62nd Medical Brigade Business Model
The 62nd Medical Brigade was founded on 16 October 2001 and located in Fort Lewis, Washington (Russel & Cohn, 2013). However, the brigade was formally constituted on 19 December 1942 as the 62nd Medical Battalion Corps (Russel & Cohn, 2013). The main mission of the battalion is to train, deploy, equip, command, and control medical forces to provide medical assistance to members of the military globally. It also seeks to provide force health protection to forces engaged in military operations. (Russel & Cohn, 2013). It has operations globally provides one of the greatest challenges to the corporation. The organization needs to adopt a proper business model that can help it manage its operations across the globe. Since the 62nd Medical Brigade is a health organization, it needs to adopt a business model that relates and is suitable for a health corporation.
One of the business models that can be adopted by the organization is the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) model (Black, Washington, & Rasheed, 2014). The BSC model is a strategic planning and management theory that organizations can use to manage and keep track of day to day activities and their execution by staff (Kumar, 2014). One of the main tenets of the approach is that a business should align its activities to the firm’s goals and objectives as well as its mission and vision. It advocates for practicality; turning the organization’s mission and vision into attainable operations and actions (Nangir, Asvadi, Ahmadian-Attari, & Chen, 2018). However, to achieve this, a corporation needs to adopt a model like BSC to convert the mission and vision statements into achievable goals and objectives that can be attained through strategic planning. For an organization like 62nd Medical Brigade, the strategy will work in organizing its operations.
A closer scrutiny of the model that the 62nd Medical Brigade uses reveals that the organization utilizes the traditional business model. Kaplan and Norton identified that initially, businesses and companies used to apply traditional models such as traditional financial accounting measures like returns on investment and the measures based on earnings per share. This was used to evaluate the company’s success and the effectiveness of the strategy being employed by the company. Though strategies of measuring and evaluating a company have changed over time, traditional models still play a critical role in evaluating the success or failure of a business. Therefore, 62nd Medical Brigade should consider aspects of the traditional model as a strategy of customizing the BSC model (Kumar, 2014). The traditional model by Kaplan and Norton suggests the use of return on investment to gauge the success of the company’s strategies and the company at large. Kaplan and Norton identify four perspectives of measures under the BSC model. The top management of the 62nd Medical Brigade should apply the four perspectives in relation to one of the traditional aspects to develop my BSC objectives.
One of the key objectives of the model would be to ensure the health needs of the forces are satisfied by the 62nd Medical Brigade. In order to achieve the management should apply the traditional model of measure evaluating the returns on investment to ensure that the company not only focuses on making profits but also satisfying the consumers’ health needs as well the various customer preferences (Yigitbasioglu, 2017). This will ensure that forces develop trust in the company’s products and the company itself, thus ensuring that the customer has a positive attitude towards the company. The second objective is to ensure a conducive internal environment for the managers and other stakeholders within the internal company’s system. To realize this, the company has to employ the traditional aspect of return on investment by ensuring the welfare of managers and all the participants under the internal the company’s internal environment is well taken care of and that they are comfortable and are motivated for better productivity and better returns on investment.
To customize on my BSC model, the company should also ensure that the company is involved in innovation and creativity to enhance the uniqueness of the company’s products (Black, Washington, & Rasheed, 2014). This will enable the company to invest in innovation and research that is meant to develop new products. Lastly, the management of the 62nd Medical Brigade company ought to apply the traditional model of using returns on investment to realize my objective of ensuring sellers and other shareholder’s grievances are adhered to. Sellers and shareholders play a crucial role in ensuring that the company’s products, thus they are the people who understand the consumers better, so their grievances have to be taken into consideration, and their welfare is taken care of (Yigitbasioglu, 2017). To realize this, the management of the company has to work to eliminate strict policies that the company has been having on sellers, so it has to enable the sellers and shareholders to share their grievances freely.
One of the key components of the BSC model is a functional strategy. The approach involves the use of the functional strategy as a means of developing a strategic plan and implementing the plan suggested (Nangir, Asvadi, Ahmadian-Attari, & Chen, 2018). Achieving the organizational goals and objectives demands that the 62nd Medical Brigade develops a well-laid out strategic plan. The organization should develop a plan with the corporation’s activities and operations incorporated into the project to make the firm competitive. The health sector is very competitive since the medical support company is not a health institution; it should expect competition from established health organizations. Some of the greatest competitors of the business are NGOs and private health institutions providing services such as treatment and rescue to forces such as The Red Cross and Amref. In this case, the management of the 62nd Medical Brigade should roll out a program that will enable the staff from the organization to go on bench-making missions to map out what other health institutions are doing that their company is not doing in providing services for forces. This will enable the corporation to identify what activities to include its strategic plan and how to achieve these operations to meet the health needs of military personnel.
A proper organization structure is crucial in attaining the company’s set goals and objectives. 62nd Medical Brigade is one of the leading company, therefore, demands the best organizational structure so as to ensure the success of the organization through proper organization and having a reputable hierarchy. A functional structure is likely to be suitable for the company with regards to its size. A functional organizational structure is a structure that has the executive at the top of the hierarchy then followed by a series of multiple managers from several departments such as human resource, accounting, engineering, and marketing departments (Chakraborty, 2019). These departments are normally controlled by departmental heads who are in charge of the departments, and the managers are responsible for answering to the heads.
An approach to this organizational structure suits this company so as to develop a structure where there is cohesion between the hierarchies involved in the company, which in turn enhances the relationship in the company at all the levels of hierarchy. This structure also is beneficial as it is not as complex as other structures; thus, it is easy to understand and comprehend in all levels of its hierarchy (Snyder, 2018). This organizational structure also is a little bit organized as compared to the rest of the structures as it clearly identifies the different roles of each of the participants in the structure. This ensures a smooth-running organization with each department working hand in hand with the other so as to ensure the success of the company’s strategy. Another advantage of this strategy of organizational structure is the fact that it encourages specialization, which ensures each participant engaged in the organization is put in place where he/she is best at (Pramudita, 2016). This ensures that the organization achieves efficiency and a high level of productivity. Productivity is enhanced because the players in the implementation of the strategy are well competent and versed in the areas of productivity they are engaged at; this structure, therefore, is suitable for the 62nd Medical Brigade company since it is a large company and thus necessary to have departments that devolve functions. 62nd Medical Brigade company, therefore, ought to approach this organizational structure so as to aid in achieving the company’s goals and objectives, create a conducive business environment for both the sellers, consumers, and other shareholders of the company. An organized, functional structure enables the company also to manage its respective departments.
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning involves aligning the planning for implementation of project management in the 62nd Medical Brigade is an important part of project management. Planning involves target setting, setting milestones, and master schedule. Target setting involves identifying the target for the project, including the target population and the target market. To achieve this, project implementers have to consider the main purpose of the project. On the other hand, setting the milestones that the project is expected is also important (Snyder, 2018). In addition, a schedule for implementing the project should be formulated for the effective execution of the project.
When a plan has been developed, the next step is to test the plan. Part of the process of testing involves the use of pilot tests where the new development project is tested on a simulated path so as to ascertain the effectiveness and quality of the project. After the testing process, the effectiveness of the project should be evaluated; if there are any errors identified from the evaluation, necessary steps would be put in place to correct these errors. This is where the performance of the data is checked; if there were milestones that were not met, then the project has to be developed further (Chakraborty, 2019). However, if the project meets all the milestones set, then the project proceeds to the execution stage. Here, all the resources required for the implementation of the project are assembled.
To achieve this goal, 62nd Medical Brigade has to employ various resources. Among the resources to be employed include conducting a research on how to achieve the goals and the means or strategies that are relevant and effective for the company (Snyder, 2018). The research will be based on other successful companies that have employed certain strategies and become successful. One other resource that the company’s management should consider is maintaining a profile of the consumers that the company serves with regards to their needs as well as their tastes and preferences. This resource will ensure that the products the company produces are according to the health needs of the consumers that the company serves.
A review of the current needs of the forces is also necessary as they change over time; thus, there is a need to conduct a review of the contemporary health needs to establish what they need at that specific time. Finding new consumers is also a strategy under this resource that will help expand their customer base. Profiling of competitors is also one other resource that needs to be approached in achieving the company’s goals (Chakraborty, 2019). Keeping a profile of the competitors will ensure the company identifies what products their competitors produce in the market and the strategies they use to produce these products so as to gain a competitive advantage over them. Lastly, the company could also realize its goals through the creation of awareness of the company’s products through avenues such as the social media so as to reach out to the youth who are the majority of the consumers interested in the company’s products.
Implementation of the Model
At the implementation stage, the organization should prioritize key stakeholders in the project. Health workers are the main stakeholders and handlers of data in the warehouse; hence they should be involved in the implementation process (Kerzner, 2017). Involving health workers in the implementation is essential in understanding what data to include in the data warehouse. Consulting the health workers is also useful in pointing out the course of the health worker’s attitude with regards to the project and the organization at large. Health workers can be involved in the implementation process by communicating s memo about the project and prompting their thoughts and opinions on the organization’s implementation plan as well as their recommendations to better the project.
Other stakeholders in the implementation process include IT experts in62nd Medical Brigade information department whose role is the collection of data and retrieval for future use in the project. IT experts, too, need to be involved in the implementation process in order to ensure that the security and safety of systems and programs are considered in the implementation process. Since health workers in the IT department have access to the organization’s data, they are a useful resource in the implementation of the project (Turner, 2016). Nurses and doctors of the health care organization are also key stakeholders who should be involved in implementing the project; without them, there will be no data to collect or analyze in the warehouse.
Implementing the strategy demands an effective and feasible plan. A plan has to be formulated by project managers at 62nd Medical Brigade for the project’s goals and objectives to be realized. One of the ways of planning for implementation is having a strategic plan to guide the project’s implementation. 62nd Medical Brigade should approach a strategy that involves benchmarking and visits to other health organizations in order to identify the way they implement data management projects (Turner, 2016). This strategy will ensure that the organization understands how other health organizations are successful in their implementation of data management projects. What these organizations have that 62nd Medical Brigade lacks. A link between the project managers and their teams should also be created by enabling a channel of communication where the project managers can interact and share information with their teams, find out their opinions and thoughts as well as what they think should be added or removed from the organization’s services or products.
The 62nd Medical Brigade will also need to embrace the use of technology to manage its activities and operations. Since the organization runs operations across the world, it should use technology to monitor staff, their clients, and manage activities beyond their reach. Most of the situations that forces need help are deep inside the battlefield. If there could be a way in which the organization could take their services closer to the members of the forces who may need help in the battlefield, they would have really breached the gap in health needs by forces. One of the technologies that can be utilized is the Self-Management Support (SMS) program, which involves the use of technology to communicate with health professionals and seek help with physical presence by the service provider (Mcgowan, & Hensen, 2016). In this case, 62nd Medical Brigade can use the program to communicate with officers while at war, providing them with health information they can use to save their lives as well as their comrades in case of injuries or any other health needs.
References
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Russel, J., & Cohn, R. (2013). 62nd medical brigade. Book on Demand.
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