Final Strategic Plan

Running head: STRATEGIC PLANNING

Kaiser Permanente Values and Strategy

Qiana Reynolds

Lisa Diesel

May 1, 2017

Kaiser Permanente Values and Strategy

The four major components of the strategic management process are environment scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and strategy evaluation. Since an organization has both internal and external environments, a scan of both internal and external environments is carried out. The importance of this scan is to be able to identify and forecast factors that are likely to influence the ope ration of the business before they take place. An environmental scan helps a business to be able to have an understanding of the trends, patterns and the events that are taking place. Also they are likely to occur in future as appertaining to internal and external environment. The environmental scanning process begins with a scan of the internal environment which is then followed by the external environment scan (Abell, 1980).

In strategy formulation, the organization chooses the most approp riate method through which to accomplish its goals, and hence its vision. The process involves setting the business objectives; evaluating the environment in which the company operates; setting quantitative targets to the predetermined objectives; customi zing strategic planning to each business unit; carrying out performance analysis by analyzing its past performance; present performance and future performance and finally choosing the strategy. Strategy implementation refers to the actualization of the selected strategy, in which the organization puts into action the strategy selected in the previous step. This step involves, coming up with an organization that has the ability of executing the strategy with high success rate. Next, allocating adequate resources to the activities that have been identified as key to the success of the strategy; then developing policies and rules that support the functionality of the strategy; which are then practices in order to support the actualization of the strategy, coming up with a way of linking accomplishment of objectives with a reward system to motivate success of the strategy and utilizing strategic leadership.

In the final stage of strategy evaluation, the business analyzes the effectiveness and efficiency of the strategy used. This step involves fixing of benchmarks, measuring the business performance under the new strategy, analyzing the variation noticed between when the business was using the previous strategy and when the business is singing the new strategy and taking the necessary corrective measures. In this step, any irregularities noted with the new strategy are pointed out, and this helps in proposing an appropriate change. This step is as important as all the other three in ensuring the business adopt the most appropriate strategy.

The four components interact to provide synergy and complement each other. For example, there would be no way that a strategy would be successfully formulated without first considering the specific environment of the company to come up with the most applicable strategy that would work in that place. Similarly, there would be no way that a company can implement a strategy that it has not formulated based on the scan of its environment. And in like manner, a business can not be able to evaluate the success or failure of a strategy without first testing it, and it can only get true results when the strategy formulated and implemented is tailored to meet on the needs of the business based on its location (Mintzberg, 2000).

KP has a mission statement that reads that " Kaiser Permanente exists to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve ." Its vision statement is "We are trusted partners in total health, collaborating with people to help them thrive and creating communities that are among the healthiest in the nation ." However, there is no information on the company’s motivation and innovation strategy, although it has a people strategy. In its people strategy, KP aims at getting to a situation where all people can say, “I am at my best. I am valued and supported; I make a difference, I am part of a great cause, and I am KP."

Its mission and vision statement are important tools in creating awareness to the employees and the customers regarding the path that the company is trending and where it wants to be. The people strategy is also very important in helping the company device a method of convincing more people that joining KP is the right thing to do. However, lack of an innovation strategy and a motivation strategy is a major undoing of the company. A motivation strategy would outline the different methods that the company will use to help its employees and members have more reason to belong to KP. Without a motivation strategy, it would be very easy for an employee or member to take for granted the existence and future of the company. In like manner, an innovation strategy would be important as it would help the company figure out the manner in which it should incorporate latest technology and principles to be most effective and productive. Therefore, without an innovation strategy, employees may not be thrilled to embrace modern methods of executing their duties, a factor that my affect their m otivation and regard towards their work and in any case, lack of innovative progress may result into loss of members as KP would basically become obsolete and irrelevant (Garridom, 2004).

Ethics ensure that a company achieves its objectives in a manner that gives it direction and framework. Ethical consideration ensures that the company is bound together to prevent any deviation from the mission and vision of the organization. Incorporation of ethics into strategic planning could create a good image for the company which would help develop it corporate social responsibility portfolio. Ethics direct KP’s strategy by ensuring that policies and strategies are in the best concern for the society, and not selfish decisions to benefit the organization at the expense of the employees or members. KP's vision and mission of growing to be the best and leading in its industry align to my personal objective of growth. Just like the organization, I also intend to grow and develop my skills to be most relevant in my society and stand out from among my peers and competitors. Just like KP, I also intend to lead in my field, to include others in my development plan and to be accessible to all people who require my services. KP’s vision and mission are, therefore, a major motivation to my vision and mission.

References

Abell, D. F. (1980). Defining the business: The starting point of strategic planning (pp. 3-26). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Garrido, T., Raymond, B., Jamieson, L., Liang, L., & Wiesenthal, A. (2004). Making the business case for hospital information systems—a Kaiser Permanente investment decision. Journal of health care finance, 31(2), 16-25.

Mintzberg, H. (2000). The rise and fall of strategic planning. Pearson Education.