week 6- Team draft comments

SOFHW long-term objectives serve as the structure toward making decisions and providing future planning for a minimum of five years. The short-term objectives are the baseline for planning within the year. These objectives are the influence behind identifying the functioning tasks which allocate the actions, milestones, and deadlines with the proper functioning area. These objectives will be monitored throughout the implementation phase.

1. Provide comprehensive health and wellness services for all stages of life.

1a. Short-Term Objectives: Open a state of the art wellness center

i. Human Resource: Create policies that empower actions and follow guidelines

Deadline and Milestone: 2-4 months-Research/ 5-7 months-Drafted policies and guidelines/ 8-12 months-Implemented policies and guidelines

ii. Marketing: Develop distribution and communication channels to the identified customer groups (corporate, at risk youth and families, schools, and churches)

Deadline and Milestone: 2-4 months- Identified best distribution and communication channels/ 5-7 months- Activate marketing channels

iii. Finance: Monitor allocation of monies and expenditures. Maintain balance sheets and invoices

Deadline and Milestone: Continuous service: bi-weekly informal financial status report. Monthly formal budget meeting

iv. Production/operations: Locate facility that has space for the following: fitness equipment, medical equipment, group exercises, fitness training, health testing, administration functions, classroom availability, meditation, and library

Deadline and Milestone: 3-5 months- Locate appropriate vacant facility that meets functional requirements/ 5-8 months- Close on location

v. Research and development: Research scientific evidence that supports the methodology of their services. Develop material that relays the message from the results of the research and methodology designed according to the level of understanding and interpretations of their identified customer groups.

Deadline and Milestone: Continuous service: monthly conduct formal meetings to collaborate innovative methods toward distributing newly researched information.

1b. Short-Term Objectives: Offer access to physical fitness equipment, and classes

i. Finance: Monitor allocation of monies and expenditures. Maintain balance sheets and invoices

Deadline and Milestone: Continuous service: bi-weekly informal financial status report. Monthly formal budget meeting

ii. Production/operations: Locate state of art equipment for fitness training, classrooms, and administration needs.

Deadline and Milestone: 5-8 months- Produce requested equipment

2. Provide high quality health assessments, screening, fitness & educational services designed to promote health, wellness & the reduction of disease.

2a. Short-Term Objective: Provide skilled professionals in Fitness, Nutrition, Nursing, and Counselors

i. Human Resource: : Recruit, interview, and hire Nutritional Physicians, Physical Fitness Physicians, and Nurse Practitioner that are aligned with the company’s mission and vision

Deadline and Milestone: 2-4 months: 60% staffed/ 5-7 months: 80% staffed/ 8-12 months: 100% staffed.

ii. Finance: Monitor allocation of monies and expenditures. Maintain balance sheets and invoices

Deadline and Milestone: Continuous service: bi-weekly informal financial status report. Monthly formal budget meeting

iii. Research and development: Research scientific evidence that supports the methodology of their services. Develop material that relays the message from the results of the research and methodology designed according to the level of understanding and interpretations of their identified customer groups.

Deadline and Milestone: Continuous service: monthly conduct formal meetings to collaborate innovative methods toward distributing newly researched information.

2b. Short-Term Objectives: Increase the amount of clinic visits made by adult and youth patients by 20%

i. Marketing: Develop distribution and communication channels to the identified customer groups (corporate, at risk youth and families, schools, and churches)

Deadline and Milestone: 2-4 months- Identified best distribution and communication channels/ 5-7 months- Activate marketing channels

ii. Research and development: Research scientific evidence that supports the methodology of their services. Develop material that relays the message from the results of the research and methodology designed according to the level of understanding and interpretations of their identified customer groups.

Deadline and Milestone: Continuous service: monthly conduct formal meetings to collaborate innovative methods toward distributing newly researched information.

Identifying risk and creating the response to those risks is the purpose of the risk management plan. Below are the identified risk, risk response, and plan. The risk management plan will be monitored throughout the implementation process enabling SOFHW to be proactive on influencing changes needed.

contingencies.

The impact and probability for each identified risk is an overall assessment of the company. The risk and probability is rated as follows:

Risk Impact:

High –Greatly impacts milestones, schedule, budget, or performance

Medium – Slightly impacts milestones, schedule, budget, or performance

Low –Little impact of milestones, schedule, budget, or performance

Probability of Occurrence:

High – Greater than <75%> probability of occurrence

Medium – Between <35%> and <75%> probability of occurrence

Low – Below <35%> probability of occurrence (HHS.Gov U.S Department of Health and Human Services 2014)

Contingency Plan

The main risk for SOFHW is aligning proper roles and responsibilities with the correct skill set. By not properly aligning the specific tasks needed to the proper skill set lacks the specific attention needed to specific tasks. This will create slippage of the schedule and milestones or realignment of services provided by the company. The contingency plan for this risk is to outsource the HR and Marketing skill set. Outsourcing these two specific skill sets will allow SOFHW leadership to focus more on the core capabilities of the company while providing quality service.

Josalyn’s Draft

Strategic Plan

Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 The Company 4 Environment Assessments 5 External Environment 5 Internal Environment 7 Long Term Goal 9 Value Discipline 9 Generic Strategies 9 Grand Strategies 10 Implementation Plan 10 Key Success Factors 14 Risk Management 14 Conclusion 15 Reference 16

The bookkeeping business being proposed in this document is being formed due to the owner’s perceived need in the industry. After working with small businesses, Josalyn Dietrich has seen that there are common problems facing small business owners, primarily related to the administrative tasks of bookkeeping and systemizing. The mission statement for this company is to provide bookkeeping and systemization services to small businesses. The vision statement is to get small business owners back to what they went into business to do.

After an internal and external environmental assessment, there are a few things that need to be noted in regards to the competitive position of this new business. The remote environment presents social and technological implications that can affect the way this business is to be run. This industry has low barriers to entry and the price competitiveness is the most important factor for the operating environment. Internally, the age of the business will be the most difficult factor to overcome, but also presents flexibility for the clients.

The long term goal of the company is to fill a full, forty-hour work week that is profitable. This will be realized by focusing on customer intimacy, a focus on differentiation, and product development, and will be achieved by the end of a two year timeline. The main risk will be a lack of continuous income through the transition into being fully self-employed and can be overcome by following the short term goals identified.

By combining the skill set and experience of the owner with the clear strategic plan presented here, the mission and vision can be realized.

When Josalyn Dietrich first started working with a small business, she knew that there was no way other businesses weren’t facing the same problems. After going through multiple business coaching sessions and hearing the same concerns addressed there, she knew that there had to be a way to help all of these people achieve this goal. She decided to open her own small business in hopes of helping other people run theirs.

After successfully creating systems for one business and managing the finances, the opportunity came to take more classes to help sharpen the skills she had and to work for another small business in a totally different field. Along with attaining a Master’s degree in Business Administration, these opportunities have come together to create a sort of perfect storm for the start of her own bookkeeping business.

The mission of this company is to provide bookkeeping and systemization services to small businesses. Being resourceful is very important to a small business. In the case of this business, the unique selling point is that the owner of this bookkeeping business happens to be good at, and enjoy, doing the administrative side of running a business. The idea of having an “administrative side” of a business is somewhat lost to many people looking to turn what they love to do into a business. This business provides a bridge to that gap.

The vision of this new business is to get small business owners back to what they went into business to do. This is the most important concept as it is really the start of why this business is being created. So many small business owners end up hating running their business because they aren’t doing what they had intended to do. Businesses need to be run; the goal of this business is to lessen that burden to the small business owner.

Bookkeeping for small businesses is an industry that is very open to new businesses forming, which is exactly what this new owner has decided to do. In the beginning stages of the company, it is important to analyze and interpret the internal and external environments of the business in order to assess the organization’s competitive position. Among this analysis, it is important to also address the organizational structure to ensure all the appropriate trades and skills are brought to the table.

In terms of the remote external environment, the most important factors for this business are the social and technological aspects of the business. The social implications to be considered here include the privacy that most people value when it comes to their finances. Many people have expressed that they are uncomfortable with the idea of letting other people have access to their financial information. This can be a huge factor because in order to be a bookkeeper, there is no degree that is required, whereas to be an accountant or a professional tax preparer require certain levels of certification, so it gives the client a sense of security when hiring. It would be in the owner of a bookkeeping business’ best interest to attain a variety of certifications or other ways to gain credibility with the potential client base.

The technological aspect of the remote environment is mostly concerned with the software the business will be using to keep track of the finances for the client, and how the financial information will physically get to the bookkeeper. Luckily, there is one main software system that most small businesses are willing to use or are already attempting to use. For this situation, the bookkeeping business will need to become an expert in this software and be able to have access to each different section of this program, whether it is on an external hard drive or cloud based. The second factor that will need to be addressed is the fact that the bookkeeper will need to either attain the supplemental documentation (receipts, check carbon copies, etc.) physically or electronically. Many people that are running a small business on their own do not have an electronic way of tracking receipts and checks because there has not been a need for it in the past due to the small scale on which they have been doing business. This has created a sort of resistance to moving to electronically attaining the financial documentation because the business owners just have a bag of receipts. This can potentially limit the target market to owners that are physically located in the same city as the bookkeeping business.

For the industry environment, the most important factor to consider is the low barrier to entry. As stated previously, because of the technological aspect of the remote environment, the industry is limited to the competitors that work within the same city of the bookkeeping business. The target market for this company, generally speaking, are small business owners, who are very active with local networking groups and/or business coaching. These business owners, especially those in business coaching, are there because they value their time and are looking for ways to maximize it, which is what this bookkeeping business is providing. The competitive aspect of this industry is fairly low, because it is so heavily word of mouth, networking oriented, and very location specific. By being involved as an owner of a small business, it creates a sort of common ground and a sense of loyalty and credibility with a huge reach, not only to the people in the business coaching, but also to other people that they might meet who are in a similar situation. There are, of course, other businesses that do the same type bookkeeping work, but because it is a one person job, there are much more businesses in the city than any one person can handle. So while these other businesses are considered the competition, it is also in the business’s best interest to use these other businesses for referrals of clients that they just don’t have the time to take on.

In the case of this bookkeeping business, there are no actual resources, physical location needs, or personnel requirements because it is a single person doing the work electronically. Therefore, the most important factor in the operating environment is the price competitiveness and knowing what the customer profiles are. The business owners are currently able to do the services the bookkeeping business is looking to provide on their own. The pricing needs to be considerate of the fact that these are small businesses that are most likely on small budgets. The price needs to reflect the amount of income that the small business owner can bring in by spending time on their work instead of making entries in their accounting software. Also, the time spent at the end of the year to get the accounting in order to send to a tax preparer is almost completely eliminated along with the stress that comes from the last minute scramble.

Internally, the most important weakness is the lack of experience and clientele from the new bookkeeping business. The client is putting a lot of trust into a person keeping track of their financials and being new to the industry can be a deciding factor against a new bookkeeper for potential clients. That being said, the most important strength is the flexibility that not having a full schedule of clients provides. It is often advantageous to be able to work with a client to adapt to what their specific needs are in order to accommodate them, whereas a more established firm might not have that flexibility.

The owner of this bookkeeping business is new to bookkeeping independently, but has worked with several different types of businesses as an employee. Through this experience, there have been a few mentors that are available and willing to help with questions, but who are also willing to pass on smaller, manageable clients that require less work than the mentor wants to take on. An example of this would be a client that only would require this mentor to work about an hour a month, which for them isn’t worth taking on a new client for. This mentor then passes the potential client on to the new bookkeeping business. For the new bookkeeper, it might take two hours a month, but would cost less per hour since there isn’t as much experience that this owner is bringing to the table. While this seems a disadvantage at first glance, this is actually a huge selling point because it is less expensive now for the client. The owner also has the opportunity to work in an automatic yearly raise to adjust for the cost of living or inflation, plus the owner also has another year of experience under their belt. From the client’s point of view, this is reasonable because they can agree that if they are happy with the services they would be willing to pay a small amount more. In addition, each new client, however small, adds to the new bookkeeper’s client base and the more experience with a variety of businesses the better.

Due to the nature of the business, the organizational structure is fairly straightforward. There is one person as owner, manager, and employee. Beyond this, there needs to be a system of other businesses that can assist the bookkeeping business on areas that the owner is not an expert in. One major one is an accountant and tax preparer. Having another small business as a partner that will provide the necessary audits throughout the year, manage the state and federal taxes as they are due, etc. will provide the client with a complete service to handling all of their finances, as opposed to being limited by the lack of certifications.

The long term goal of the business is key when looking to identify the appropriate strategies for the business. In the case of the small bookkeeping business, the long term goal is to getting the business running as a full time work environment and to create a profitable business that will be able to customize the services to fit the clients’ needs. In order to accomplish this, the bookkeeping business will implement a value discipline, along with a generic and grand strategy that will help guide the business towards achieving that goal.

The value discipline this business will focus on is the customer intimacy value discipline. This small bookkeeping business can benefit from focusing on this value discipline because each client will have varying needs and will be looking for a bookkeeper that can adapt their services to fit those needs. In the beginning stages of the company, this will be fairly easy because there is a bit more time to be able to provide customized reports, etc. for the client. Considering the growth for the future, these customized reports will take less time to create because there will be templates created in the earlier stages that can be adjusted slightly to accommodate the client as opposed to starting an entirely new report.

The focus strategy is the generic strategy that is most appropriate for this business. It can also work in conjunction with one of the other generic strategies, in this case, the differentiation strategy will be used as the base for the implementation of this strategy. By specializing in a variety of different small business types, this business will be able to adapt its services to the needs of the individual customer. The focus strategy means that this bookkeeping business will be mainly concerned with adapting to the needs of small businesses that are looking for minor accounting services for a few specific reasons, including tracking sales and being prepared for tax season. While this bookkeeping business is not really providing a product or service that is above and beyond what others provide, the services it does offer are in alignment with what business owners that are in control of their business are looking for.

Product development is the most appropriate grand strategy for this bookkeeping business. Because this is a new business, the fist main focus should be getting the product out into the market at its most basic level. Once that is accomplished, the next step would be to add services that would include the traditional bookkeeping needs, but go a step further in providing individualized reports that the clients can then use to track the sales and other key performance indicators in their particular business. This will maximize all of the tools that the owner brings to the table from the experience in business coaching and from the business degree. Adding this feature will introduce the bookkeeping business to a whole new set of clientele that might have not considered hiring a bookkeeper if it had not been for the extra business evaluating that is now an option for them. This service can also be a standalone option for businesses that have a highly complicated system that might need a Certified Personal Accountant working on it daily, but would like to have someone interpreting what all the numbers mean for their business.

This small bookkeeping business has a long term goal of filling a full, forty-hour work week schedule that is profitable. In order for the owner to not have to work part-time as an employee elsewhere, the income level must meet or exceed the amount made working as an employee. The first short term objective that is set to achieve this long term goal is to fully create and establish the business with the required paperwork with the state as well as creating a few contract templates for anticipated client types by the end of the next quarter (Quarter 1). The next short term objective is to attain two clients that require no more than 4 hours of work each per month by the end of the third quarter. The next short term objective would be to work as an employee at one job part time and add three new clients that require about 20 hours a month of bookkeeping services by the end of the following years’ first quarter. The final short term objective will be to implement another added service to the existing clients by offering to develop systems and operating procedures for their business by the end of the second years’ last quarter. This means that each of these four goals will be accomplished within two years (See Table 1).

Table 1

Short Term Goal A. Short term goal A is to get all of the paperwork in order to have an operating business in the state of California as well as getting the paperwork together for running the business smoothly. This step requires a decent amount of research. The Short term goals are broken down by functional tactics which are the actual tasks that are required for the Short term goal to be realized. The main tactics required will result from the research that is done on things like which business type is most appropriate, what paperwork is required, who to submit those to, the time frames that are to be expected, if liability insurance is necessary, etc. The second aspect of this Short term goal is to create contracts for the anticipated types of clients that this business will hope to attract. There will be the monthly clients that need just a few hours each month of bank account reconciliation and there will be the clients that need more than that due to having the bookkeeper doing their invoicing and Accounts Receivable as well as the bank reconciliations. This will be the basis for two generic templates that can then be adjusted to fit the needs of the individual client. The main milestones that are to be measured and recorded in this case are the attainment of the business license and a completion of the two contract templates.

Short Term Goal B. Short term goal B is to attain two clients that require no more than 4 hours of work each per month by the end of the third quarter. The functional tactics for this goal are mostly to do with networking. This type of client would be very small to an established bookkeeper and would be almost more of a hassle to take on than a benefit. The main tactic for this owner would be to research local bookkeepers and start to build the referral system that, once in place, will create a strategic alliance of sorts so that this business will get the right type of client that it needs at this stage of development. The milestone for this to have made contact with at least two other full time bookkeepers and asked for referrals by the end of the first quarter, followed by two new clients as outlined above by the end of the second quarter of this stage.

Short Term Goal C. Short term goal C is to work as an employee at one job part time and add three new clients that require about 20 hours a month of bookkeeping services by the end of the following years’ first quarter. The functional tactics for this goal are concerned with marketing and scheduling. In order to maintain an income, this owner must continue to work a total of 96 hours a week at a part-time job (three days a week) leaving two, eight hour work days a week to be available to work on outside client’s books. This goal will need to be achieved in stages in order to go smoothly. First, the owners current employers would need to know of the upcoming change and hopefully can be flexible with the terms. From there, the marketing needs to start. Attending business coaching classes will help to keep the owner focused while at the same time will be a great way to meet a roomful of potential clients. Following up with all of these other business owners and working to meet their needs will all be up to the sales capabilities of the owner of this bookkeeping business. Completion of each of these tasks will be considered milestones, but along with meeting and reaching out to potential clients, careful monitoring of the initial numbers will be helpful to determine what milestones need to be set for the future. For example, if for every four potential clients, two actually become clients, then it would be simple math to determine that the owner would need to meet with a total of six potential clients in order to get three new actual clients.

Short Term Goal D. Short term goal D is to implement another added service to the existing clients by offering to develop systems and operating procedures for their business by the end of the second years’ last quarter. At this time, assuming the business has met the minimum required of its previous short term goals, the business would have a total of five clients. In order to get the most out of these clients, it would be beneficial for both parties if there were systems in place that could help the client run their business as well as helping the bookkeeper to be more up to speed with what is going on financially with the company. The most important tactic to achieve this goal of the clients adding on services to create systems is for the bookkeeping business owner to emphasize the philosophies taught in the business coaching classes. Because the bookkeeping business owner is also a part of that curriculum, it will help the client to see the value in having someone that knows where they want their business to go and how they are trying to get it there.

There are a few key success factors that the business owner will be looking for from the start of the company to the achievement of the long term goal. The first is the conversion rate or the rate of which a prospective client becomes an actual client. This is very important to determine how much marketing and networking the owner will have to do in order to reach the goal. Recording this will also help the owner adjust the time frames of the short term goals based on how much time and effort it will take to get new clients. Another key success factor is the average dollar sale from each client. Studying this will not only help the owner see what type of clients are most profitable, but it will also help the client to see how much the clients are paying for the different services and what is most profitable. This will also be handy when looking at pricing for services in the future.

The transition from employee to self-employed as outlined above is very much reliant on the fact that one employer would be willing to allow the owner to cut back hours to just three days a week. There is also a very real possibility that the employer will not want to do this which will then result in either waiting to start the bookkeeping business until a later time, completely becoming self-employed at once and anticipating a few months of little to no income, or to start looking for an entirely new part-time job. In order to best plan for the worst case scenario, the owner should save income to be able to sustain expenses for a few months if they end up not having an employer or an income while the business is getting started. The second option would be to commit evenings and weekends to the bookkeeping business and still maintain a full-time job, though this would not be ideal as it can easily lead to burn out.

This need may seem trivial, but it is a very real problem for many small business owners who are trying to balance their actual work with running a business, not to mention their personal lives outside the business. The owner of this small bookkeeping business has the skills, training, education, and drive to help owners spend more time doing the things that they enjoy doing and what will ultimately bring in income for them.

Pearce, J. A. & Robinson, R. B. (2013). Strategic Management: Planning for Domestic and Global Competition (13th ed). New York, NY: McGraw Hill

Jag’s Draft

Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Company Background 3 Mission 4 Vision 4 Values Statements 5 Environmental Scanning 5 External Environment 5 SWOT Analysis 8 SWOT Analysis Framework 9 Value Chain Analysis 11 Generic Strategies 12 Grand Strategies 12 Implementation Plan 13 Long-Term Strategy 15 Key Success Factors 15 Risk Management 16 Contingency Plan 17 Conclusion 17 References 19

Pfizer, Inc. (Pfizer) is known to be the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company. In the past, the company has grown organically through large investments in R&D and also through acquisitions both horizontal and vertical acquisitions to capture greater market share. The company has implemented its corporate social responsibility (CSR) to assist patients in education them of drug safety and the environment in which it operates within.

Pfizer’s goal is to extend its growth through the emerging markets such as India, China, and Brazil. To do this, Pfizer creates short-term objectives that will be developed into long-term goals. Pfizer short-term objectives is to spinoff the business into smaller companies will enable Pfizer to compete in the emerging markets and focusing on generic drug manufacturing which will lower the cost of prescriptive drugs.

Pfizer will be adopting the generic strategies of low-cost leadership as well as differentiation to maintain its competitive advantage. The company will also use a combination of grand strategies during the course of its operations. In addition, Pfizer needs to assess its risk by creating a risk management plan to mitigate any risks that will be encountered during the implementation phase. The company will need to have a contingency plan such as drug recall as it did in the past just in case something did not go as plan.

Pfizer was founded in 1849 as Charles Pfizer & Company before changing its name to Pfizer, Inc. by two cousins, Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart, in Brooklyn, New York before moving to its new location in midtown Manhattan, New York. The company has grown over the years with large investments in research and development, and become the largest research-based pharmaceutical company within the industry. Pfizer combines science and global resources that extended and improve people’s lives. The company strives to set the standard for quality, safety and value, and develop and manufacture health care products. Its global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world’s best-known consumer health care products. “Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time” (Pfizer.com, 2014).

According to Pearce and Robinson (2013) “The company mission is the unique purpose that sets a company apart from others of its type and identifies the scope of its operations in product, market, and technology terms” (p. 23). Pfizer mission statement is “We will become the world’s most valued company to patients, customers, colleagues, investors, business partners, and the communities where we work and live” (Pfizer.com, 2014).

The company’s vision, on the other hand, is a sense of direction into the future that is what the company wants to become in the future. “A vision statement presents the firm’s strategic intent that focuses the energies and resources of the company on achieving a desirable future” (Pearce and Robinson, 2013, p. 34). Pfizer has a long-term vision into the future with its commitment to research and development in a quest for healthier and happier lives. Pfizer vision statement: “We dedicated ourselves to humanity’s quest for longer, healthier, and happier lives through innovation in pharmaceutical, consumer, and animal health products” (Pfizer.com, 2014).

Every company has a set of values that identify the company purpose. Value statement is a description of the business core principles including general concepts and specific actions that a business takes to achieve positive outcomes. “Good health is vital to all of us, and finding sustainable solutions to the most pressing health care of our world cannot wait. That is why we at Pfizer are committed to applying science and our global resources to improve health and well-being at every stage of life. We strive to provide access to safe, effective and affordable medicines and related health care services to the people who need them” (Pfizer.com, 2014).

In order for a company to be successful, it needs to do an environmental scanning. “Environmental scanning is the monitoring, evaluating, and disseminating of information from external and internal environment to key people within the corporation or organization” (Babatunde and Adebisi, 2012, p. 26). It is the process of gathering, analyzing, and dispensing information for strategic decisions.

Pharmaceutical Industry and its Life Cycle

The pharmaceutical industry is global business with its footprint throughout every continent. The United States is the world’s largest market for pharmaceuticals and the world leader in biopharmaceutical research.  According to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), U.S. firms conduct the majority of the world’s research and development in pharmaceuticals and hold the intellectual property rights on most new medicines.  Based on statistics released by the World Health Organization, the global pharmaceuticals market is worth US$300 billion a year and is expected to rise to US$400 billion within the next three years (WHO.int, 2014). The 10 largest drug companies control over one-third of this market; six of these companies are based here in the United States with Pfizer being one of them. It is predicted that the emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China (refer to as BRIC) along with South Africa and Indonesia will be the leading market for pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer is looking to ways to tab into these emerging markets in which the company sees huge potential for growth.

The industry has five stages in its life cycle: development, introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Every company within the industry starts out at the development stage and continues to grow over the years. Some of them stayed on for years while other went out of business. Currently, the pharmaceutical industry is going through a period of transformation as companies within the industry are investing in the latest technology. Pfizer has been the leader for years with large capital injection into its research and development (R&D).

Macro Environmental Factors

The macro environment factors are those factors beyond the control of the firm. Pearce and Robinson refer to this as the remote environment in which the firm operates under. These factors are: economic, social, political, technological, and ecological (Pearce and Robinson, 2014). One or more of these factors can severely impact the business.

Economic. The economy plays a key role in the direction in which the firm operates. Businesses need to take into account the availability of credit, the level of disposable income, and the propensity to consume. A slow down of economic growth can affect Pfizer because consumers’ levels of disposable income shrink. We have seen during the economic recession during 2008, consumers had to choose between food and medicine. Many consumers could not afford insurance because they were laid off and did not have the money to buy the medicine. As such, many patients go without the medication for a period of time. The slowdown in sales affected Pfizer revenue and thus its bottom line.

Social. Social factors such as beliefs, values, attitudes, opinions, and lifestyles could have a positive or negative impact on businesses. Companies are now incorporating corporate social responsibility into their mission and vision by giving back to society in some ways. Under its U.S. Patient Assistance Programs, Pfizer commitment to health care by providing access to medicine. Pfizer RxPathways helps eligible patients get access to their Pfizer medicines by offering a range of support services, including insurance counseling, co-pay, and in some cases providing Pfizer medicines for free or at a savings.

Pfizer involves in other social programs such as its Medicine Safety Education where patients can learn more about the risk and benefits of medicines. The company has been a leader of climate change with its Energy and Climate Change program seeks to minimize costs and operational restriction in greenhouse gas emission. However, these programs can have an economic impact on Pfizer’s bottom line.

Political. Governments have a great impact on the pharmaceutical companies. In the United States through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which is charged with regulating drugs and medical devices that are made by the pharmaceutical industry. The industry is very powerful on the political front by lobbying in Capitol Hill each time they bring out a new drug or medical device for approval. According to Big Pharma (refer to the pharmaceutical industry) from 1998 to 2013, the industry spent approximately $2.7 billion of lobbying expenses.

Technological. New technologies have pushed Pfizer well into the future especially its strong investments in Research and Development (R&D). The company’s goal is to bring innovation with new therapies to patients which can improve their lives. Pfizer’s is to take advanced science and technologies through its R&D and create new therapies for patients. Today Pfizer is experiencing a biomedical innovation where its R&D has a better understanding of human biology and causes for diseases.

Ecological. Due to global warming, more and more companies are forced into protection of our environment from the air we breathe to the water we drink. Countries such as the United States have strict pollution laws to protect our environment. Pfizer, through its Green Workplace Platform, strive for continuous improvement to maximize efficiency in its operations, designing and constructing greener buildings, and at the same time conserve on energy and natural resources in order to help protect the environment.

Internal Environment

Scanning the internal and external environment is very important in any strategic planning by using a useful tool refers to as the SWOT analysis. The SWOT analysis is a framework of a company’s internal and external analysis that provides information to match the firm’s resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which the firm operates.

The SWOT analysis below will identify Pfizer’s strengths and weaknesses (internal environmental factors) and its opportunities and threats (external environmental factors) that will guide Pfizer into making the relevant adjustment to take the company into the future.

According to a SWOT analysis conducted by Pfizer, the company has gained the leadership position in the global market for pain through the acquisition of King Pharmaceuticals, developer of analgesics and with the integration has broadened Pfizer’s pain offering to include opioid drugs with anti-abuse technologies. Pfizer has strong capabilities in sales and marketing that help drives the company growth for new products and its generic operations. However, from time to time Pfizer faces several challenges with its drugs like Sutent and Chantix are likely to have a negative impact on sales growth. Healthcare reforms like Obamacare and drug pricing controls will affect Pfizer’s profit margin. Pfizer need to realign its business from time to time to accommodate these changes.

Customer value is the key to the survival of any company and is derived from three basic sources: activities that differentiate the product, activities that lower its costs, and activities that meet the customer’s need quickly. According to Kotler and Keller (2014) Michael Porter has proposed the value chain as a tool for identifying ways to create more customer value. His value chain identifies nine strategically relevant activities grouped into primary activities: inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service; and support activities: procurement, technology development, human resources management, and firm infrastructure (p. 34).

Primary Activities of Value Chain

“Value chain analysis (VCA) attempts to understand how a business creates customer value by examining the contributions of different activities within the business to that value” (Pearce and Robinson, 2013, p. 155). At Pfizer, customer value is the key to its success. Pfizer can use the value chain to analyze specific activities by focusing on the sequence of interrelated value-creating activities. The company can divide its value chain activities into primary activities and supporting activities so as to concentrate on what really adds value to its customers.

Due to strong competition, companies are focusing on their generic strategies, a scheme that was developed by Michael Porter, to remain competitive such as low-cost leadership, differentiation, and focusing. These generic strategies can generate above-average returns for any company that adopted it. According Pearce and Robinson, a company can follow either a low-cost leadership strategy or differentiation with focusing in both. Pfizer has been adopted a low-cost strategy by offering discounts on its drugs and at the same time differentiate its products from those of its competitors such as GlaxoSimithKline, Merck, Novartis, and others.

Grand strategies are long-term business objectives that need to be achieved over a period of time. There are 15 grand strategies that Pearce and Robinson identified that companies can use to achieve their objectives. These 15 grand strategies are concentrated growth, market development, product development, innovation, horizontal acquisition, vertical acquisition, concentric diversification, conglomerate diversification, turnaround, divestiture, liquidation, bankruptcy, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and consortia (Pearce and Robinson, 2013, p. 200). Companies such as Pfizer used a combination of these grand strategies throughout its life cycle to remain competitive within the industry. Pfizer did a number of acquisitions over the years such as Warner-Lambert and Pharmacia which gave Pfizer greater market share. The company has one of the most diverse operations which Pfizer created into five business segments Primary Care, Specialty Care and Oncology, Established Products and Emerging Markets, Animal Health, and Consumer Healthcare (Pfizer.com, 2014).

The implementation plan has been developed to support the strategic plan of Pfizer. Specific actions will be outline in the plan with each action taken. The implementation plan will include the short-term and long-term objectives, the functional tactics, actions taken along with its deadlines, the milestone, task s and ownership, and resource allocation.

Goals . To be able to sustain long-term growth, Pfizer need to focus on its emerging markets such as Brazil, China, and India. These are untapped markets that will boost Pfizer’s revenue in the long run.

Short-term objectives: Spinoff the business into smaller companies will enable Pfizer to compete in the emerging markets and focusing on generic drug manufacturing.

Functional Tactic:

Human Resources: Hire and train employees within each emerging market. This will focus on the company to hire the right people for the job.

Finance: Give each new company the initiative to do their accounting with the responsibility to analyze their own business.

Operations: Focusing on operations to be done within each country in the emerging market. These operations include producing of low-cost generic drugs.

Research and Development: R&D can be centralized to cut cost by using advanced technology.

Action Item and Deadline: Pfizer will create strategic business units (SBUs) for each emerging markets such as Pfizer China, Pfizer India, and Pfizer Brazil. Each of these units will operate as individual subsidiary with Pfizer, Inc. as their parent company. The deadline to set up these SBUs will be December 31, 2014 so that the subsidiaries can go live by January 1, 2015.

Milestone: Below is a list of actions that need to be completed along with the relevant timeline so that the subsidiaries can be up and running.

Task and Ownership: Each subsidiary will have a Vice-President that will be responsible for all the day-to-day functions. The Vice President will report directly to the CEO of Pfizer, Inc. Under each Vice President will be several managers from different functional areas who will report to him or her.

Resources allocation: Pfizer will fund these new subsidiaries with its cash reserves in addition there will be external debt financing.

Pfizer long-term strategy is to maximize its profits and ensure that the company is kept as a going concern. In order to achieve this, Pfizer will develop its short-term strategy into its long-term commitment to be successful. The company will be fully exploring its emerging markets to fully capitalize on its potential and expand into the generic business to make drugs more adorable to low income patients. Customer satisfaction is key to the success of its business and the company must keep in close contact with its customers through one of its socials programs.

In order to be successful, Pfizer need to develop several key success factors. One of which is to education patients in the emerging markets to use generic drugs instead of brand-name drugs. Patients have the misconception that if a product is not brand-name then it must be inferior and will not be effective as it should be. By educating its customers, they will become to accept the generic drug as their main source of medication thus sales will increase and so do Pfizer’s revenue.

Another success factor is to make drugs more affordable by lowering its cost. Pfizer investments in R&D with the latest advanced technologies are a huge payoff for the company. The company costs have significantly lower and as such has a ripple effect on the cost of drugs. Huge savings from advanced technologies have been passed on to the consumers as a savings as well on their medication.

Pfizer has been promoting itself by its corporate social responsibility through its social programs and climate change. Pfizer has adopted the U.S. Patient Assistance and its Medicine Safety Programs to assist and educate patients about the safety and use of drugs. Through its energy and climate change, Pfizer has been able to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) globally.

Every business encounter some degree of risk and should develop plans to mitigate those risk, Pfizer is no exception. Pfizer created the Environment, Health and Safety Management Systems (EHSMS) risk-based framework to meet Pfizer’s continually evolving and dynamic business and operating model. The model offers flexibility for alternative solutions to the company’s risk management needs. The framework recommends mandatory controls where there is potential for high consequence events and also presents risk control measures to mitigate Pfizer’s risk (Pfizer .com). The following diagram illustrates the EHSMS documentation structure:

Contingency planning is critical for the pharmaceutical industry because of its nature of the business especially those drugs that is approaching patent expiration. Drug companies that have few contingency plans in place face the potential for declining revenue not only with new drugs but the entirely new generic competition among drug companies. Contingencies plans will include pulling certain drugs from the market as Pfizer did with its leukemia medicine after a study found a higher death rate and no benefits to patients. According to the New York Times, in September 2009 Pfizer paid $2.3 billion to settle civil and criminal allegations that it had illegally marketed its painkiller “Bextra” which the company had eventually withdrawn from the market.

Companies need to create a strategic plan to streamline the actions it will take to maximize growth and profitability. The plan includes capture greater market share through the emerging markets and focusing on producing generic drugs to make it more affordable to patients globally. Pfizer will accomplish this by setting up separate entities called subsidiaries in these emerging markets that will reporting back to the holding company Pfizer, Inc. In addition Pfizer will continue to invest in its R&D with the latest advanced technologies so as to lower its cost with such savings passes on to its consumers. Because of the riskiness of the nature of Pfizer’s business, the company needs to assess it risks and come up with a contingency plan to mitigate those risks. Such plan might include pulling the drug from the market as it did with previous drugs.

Babatunde, B.O., & Adebisi, A.O. (2012). Strategic Environment Scanning and Organization Performance in a Competitive Business Environment. Economic Insights - Trends and Challenges, 64(1), 24-34.

Inbound Logistics

Opeartions

Service

Outbound Logistics

Marketing & Sales

Differentiation

Low-cost leadership

Focusing

Pfizer's Success

Corporate

EHS Policy

Systems Manual

EHS Standards

Implemenation Documents

Recomendations Practices Global EHS SOPs Reference Documents

Environmental Scan

Internal Analysis

External Analysis

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threaths