STEEP Analysis is one of the strategic management tools that help firms to make better and

effective decisions. STEEP analysis includes Political, Social, Economic, Technological, and
Environmental factors that can have an influence on the macroenvironment in which the
organization works. Let us look at the STEEP analysis of KPJ Healthcare Berhad. KPJ
Healthcare operates in a dynamic environment influenced by the following factors: enhancing
regulatory framework for environmental factors, legal changes, collective social trends,
government regulations, technological advances, boosting environmental activism among clients,
consumer purchasing behaviors, and an ever-changing legal system. In this case, these
environmental factors would be applied on KPJ Healthcare Berhad for further studies.

Social Factors
Company has their own culture and group with their own business practices. KPJ Healthcare
Bhd not only better grasp the manner of conducting business, but also better comprehend the
client preferences in KPJ Healthcare Bhd. Social impacts include attitudes toward certain
products and services, traditions, societal roles and customs, culture, health and safety views,
gender roles, demography, acceptance of the entrepreneurial spirit, and leisure activities.

Increasing healthcare awareness and protection

Due to the COVID-19 epidemic in Malaysia, KPJ Healthcare Berhad has done their part by
supporting a number of public education and awareness campaigns, as well as the COVID-19
push through screening programmes, as part of their commitment to educate Malaysians on early
virus prevention. Furthermore, KPJ Healthcare Berhad has been working with the Ministry of
Health, the relevant state health department, and local district health offices to conduct Phase 1
vaccination for private sector healthcare frontliners. Additionally, every branch of KPJ
Healthcare hospitals has volunteered and is ready to assist the Ministry of Health in the Phase 1
vaccination program's execution. More than 300 front liners were vaccinated on March 3, 2021,
and KPJ Healthcare Berhad hopes to vaccinate a total of 2,267 frontliners by the end of April.
ProtectHealth Corporation (ProtechHealth) has appointed KPJ Healthcare Berhad (KPJ) to
provide COVID-19 vaccinations at the Pusat Pemberian Vaksin Mega (PPV Mega) Kuala
Lumpur Convention Centre (KL Convex) commencing on June 7, 2021. The COVID-19
Immunisation Task Force (CITF) is organizing this PPV Mega as part of the National COVID-19
Immunisation Program (NIP). By the end of June 2021, KPJ will have administered up to 6,000
doses of Covid-19 vaccine every day. These vaccines will be administered at PPV Mega at KL
Convex and the 20 KPJ hospitals, accounting for 4% of the national daily vaccination target of
150,000, the highest number of immunisations administered daily by a private healthcare
organization in Malaysia.

Gender and age diversity of medical staffs

Nowaday, patients prefer it when their doctor is male and their nurse is female in Malaysia, due
to the belief that the older a doctor gets, the more skillful he or she will be since they are
surrounded by more experienced and well-trained medical personnel. According to the report,
KPJ Healthcare Berhad has employed more male physicians than female doctors in order to
conform to Malaysian culture. Meanwhile, the nursing profession is still dominated by women.
Furthermore, KPJ Healthcare Berhad applied diversely in the aging workforce since the group is
well-known for their mentor-mentee sessions as the company has a few retirement and aged care
facilities. In other words, the experienced and elderly medical personnel may teach new
employees in order to preserve the group's quality in terms of all specializations offered by KPJ
Healthcare Berhad.

increasing aging population

Almost 3.5 million Malaysians over the age of 65, which is 7% of the country's population
during the year 2021. This category is the most vulnerable in terms of maintaining a basic
standard of living till the age of 77 or so, which is the average lifetime for a Malaysian guy. As
the population ages, the prevalence of age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's disease,
hypertension, and heart disease increases, necessitating long-term hospital care.

Technology Factors
Technology is rapidly impacting several industries, including healthcare. There are several ways
in which technical considerations affect KPJ Healthcare and Healthcare Facilities in Malaysia.
Some of the technological factors are as follows: product innovation, rate of innovation change,
population availability of technology, access to more information, supply chain disruption due to
technological advances, access to mobile phones boosting empowerment, customer service
innovation, and so on.

Digital Transformation Plan

The changes in climate caused by the impact of Covid-19 crisis, KPJ feels that digital technology
would help them to expand their service offerings which help to elevate KPJ services to the next
level of customer service, using elements of both online and physical encounters. KPJ chose to
continue embracing industry 4.0 technologies such as cloud service, the Internet of Things, 3D
Printing, and Big Data to accomplish this and these projects are offering end-to-end solutions,
services, and technological innovation which change the lifestyle of the customers, that would
our customers and users could access from anywhere, at any time, and on any device. Over the
next five years, KPJ will focus on transforming the core Healthcare Information System (HIS)
into a next-generation, future-proof platform. On the other hand, the priority areas included
improving the integration of all systems and delivery channels, as well as expanding their digital
goods and services in healthcare.

Ambulatory treatment has been pushed to internet services

Private healthcare sector is one of the largest networks which look forward to advances in
technology by the operator. The sudden outbreak by Covid-19 in 2019 changed the climate from
the cash world to the digitalization world. The Healthcare industry especially shifted to digital
technology. So, KPJ feels they should reevaluate how they distribute their products and services.
As a result, KPJ is looking forward to expanding its community services, which will include
ambulatory care. Ambulatory care also known as outpatient care which is a form of outpatient
medical care that includes diagnostic, observation, consultation, treatment, intervention, and
rehabilitation services. To reduce the number of clients who come into the facility until they are
ready for treatment, KPJ has decided to make pre-appointment data and registration available
online.

Offering telemedicine
Telemedicine is providing the products and services through online consultation which will be
more to technology. So, KPJ decided to offer telemedicine to their customers. Since the
consultants' involvement has expanded fourfold and deepened, the impact of providing
telemedicine to individuals has demonstrated a beneficial influence. In addition, KPJ's
telemedicine provides top-up pharmaceutical home services, which transport their products and
services directly to their customers' homes. Because of a cashless transaction arrangement with
JomPay and Duit Now, patients may make payments utilizing payment kiosks, websites, and
mobile applications.

Economic Factor
Economic factors directly influence the performance of the company and the decision making.
Economic elements include a country's economic performance, taxation rate, economic stage,
interest rate, exchange rate, consumer disposable income, labor market circumstances, inflation
rate, and so on. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that erupted in early 2020, KPJ
Healthcare Berhad has been faced by a number of unpredictable issues.

Lower-than-expected bed occupancy rates

KPJ Healthcare's revenue had decreased by 12% to RM 2.4 million in 2020, down from RM 2.74
million in 2019, while the net profit is RM 110.44 million which is half of the 2019 net profit of
RM 211.37 million. This is the condition as a result of the daristic impacts of the COVID-19
epidemic and the implications of MCO limitation. Moreover the implementation of the SOP and
the MCO which were ordered by the government, all clients were obliged to cancel their
appointments, and some procedures were postponed. As a result, the KPJ's bed-occupancy rate
fell to a new low of 25% in April 2020 and the percentage jumped to 52% after the restriction
eased.

The rate of employment in the healthcare industry

In December 2020, The economy is still able to provide job opportunities, as 65.1 percent of the
employment-to-population ratio it stands. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia
2020, employment in the economic sector is expanding in the services sector, particularly in
wholesale and retail commerce, human health and social work, communication and information,
and education activities. As a result, it can be argued that during a pandemic, the demand for
additional workers in these areas is critical. In terms of human health and social work, the
government has created a large number of job openings to be filled by people who are still
looking for employment, so that they may be deployed to assist frontlines in dealing with the
growing number of COVID-19 cases. However, the number of foreign labor forces has
decreased as the government blocked international borders in order to minimize an increase of
COVID-19 instances.

Increasing in national income

Malaysians appear to be becoming more financially secure as their earnings grow in order to
keep up with the country's progress. Because of their greater education, better quality of life, and
desire for a better lifestyle, they are considerably more ready to spend on healthcare. As can be
seen, per capita health-care spending has increased in lockstep with growing income levels
throughout time. Consider the following scenario: the government has purchased a limited
number of COVID-19 vaccinations for distribution to the public. KPJ Healthcare can spend some
dollars on purchasing the vaccination so that individuals do not have to wait in line.

Environmental factor
Over the last decade, corporations have prioritized sustainability and environmental concerns.
The government and pressure organizations are increasingly demanding environmental
standards. Environmental issues include insurance coverage, safe waste disposal, safe water
treatment, limiting carbon footprints, climate change, greater focus on sustainability, pollution
control laws, safe disposal of hazardous items, and so on.

Waste management
Waste management, particularly for facilities in metropolitan areas, has become increasingly
important for players such as KPJ Healthcare. Malaysia's government has established stringent
guidelines for garbage management in metropolitan areas. We can see that in 2019, KPJ
produced 1,375,964 kg of hazardous garbage, a 2.5 percent increase over the previous year
which was owing to an increase in inpatients and outpatients, as well as an increase in hospital
activities including operations and births. Meanwhile, KPJ has met its objective of generating 0.5
kg of hazardous waste per patient over the previous three years. In 2019, the cost of disposing of
clinical waste was RM4.3 million, a 10% increase from RM3.9 million in 2018. The rise is due
to an increase in contract payments per disposal amount for the majority of the Group's hospitals.

Water consumption
KPJ utilized 1,305,374 m3 of water in 2019, a 14.8% increase over the previous year. The
considerable increase was due to a 4% increase in staff and increased hospital activities, mainly
at KPJ Pasir Gudang, KPJ Rawang, and KPJ Sabah. In the first quarter of 2019, the northern part
of Malaysia had scorching weather which led to the increasing water demand for the chiller and
cooling tower. As of January 2019, KPJ had not met its water consumption target of 111 m3 per
employee. In addition to improving individual and institutional efforts, KPJ will actively monitor
and trace any water leaks in operations.

Power Consumption
KPJ's power consumption was 131,121,882kWh in 2019, a 2% increase over the previous year
due to the 24 hours daily operation of KPJ. Modern Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning
(HVAC) systems require a substantial amount of electricity to regulate temperatures and air flow
to satisfy the health needs of patients as well as the needs of staff and visitors. Hospital laundry,
medical and lab equipment, sterilization, computers and servers, food services, and refrigeration
are among the other energy-intensive equipment and processes.

Political factors
Political issues are frequently linked to the extent and character of action by local and national
governments in the commercial and economic environment. The nature and aims of policies are
heavily influenced by government policies and the governing structure. The political factors that
impact KPJ Healthcare Bhd:
Consumer Protection Law
Consumer protection is critical for building a stable economic structure and contributing to a
better society (Sakina Shaik Ahmad Yusoff, 2007). It prevents KPJ Healthcare Berhad from
disclosing its customers' personal information. This policy is intended to preserve the customer's
private information and to prevent the hospital from selling or utilizing the customer's data for
other purposes. To comply with the guideline, all KPJ Healthcare Berhad employees are not
permitted to expose their clients' personal information to anybody.

Medical tourism
Malaysian medical tourism is often considered as among the greatest in the world, with the bulk
of the country's private institutions having globally recognised medical tourism quality and
standards. The growth rate of medical tourism in Malaysia is rapidly expanding due to the low
cost advantage and the improvement of new high-quality healthcare service providers in contrast
to certain abroad institutions. Unfortunately, because to COVID-19, countries throughout the
world must restrict their borders to prevent the virus from spreading quicker. Malaysia's medical
tourism earnings is expected to drop by much to 75% this year as a result of the pandemic
beginning in 2019. This has a significant influence on KPJ Healthcare Berhad's revenues.

Tax policy, and trade and tariff controls

The Malaysian Ministry of Finance announced a duty and sales tax exemption for any party
purchasing medical and laboratory equipment, personal protective equipment, and disposable
products if donated to the Ministry of Health to battle the COVID-19 outbreak. Given that
ASEAN and other importers currently enjoy zero percent tariffs, the cost of temporarily
eliminating customs on medical supplies may not be too taxing on the government's bottom line.
There is a need to examine Malaysia's urgent raw material requirements for local medical supply
manufacture. Certain entities throughout the world have taken aggressive steps to unilaterally
and temporarily suspend various tariff and non-tariff measures.