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PROVEN STERLING
AboredhaInternationaladimension.doxanswerfinal.docx1
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FINLAND
In this modern era, humanity faces many challenges. Rapid aging in Finland is one of the critical problems since the early twentieth century. Research shows that the birthrate decreased while life expectancy increased spontaneously due to improvement in technology and public health systems. Sooner than later, pensioners, the number of children, and the demographic dependency ratio will rise rapidly. This transition will cause a significant threat to health care in various developed countries, Finland being one of them. Older people like to be taken care of in the comfort of their homes. Also, the older they get, the more they need attention and special care. Public sectors will be unable to provide the necessary support to the population. A survey conducted by a pension institution in 2015 shows that Finland is experiencing a shortage of nurses and doctors in public hospitals, and the situation has turned out to be critical. The demands for healthcare keeps rising, and the solutions are turning to be a narrow window. New systems should be well-balanced in terms of medical treatment, nursing care, and welfare.
In the twenty-first century, technology is used in various fields, and healthcare is one of them. This century is also described as an e-century. These days, people can keep track of their health using various devices. Matter of fact, self-tracking is way more popular in multiple countries, including Finland. Due to these trends and needs, E-Medical Centre can turn out to be a very innovative solution in the healthcare sector. This business idea is all about a remote private healthcare service to disabled and elderly individuals (target population), specifically in Eastern Finland. The health of a customer will be monitored using a device known as an E-Health monitoring agent (EMA). Customers can carry their EMAs when going for health monitoring activities like temperature, ECG, blood pressure, etc. The function of the EMAs is to store health data, which will be transferred wirelessly and then processed at the E-Medical Centre. The advantage of this venture is in immediate response to the customer’s health since their health status is monitored.
The resources needed in production
The EMA will comprise altitude and motion sensors, heart rate sensors, temperature sensors, GPS, blood pressure monitoring systems, etc. A communication module is mounted on the EMA system for wireless data transmission. This module enables the device to transmit data like a mobile phone. A battery is also required to maintain operation, and this is a challenge. To overcome this challenge, the EMA will be well-designed with an advanced battery package and a standard charger. Finland is regarded as a mastermind/entrepreneurial talented when it comes to making these kinds of devices with various similar products available in the market. A good example is the Polar Electro Oy designed in Finland to produce a heart rate monitor by wireless means. The business can deal directly with the manufacturer or choose some from the market and then resell it to clients.
Some advantages come along with E-Medical Centre. The EMA will be able to maintain a 24/7 health tracking, and this will reduce the cases of health problems. The Medical Centre will also make it possible for a small number of physicians to offer health care services to a significant population of patients. It will also reduce the time used in processing patients and produce a quality response. Besides, it promotes mobility for patients. The challenges of this business include the requirement of sophisticated infrastructure, advanced methods of encryption to ensure the confidentiality and privacy of customers, the operation of the Medical Centre will entirely depend on EMA performance, and the efficiency of the technicians operating the device.
Market analysis (Economic Issue)
Finland is located in the northern part of Europe. It is described as a nation of lakes and forests with 10% of land occupied by lakes and 75% of the area occupied by forests. Industries related to the forest have been a source of revenue and successful for an extended period. However, research done by OECD shows that Finland is facing different economic issues like the downfall of electronic and forestry, among others. These difficulties cause a reduction in economic competitiveness. Industries related to high-tech like information machinery are rapidly growing. Also, health-tech has experienced enormous success recently. Moreover, Finland experiences long winter accompanied by heavy snowfall, which makes a negative impact on transportation. Providing services like health care for the disabled and the elderly becomes essential.
Competitors
The E-Medical Centre will face two types of potential competitors. One is the available primary healthcare centers, and the second one is the EMA manufacturers. Many companies in Finland focus on product developments for self-health tracking like Nurse Buddy, Heia Heia, Valkee, Mendor, Polar Electro Oy, Beddit, etc. Polar Electro Oy is well known for GPS watches and Heart Rate Monitors. This company was the first to produce a heart rate monitor back in the year 1977. Wireless heart rate monitor was first produced in 1982 by the same company. Polar company has also started creating support systems for manufacturers and coaching systems for users. The coaching systems show the users’ performance and efficient design programs for their training. The supporting and monitoring systems are mostly used by trainers, athletes, coaches, researchers in various fields like health and sports. It can determine the movement of people, such as cycling, running, walking, etc.
Polar offers a complete service for training. The data will then be updated to the company’s support website, where the customers can see the progress of their training and the suggested next training program. The company is the strongest in this sector. Although both Polar and EMA have products and services which may seem alike, their target in the market is different. Polar offers services for training and fitness purposes, while the focus of EMA is on providing healthcare solutions to the population. All other wearable device competitors like Heia have different objectives with EMA. People can use their phones to monitor their health, but this can’t record all the activities.
Competitive strategy
The EMA Centre offers unique and efficient service in Finland, using wearable agents at a lower cost. The database website is user-friendly, and customers can easily access their health data everywhere. The device minimizes time wastage, expenditure incurred in traveling, and the burden on primary analog health care systems. What makes EMA even better is the fact that it conducts emergency calls to the closest hospital in case a customer is having a health problem that needs immediate attention. The device will also notify the EMA Centre if it turns unresponsive for 5 minutes. The nursing staff will then choose the best reaction, like calling the customer or his/her relatives. EMA Centre is an essential bridge between the EMA producers and medical centers. For that reason, alliance strategies can help in marketing the business more efficiently. There are other three generic strategies to assist the company in stabilizing the market: focus, differentiation, and cost leadership.
Cost leadership entails selling the services or goods at average prices to gain more profits than the competitors. It also means selling products and services at a relatively lower price to win the market share. This act is a defensive strategy since it protects the business from all competitive forces. The plan mostly targets the broader market. Differentiation entails offering unique services or goods in the market. This strategy may be as a result of image branding, customer service, technology, quality, characteristics, etc. It is essential for businesses to have innovative techniques. Focus, also known as a niche strategy, tries to gain cost advantage and differentiation by focusing on the segmented market. It helps to provide exclusive goods or products or better services to their clients.
Risk Management
In the business world, risks bring threats and also opportunities for the organization. There is various type of risks which can have a negative impact on the business. The owner should have a strategy to deal with any of the risks and secure a fruitful future of the business. To establish a successful business, business owners ought to consider these threats: technology, operational, finance, safety, and legal risks. Safety risks are a result of both nature and humankind. They include earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, potential accidents, etc. The financial dangers occur in any organization, though they are highly unpredictable. They include vendor changes, an increase in warehousing cost, and legal changes, among others. Operational risks are both external and internal factors within the business operation. They may include loss of goodwill, loss of shareholders, and loss of customers. Legal risks arise from failure to comply with business regulations, which cause high penalties to the business. Technology risks are a result of human error, software or hardware failure, cybercrime, and data protection. To manage the above-mentioned risks, the E-Medical Centre will be considered having insurance since almost all the risks can be insured. The EMA technology will be regularly backed up to remove the technology risks. It will also be professionally encrypted to protect customers’ data. The technicians will be highly trained for safety purposes and maintenance of the entire operation.
SWOT analyses
This is the process of looking for the relation between the resources of a business and the available opportunities in the market. The reason for conducting a SWOT analysis to create a further understanding of the competencies of the company, then combine the relevant resources to utilize opportunities and minimize risk occurrence. In the case of the E-Medical Centre, a SWOT analysis will help in improving the standards of the business by analyzing the data collected by EMA. The strengths and weaknesses of the company will be examined by monitoring internal factors like business competencies, financial capacities, and marketing. Opportunities can be analyzed by their success probability, which entirely depends on the business’s performance. Threats or challenges will be listed according to occurrence probability. E-Medical Healthcare is considered to be ideal because it will experience minimal threats and great opportunities.
Strengths
In Eastern Finland, the E-Medical Centre is the first healthcare center to provide telemonitoring services. It offers a unique and advanced solution for the disabled and elderly. The Medical Centre can be described as a better social entrepreneur intended to bring radical and efficient ways for the benefit of the general public. As a result of the specialized method of operation, the EMA Centre can their services to a more substantial number of customers at a relatively lower price compared to the current system. Also, the number of required staff is reduced than the other systems. The data of customer’s health is continuously monitored to ensure that nurses respond immediately in case of a health problem.
Weaknesses
The strengths are also weaknesses in different perspectives. Since this business is new in the market, it will require more marketing strategies to reach the customers. Also, due to the fact that the EMA agent is designed through modern technologies, some elderly individuals may see this as a challenge. The cost of EMA is also regarded as a huge concern regarding the fact that the price charged to customers should be favorable to attract more clients. On the contrary, weaknesses are associated with the human capital of the business.
Opportunities
As mentioned earlier, Finland is a pioneer nation in using health-tech so the people may be eager to try new advanced technology. Finland is in the expansion stage in the Business Cycle. Lately, the supporting programs and funding sources are encouraging innovative solutions in related public sectors. The changing of behavior among people in healthcare sectors becomes crucial because the old system is ineffective. The increase in the aging population and chronic diseases will lead to an overloading of the old system of healthcare. It is an opportunity for enterprises to start new and better innovations in healthcare.
Threats
It may take some time for this business to find customers compared to regular business. This factor will increase operating costs as the days go by. Poor financing support may cause the collapsing of the business. It is not easy to convince people that this service is better than the one they are used to. People can see the efficiency of this service and also they may prefer their old ways. The legal regulation is another concern to this business, assuming he/she is not able to meet the standard legal requirements. It is compulsory to register property rights in Finland. Property right are applied through Finland Patent and Registration Office. The business is reviewed if it worthy a trademark. The legal system of Finland protects the property rights and adheres to various international agreements on property rights.
The plan of this business is to own stores all over Eastern Finland to supply and distribute its services and goods. There may be different stores that can provide the EMA devices, but this business will need only one service center. EMA will then set the device piece using the optional pricing method. This will allow clients to acquire the device with an appealing service package. Also, customers can make a choice between a device with two or one-year contracts. The prices will be different depending on the customer’s choice. The amount of a package with one year contract will be a little bit higher than the one with a two-year contract. So, the most crucial factor affecting the pricing is the cost incurred in acquiring the device from suppliers. At first, the business will use promotional pricing as a marketing strategy to attract customers and penetrate the market as well.
Financial Plan
Financial plan comprises of three essential statements, sales calculation, profitability calculation, and the investment calculation. The following images show the examples of EMA financial plan
IMAGE 1. EMA’s loss and profit account forecast
IMAGE 2. EMA’s profitability calculation example.
IMAGE 1. EMA’s investment calculation example
Conclusion
Many elements are critical for a business to be successful. They include demand, capital investment, suppliers, competitors, etc. The success of E-medical will depend on various things. The research shows that there is a high demand for healthcare for the future generation and the current one healthcare system is about to overload. The result indicates that the E-Medical Centre business is feasible. Assuming the required capital is not a problem, the only challenge left is the competitors. The target group for this business is the older people who seem to be potential customers. Starting this business may be a challenge, but there is a very high chance of succeeding.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lam, Quynh. "A business plan for a new type of medical centre in Eastern Finland." (2014).
Srivastava, Shilpa, et al. "The technological growth in eHealth services." Computational and mathematical methods in medicine 2015 (2015).
