Running Head: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1

Discussion Questions

Institutional Affiliation

Date
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 2

Question 1

The market-based viewpoint/perspective is the organized way in which companies’ production

and pricing strategies in a given industry have naturally controlled the demand and supply of the

services and goods offered by the industry rather than government controlled. This perspective

gives an argument that an organization’s success determined by the external operating

environment rather than the organization’s internal factors. This perspective was developed

originally by Mason and Bain (1950) whereby they linked the success and continued operation of

an organization in an industry to the number of players’ in the industry, entry barriers and

demand elasticity. There were later developments on this idea by Michael Porter (1980) in “the

competitive advantage” book and this has been a great development that is still used in the

modern day’s management science. For the market-based viewpoint/perspective, Porter

developed five forces model that is to be applied to achieve the competitiveness of an

organization in an industry. Therefore, in the market-based viewpoint, organizations can be seen

as “black boxes” whereby the industry structure determines sustained competitiveness. The basic

assumption that guides this viewpoint is that resources are perfectly mobile and homogeneous.

Question 2

A SWOT analysis is a process which includes strengths and weaknesses which affect business

and are within control also called internal factors, on the other hand, opportunities and threats

have an impact on product, project or business and are out of control and are also referred to as

external factors ((Hewett, & Krasnikov, 2016).

Purpose of SWOT

Helps discover opportunities

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 3

For the business to grow, finding its new opportunities is necessary. This includes developing

new sort of services and products as well expanding geographically. The rising opportunities are

identified by the management team using SWOT analysis in order to take the advantage at the

right time.

Use resources efficiently

A SWOT analysis helps the organization to position itself against its competitors. The

organization uses its strength to attack other competitors’ weakness. The organization outlines

which resources to use when to use them to stay ahead of competitors.

Improve operations

When an organization conducts a SWOT analysis, the management team comes up with the

organization’s weaknesses to establish the critical areas where the organization to do

improvements for the organization to run effectively. Making the improvements in an

organization’s weakness improves its operation to stay ahead of competitors.

Question 3

How to create goals to fill the needs that SWOT identifies;

Strength & Weaknesses

Strengths and weaknesses factors are internal and rely on objective or initiative that the

organization is analyzing. To attain a specific goal that the organization has made, the

organization uses the strengths within its control. The organization uses anything that is an

advantage or helps the organization achieve its goals Clarke, 2019). When the organization
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 4

identifies its weaknesses it initiates improvements in these areas in order to keep the organization

on track to achieve organization goals.

Opportunities & Threats

Opportunities & Threats are external factors which create an impact on the objectives of the

organization from inside. The factors include technology, legislation, and economics. When the

organization identifies opportunities it takes the advantage to achieve business goals and keep

the organization on track. Threats may initiate issues to the organization or may indicate threat in

future. This keeps the organization on standby mode to conquer the threats and fight for the

common business goals.

Question 4

The market-based viewpoint is usually an analysis of the survival of an entity divided into the

internal (strengths & weaknesses) and external (opportunities & threats) issues that build the

SWOT analysis of the health care organization. Internal factors for the health care organization

could be developed from issues such as;

• Specialized expertise

• Customer relationship

• Reputation

• Innovation and technology

• The geographic location

• Marketing strategies
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 5

• Overall health care management

• Definition of the services offered

The external factors can be developed from various aspects such as;

• Market competition

• Population changes

• Technological availability

• Market segmentation

• Niche markets

• New product availability

• Economic changes

• Changes in staff

Therefore, a health care organization market perspective evaluation leads to the development of a

list of internal and external factors that can be used as a checklist in the process of carrying out

an effective SWOT analysis. It’s from the list the health care organization will be able to

categorize and classify the stated issues as a strength, a weakness, an opportunity or either a

threat depending on the general operational situation of the health care (Schreyer, & Mas, 2016).

Question 5

Strategic planning is important in the organizations for the preparation of purposeful future

actions. The use of Information Technology has become a very important integral part of
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 6

planning (Weaver, Ball, Kim, & Kiel, 2016). The major goals of the application of IT in business

operation are to help in achieving a number of goals for businesses such as;

Communication

Technology allows modern communications such as live chatting, online meeting as well as

video conferencing which have helped in the process of organizational strategic planning.

Inventory Management

This allows organizations to have stock maintenance by keeping systems that trigger alerts on the

additional stock once the minimum stock level is reached by connecting the inventory

management to a point of sale (POS) system. The system enables the recording of the items that

leave inventory through the sale.

Data Management

Information Technology makes it possible for organizations to store and retrieve large amounts

of data which helps in reducing paperwork and resource wastage for organizations.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Information Technology helps organize better services of how the organization responds to new

and persistent customers’ feedback which translates to increased productivity for the

organization.
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REFERENCES

Hewett, K., & Krasnikov, A. V. (2016). Investing in Buyer–Seller Relationships in Transitional

Markets: A Market-Based Assets Perspective. Journal of International Marketing, 24(1),

57-81.

Clarke, C. (2019). Strategic Planning in Healthcare. In Textbook of Medical Administration and

Leadership (pp. 31-46). Springer, Singapore.

Schreyer, P., & Mas, M. (2016). Measuring health services in the national accounts: An

international perspective. In Measuring and modeling health care costs. University of

Chicago Press.

Weaver, C. A., Ball, M. J., Kim, G. R., & Kiel, J. M. (2016). Healthcare information

management systems. Cham: Springer International Publishing.