External and Internal Environmental Analysis on Medtronic's Essay

External and Internal Environmental Analysis on Medtronic's - Essay Example External Environment The Health Care Environment The most important external environmental factor for Medtronic is government regulation. It is mandatory to comply with their regulations, and the government is involved in setting the quality standards and liability laws. The government in the US has increasingly become involved in health care since the creation of Medicaid and Medicaid in the 60s (Medtronic, 2013). Their implementation started a trend of increased medical spending with Medicare expanding the reimbursement for cardiac defibrillators. This has caused the system to move to a strategy of predict and manage from one of diagnose and treat under initiatives for health care expenditure control. Fortunately for the organization, there seems to have been little accomplishment with chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity increasing, whereas an aging population has ensured that there is a steady demand for their products like defibrillators and vascular tents, which Medtronic and their competitors manufacture (Medtronic, 2 013). Because of the government’s immense power, there is an active attempt to influence it with the American Medical Association having been the most powerful, although this is no longer the case (Medtronic, 2013). The entire health care system has come to be defined by special interests. The government also heavily regulates facility providers with some of Medtronic’s competitors closing down due to decreased profits. Because of this, health care facility organizations have been lobbying for improved reimbursement, as well as reimbursement of new research protocols and technology. Medtronic stands to benefit from both of them. In addition, Medtronic is also affected by accrediting bodies. They may have the ability to add facility management value through facilitation and demonstration of quality improvement (Medtronic, 2013). Managed care organizations and 3rd party payer organizations also have lobbying groups that all seek to lower prices offered by Medtronic. Internal S trengths and Weaknesses The greatest strength that Medtronic has historically possessed is strong leadership. The current CEO has been at the organization for 20 years with the average tenure of board members being ten years (The Associated Press, 2013). Medtronic has used this core of committed leaders to sustain industry leadership as the organization has navigated the ever-changing technological world, coupled to constrained health care budgets. Underlying strength for the company is a futuristic business plan that has been born out of a well-established and strong team of leaders. In addition, the company has accomplished the task through other strengths like disciplined approaches to marketing, as well as R&D. Through maintenance of a keen awareness of trends in healthcare and biotechnology, the company has capitalized on R&D from smaller firms via mergers and acquisitions. The company has also been able to establish a recognized brand name, which is essential since health prov iders normally utilize

Research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

Research Paper Example Consumers get enjoyment and pleasure from products and services as Norman moves to think about the objects. Norman’s thinking on objects’ design and his efforts to relate with users’ perception is highly remarkable but he misses the objects in the visual sense. Norman in his book also worked on the emotional designs. Norman’s expression about emotional design on the object is more influencing and motivating. Although he worked on emotional design of objects, but young ideas on the theoretical framework were problematic. For example, Norman focused on the positive and negative impacts, which were produced only at the visceral level and did not involve other two levels. However, in the later section, Norman added other two levels in it. Design of objects presented at three levels overlap with his discussion. Instead of these shortcomings, there is clear evidence on the integration of the emotional facades in the field. 2. THE PHILOSOPHER'S TOOL KIT II (Wittk ower) In most part of the book† iPod and philosophy: iCon of an ePoch† Wittkower (2008) discussed the iPod and Philosophy. People have different views about philosophy. However, the central theme of philosophy is about the people reflection that is gained through their experience. Philosophy enables people to think, invent and reply the questions of others. Popular culture is also shaped through a close association between computer engineering and computer science. A new design is developed based on the users’ needs and demands. Development of new and innovative things does not occur at once but according to demands of people. From Chapter â€Å"Philosophy by iPod: wisdom to the people† the importance of the iPod for the runners in current times and future is revealed. IPod contains music that is a source of entertainment for people of the present generation. With the changing requirements of users, the iPod will serve the consumers in the future in order t o access the information on philosophies and interviews of philosophers. IPod is too known as the â€Å"next generation book† because future demands of consumers are to keep the large number of books in their pockets. In the future, communication problems will be solved through enhancement in iPod. The conversion of iPod into iPhone is a major perceived development. Digital media players are also embedded in the iPod. IPod is a source of learning, communication and fun games for the users. Appearance of everything needs the new features of design, shape and color, as makers also desire to think about all these features. The beetle of Volkswagens and iMac are other examples for the toolkits for the future. 3. UNDERSTANDING MEDIA (Evans) Evans says: "Even when you aren't listening, people are talking about you." (p.54) You must participate in the dialogues. In the above statement Evans (2010) signals towards the online marketing that has become a phenomenon for enterprises for last many years. Author also emphasized on the presence of enterprises’ representatives for discussion in forums like social websites i.e. blogs, and companies’ websites. Social media is significant for the enterprises to attract their customers and audience through online forums. Now enterprises can convey the message to their consumers about their products regardless of their physical locations. Now customers give feedback and rate their interested companies through the social media. Need for financing the social media for