlines the firm’s long-term desired position, which aids in guiding and implementing activities in this direction [Oasis Dental Care (online)].
The organization’s mission is to provide great and quality dental care services to individuals in a pleasant and friendly environment, and its main competencies include providing services based on individual requirements and a preventative strategy that decreases the need for future treatments (Ghemawat, 2002). These factors aid in the analysis and selection of the optimal approach for achieving organisational goals.
1.2 Factors To Be Considered While Formulating Strategic Plans
Numerous elements influence strategic planning, and these aspects must be adequately recognised and analysed in order to successfully fulfil corporate goals and objectives:
Self-analysis: The most important aspect is recognising an organization’s internal variables, such as its strengths and shortcomings, as well as external factors, such as accessible opportunities and prospective business threats. These elements make up the company’s microenvironmental factors. The strengths and distinctive talents of organisations may be exploited to capitalise on existing opportunities (Curtis, 2015). Macro environmental factor analysis: strategic planning also necessitates an examination of the political, economic, social, and technological factors influencing the company’s macro environment, which aids in the identification of opportunities, potential threats, and necessary changes in existing policies.
Evaluating industry: Before developing a strategy plan, oasis dental care must analyse the industry in which it operates, such as market size and development possibilities in the health and care business.
Position of competitors: It is critical to examine competitors’ actual market position, such as by studying Nestor Healthcare Group’s strong and weak areas and altering strategic planning appropriately to acquire a competitive edge.
Contact: All parties involved must maintain open lines of communication and information flow. Staff must have clear knowledge about their roles and duties and should be able to clear up any questions they have at any time. Strategic plans frequently fail owing to a lack of knowledge and execution by someone who was not part in the process.
Recognizing customer demands: strategic planning and organisational goals must be established with customers’ or service users’ wants and expectations in mind (Haberberg A and Rieple, 2008).
Organizational culture: Each organisation has its own own culture, values, beliefs, and employee attitude, all of which must be taken into account throughout the strategic planning process. Because this culture dictates an employee’s behaviour and reaction to every new policy or organisational change, it determines whether they will accept it positively by comprehending its advantages or will behave negatively by impeding its implementation.
If the strategic plan is too inflexible, the chances of failure grow dramatically.
1.3 Techniques To Develop Strategic Plan
Strategic analysis can be performed using any approach, such as the BCG matrix, directed policy matrices, PIMS, SWOT, SPACE, and so on.
Directional policy matrices: this model enables the firm to choose sectors in which to invest or withdraw, as well as to analyse whether the company’s day-to-day actions are helpful or not. It aids in determining whether to invest, invest selectively, or harvest in accordance with predicted growth. Advantages:
The model is incredibly adaptable and may be utilised for any form of business.
It is incredibly simple to use, and the results are simple to comprehend.
Various economic criteria are assessed, including the company’s competitive capacity (Hall, 2012).
Disadvantages:
Failure to anticipate competitive movements
Failure to evaluate the market in which the firm works
Profit Impact of Market Share (PIMs): A detailed study of various important company factors such as market share, product quality, investment, profit share, and so on to determine the best strategy. Almost 3000 units from 500 companies were studied, and the data was used to select a strategy and develop a strategic plan.
Advantages:
Assist in the development of a lucrative business plan
Determine the profit rate and how profit is generated.
Determine approaches to acquire a competitive edge.
Disadvantages:
A study is being conducted on the oldest 500 firms.
The data is too old.
Great market share does not automatically imply high profit margins.
BCG matrix: Companies’ product lines are examined, and available resources are utilised to increase business for the company. Products are being classified based on market share and growth rate to guarantee that potential products retain a positive cash flow. This strategy may be employed by oasis dental care, where aesthetic dentistry services with strong market growth and market share can be termed star services since the investment is significant, but they may eventually turn to cash cows. General dentistry treatments such as tooth restorations and root canal treatment are cash cows with significant market growth but low market share; thus, investments must be made to continue enhancing these services (Thompson, 2001).Advantages:
Determine the appropriate market niche in which to invest your money.
Examine the company’s current portfolio
Simple and simple to use model
Disadvantages:
A large market share is not the only element that matters.
It is challenging to acquire data on market growth and market share.
Dogs can often be more useful than cash cows.
Conclusion
Oasis Dental Care is a profitable business in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and it is the only branded organisation that provides individuals with both private and NHS treatments. Although the firm is now successful, in order to retain this growth and success rate, as well as reach the targeted goals and objectives, the organisation must develop a new strategy that addresses people’s changing demands and expectations. This assignment demonstrated that selecting a suitable strategy necessitates an examination of the company’s present strategic position, environmental analysis, and stakeholder analysis before deciding on the most practicable and useful plan. To boost its client base and improve present business, the company may employ internet marketing and develop an appealing beautiful user pleasant website.
References
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- Dudovskiy, J. 2013. Impact of Global Forces on UK Business Organizations (online) available at http://research-methodology.net/impact-of-global-forces-on-uk-business-organisations [Accessed: 16 November 2016]
- Ghemawat, P. (2002), “Competition and Business Strategy in Historical Perspective”, Business History Review (Harvard Business Review) Page no- 77-83
- Greenberg, 2007.
- Haberberg A and Rieple A (2008), Strategic Management: Theory and Application, Oxford University Press, Oxford
- Hall, S., (2012), http://www.ehow.com/facts_6899691_implications-policy-monetary-policy-business.html [Accessed: 16 November 2016]
- Hill & Jones, 2009.
- Koch, A. (2000), “SWOT does not need to be recalled: It needs to be enhanced” Swineburne University of Technology. Page no-98-103
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