Strategic analysis of the case, fisher and paykel healthcare - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF THE CASE, FISHER AND PAYKEL HEALTHCARE Strategic analysis of the case, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare ] [Institute Name:] Strategic analysis of the case, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare Executive Summary This paper is a strategic analysis of the case of Fisher and Paykel Healthcare. The paper begins with an introduction of the company, its products and the industry in which it operates. As the paper proceeds it unfolds the external environment analysis which examines political/legal, economic, socio-cultural, global and technological factors. The most promising findings of this scrutiny were that aging and obesity has fuelled demand for healthcare products in major economies of the world which has created growth prospects for FPH. The industry environment analysis unfolds that the industry is in the phase of growth and offers great market potential across global markets. But all the market attractiveness is accompanied with high cost of research and development, patents and licensing, and huge marketing and distribution expenses which creates implicit barriers for new entrants. The demand for healthcare has inflated in the past 2 decades with the growing awareness of health issues in US and other global markets, which will serve as a driver of investment in research and development and medical devices production. The internal and external analysis of the company reveals the FPH strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This analysis bears implications for FPH, consequently it leads to a proposal of growth, price leadership and innovation led differentiation strategies which leverage the FPH core competencies and capabilities, for future market expansion and penetration for all its product categories. Introduction of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare The company was established in 1934 by Mr. Paykel in New Zealand. It started as an imported of electronics from USA. Later in 1977 a separate division was established to support the humidification business at F&P and finally by 2001 the company split up into two separate identities for electronics and healthcare business named as: Fisher & Paykel Appliances, FPA, and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, FPH. FPH business deals in humidification systems, OSA products and technologies, and neo-natal care. The FPH is attributed to innovative developments in healthcare products. The company’s business intent revolves around patient value and comfort. FPH is looking forward to penetrate the market through a whole array of new products; non invasive ventilation, oxygen therapy, laparoscopic surgery, and humidity therapy. External Analysis: Industry The healthcare industry is characterised with two major segments one which deals with outpatient care through provision of healthcare equipment, it deals with the ultimate consumers/patients; and the other segments deals with technological innovations in those healthcare equipments. The FPH business and operations lie in the later segment; for innovation and development of healthcare technology. The industry is in the phase of growth and offers great market potential across global markets. But all the market attractiveness is accompanied with high cost of research and development, patents and licensing, and huge marketing and distribution expenses which creates implicit barriers for new entrants. The demand for healthcare has inflated in the past 2 decades with the growing awareness of health issues in US and other global markets, which will serve as a driver of investment in research and development and medical devices production. Macro Environment Analysis The macro environment analysis is the examination of FPH’s external factors that might influence and manipulate the effectiveness and efficacy capabilities of business operations (Balogun, 2001). These factors are external forces that lie beyond the scope of an organisation’s control, which are illustrated below: 1. Economic Factors: The economic conditions vary across the globe. These are influenced by the business activity and also affected by the political system’s stability of countries. A wide range of opportunities evolve with the emergence of new gigantic economies of China, Brazil and India. These geographic segments have great market potential for FPH. However, the global economic downturn and liquidity crisis in Europe and US bears trickle down effects in the rest of the economic system of the world. 2. Socio-cultural Factors: There is a wide generation gap emerging in American, European, Chinese and Japanese societies. This is because these nations are heading towards aging of population. The aged segment of population is 65-over segment of American population is estimated to represent 25% of the total population i.e. 800 million increase from 390 million by 2025. While the same segment in China and Japan would reach 200 million and 25 million in number by 2025. Aging and obesity has made the people to become more health oriented, due to which the demand for healthcare products and scope of research has been escalated especially in developed economies. Consequently a large portion of population in these nations would become dependent on government supported income and health programs. This would affect the affordability of healthcare products amongst the aged retired segment for domestic home care. 3. Global Demand for healthcare products has increased across borders. Statistical data shows that about 20% of the healthcare products market stems from US alone, while France, Germany, and Australia, Asia, Japan and UK offers great potential along with government’s reimbursement support. However, the legal, social, economical and political trends differ across countries which have implications for FPH business and operations. 4. Technological Continuous innovations in technology and research are expanding growth avenues for medical device manufacturing businesses. But on the other hand, the government spending has relatively abridged for research and development, possibly because of economic slump in US and Europe. This can potentially limit the growth prospects of high-tech medical equipment manufacturers by increasing the huge costs of R&D and innovation. 5. Political/Legal The political environment in USA is relatively unstable. The government is expected to change which would impact the overall economic and legal orientation of the country. Outside the US, the political situation is relatively neutral or stable in the rest of the developed countries of Germany, Europe, France, China, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The legal environment is very strict especially in USA for healthcare products’ manufacturers. The industry in the rest of the developed economies is also attributed to extensive legal limitations. However, for FPH patents have secured the new product development and secured possibilities for innovation to many healthcare equipment manufacturers. 6. Environmental Factors: Consumers and communities are becoming environmental focused. Consequently, consumer and environment protection laws have been developed which strictly compels the industry to abide their operations to environmental standards. The Industry Environment 1. Supplier Power: The demand for healthcare products has increased. The power of material suppliers is no or moderate. 2. Buyer Power: The demand for healthcare products has increased. The industry patents and licensing often serves as a means to manoeuvre the power of buyers and dealers in highly structured industry setting, and FPH got the patents for its operations and products. 3. Substitute Products: FPH embarks on developing innovative healthcare products that could deliver patient comfort and affordable pricing. However, Threat for replacement products exist for FPH because of presence of rivals. 4. Potential Entrants and Entry Barriers: The healthcare innovative products’ industry demands huge capital investments for growth and survival, which limits the scope for new entrants. But on the other hand, the industry offers great market potential which might allure and attract the new comers. 5. Rivalry amongst Competitors: Competition exists over technology and pricing between major US based competitors of the industry namely; Respironics and ResMed. FPH’s operation and functioning in a industry that is preoccupied by huge industry rivals is both a blessing and a disguise; blessing in case it learns from their mistakes and disguise in case they could give it a tough time. Competitive Environment Respironics, ResMed and FPH are the top existing competitors in the medical healthcare products’ manufacturing industry. FPH secures 3rd position in the current market share of about 8% for healthcare products. The top ranking rivals are Respironics and ResMed, which secures 40-40% share of the market respectively. All the three rivals compete over price and technology. The Respironics and ResMed are bigger players of the industry with huge capital and market share. The market penetration of Respironics is the broadest and the deepest relative to that of ResMed and FPH. Respironics specialises in Sleep therapy products whilst the ResMed’s specialty is SDB and respiratory disorder diagnosis and treatment. Both the industry leaders are investing in huge sum of dollars for creating awareness about SDB, OSA and other respiratory problems amongst physicians, consumers and patients, and other medical industry players. Opportunities and Threats Opportunities 1. Growth of healthcare industry research, production and servicing altogether across the globe 2. Awareness of OSA and other healthcare concerns 3. Changing demographic trends 4. Escalating demand for healthcare products 5. Government reimbursements and insurance programs to support domestic home care 6. Limited scope for new entrants to compete in a technology and innovation intensive industry Threats 1. Existence of big players in the industry 2. Small market share as compared to the huge share of rivals 3. Industry offers great market potential which might encourage new entrants 4. Competition is focused around technology and pricing 5. Competitors’ involvement in awareness campaigns and efforts enhances their goodwill repo and their funding into medical universities and research labs also extend their research and development capability in medicine industry. Internal Analysis: Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Resources Organisational Resources: The Company, FPH, has sound financial pool of resources. Its asset to liability ratio is 4.2 which is the highest of all amongst competitors; Respironics-4 and ResMed-3.7 respectively. The company posses patent rights which serves as organisational resource. The technology used by the company is high-tech and ultra modern. The physical resources comprise of a state of the art facility for operations. FPH has an open environment culture. Human Resources: FPH human resource comprise of 1200 personnel. HRM practice focuses on recruiting new talent. The company has maintained an open culture and environment to support knowledge sharing and mutual learning. Operations are teams oriented to induce trust, manageability, motivation, communication and innovation. FPH follows no structured organisational routines. Technological and Innovation-led Resources: FPH competes for technology. It rigorously focuses on expanding the R&D capacity and capability. It deploys around 17% of its human capital in R&D. FPH entered OSA market as innovator of heated humidification systems. It has spent 60 million New Zealand dollars and expanded its R&D facility to support operations for growing OSA business. Capabilities Identification The strategic analysis of FPH has identified two organisational capabilities. First is the human resource capability which is valuable and rare with respect to the other organisational practices in the industry, but these can be imitated and are substitutable. It creates temporary competitive edge and creates average and above average returns for FPH. Another is the structural capability of FPH, which stems from informal design, learning culture and teams oriented operations. It is both valuable and rare but can be substituted and imitated. It also creates temporary edge against competition and creates above/average returns. Core Competency Analysis FPH has established core competencies in research and development, technological capabilities, innovation capability and capacity, and consumer/patient oriented approach. All of these capabilities are valuable, rare, costly to imitate and non-substitutable. Hence, these can be used for the creation of the competitive advantage (Barney, 2007). R&D capability leads to cost effective R&D operations, market penetration and expansion, and support manufacturing of affordable products to the market. The technological capability leads to continuous production of diverse quality products, avenues to win customer loyalty and expand market share. Innovation capability gives competitive edge in creating brand image and could lead to market leadership for innovation led products. Patient focused approach also gives competitive edge in developing consumer value and comfort oriented products which augment sales and increase returns. Hence on the basis of the resource based theory of competitive advantage the core competencies of FPH can be used for the creation of competitive advantage (Grant, 1991). Strengths 1. Sound financial position 2. Core competencies developed in technology, R&D and innovation 3. Learning informal organisational culture 4. Good market response for humidification systems and OSA products 5. Customer/patient oriented philosophy of FPH enables teams to work close with consumers and target the areas for innovation Value Chain Analysis The value chain of FPH stems from its operations. Research and development, manufacturing and distribution are the company’s primary activities of business. The FPH is headquartered in Auckland, the R&D facility is located in New Zealand, the manufacturing plant is in New Zealand, and the company maintains direct distribution channels in 90 major countries. The FPH also maintains third party supply of its products using 90 distinct distributors in geographic segments of: China, Japan, India, Sweden, Dubai, Brazil and New Zealand. Finally the FPH also sells its products to manufacturers for further commercial use. FPH is known for its innovative products and humidification systems. The products are designed and marketed around the patients’ value and comfort requirements. The positive response and support of the consumers has promoted FPH to launch a whole range of products of oxygen therapy, non invasive ventilation, laparoscopic surgery, and humidity therapy. Weaknesses 1. Small market share of just 8% of the entire market 2. The market share of competitors is far higher than FPH’s share, i.e. 40-40% of Respironics and ResMed each. 3. Predominant fresh talent and limited experienced staff 4. Lack of community servicing efforts which indicates a bit of selfishness SWOT Analysis The FPH is characterised with a sound financial and technology oriented organisation, whose primary driver for operations is patient comfort and value. FPH’s organisational culture is strategically maintained open for staff to promote learning, communication, innovation and knowledge sharing. The company acquires patents for its extension of R&D and operations in OSA business, this serves as an edge for research and innovation in OSA category against rivals. The company’s HRM policy is to hire Fresh talent from the labour market which at one hand gives edge to PFH in maintaining R&D cost low whilst on the other hand put the FPH at the risk of accumulating fresh talent at the cost of forgiving experience. The operations of FPH comprise of research, new product development, marketing and distribution of products. The company uses direct distribution in most of the geographic market segments it serves, which is a cost intensive process. The company also uses third party distribution in Asian pacific markets and few others. The company’s product reputation heavily relies upon the extent it differentiates the products from that of competitors’ offers because of the prior predominant presence and market penetration of industry leaders. However, the FPH strategically maintains a track of new product or drug development in the market by attending scientific meetings. It also conducts routinely survey of the consumer market by physically attending the hospitals and health care units to determine where improvements are required in the technology and detect areas of innovation. The company also faces threat if it could not manage to expand its market share in future, this is mandatory for FPH because the high cost of innovation can only be compensated either by high margin earnings from a niche market or by low margin earning from a big hunk of market. Unlike the rivals, the company FPH currently is product innovation focused only and is not providing any services to the consumers and to the community. Current Strategies The FPH employed niche market strategy as an entrant into the high-tech healthcare industry. It has also implemented differentiation strategy for developing and promoting better products in the existing products categories as prevailed by the competitors. But now since FPH has acquired a small chunk of market and it has received the consumer acceptance and applause for its existing products, the company is now heading towards market penetration and expansion approach i.e. the future growth strategy. Recommended Future Strategies FPH has adopted growth strategy for the next ten years to support expansion and penetration of FPH market in humidification, OSA and natal care business. The company has launched of a whole range of products of oxygen therapy, non invasive ventilation, laparoscopic surgery, and humidity therapy. The growth strategy and market expansion plan is achievable because the company has competencies in R&D, technology and innovation. However the FPH must has to focus on identifying to the buyers, dealers and the end-consumers, that how these products are beneficial to the consumers, what value requirements it meets and how these are innovatively different from the competitors’ products. The strategy to be focused here is differentiation to take edge against the rivalry. In addition of growth strategy, FPH must also adopt price-leadership strategy along with innovation strategy that stems from differentiation concept (Johnson and Scholes, 1998). These 3 futuristic strategies are proposed due to the following reason: 1. Growth is required and mandatory for FPH for achieving economies of scale in the operations. 2. Price leadership is possible with low cost R&D and production competency of New Zealand, where technology and patents creates edge against competition and maintains the operating cost low. 3. The innovation and patient focused approach would enable the FPH to create breakthrough differentiated products that ease usage and deliver value to consumers. List of References Balogun, J. (2001). ‘Strategic Change.’ Management Quarterly, part 10. Available from http://www.tomorrowsleaders.com/A5569D/icaew/content.nsf/DocumentLookup/ICAEWSTR0109/$file/MQ10+Strategy.pdf [Accessed 01 August 2012] Barney, J. (2007). Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall Grant, R. (1991). ‘The resource based theory of competitive advantage.’ California Management Review, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 114-135. Available from http://www.skynet.ie/~karen/Articles/Grant1_NB.pdf [Accessed 01 August 2012] Johnson, G., and Scholes, K. (1998). Exploring Corporate Strategy. Cambridge: Pearson Education Appendix Strategic Analysis Worksheet Macro-environment Opportunities Threats Political Unstable in US, Relatively Neutral or stable in the rest of the countries. No direct political threats in Europe, Germany, France, China, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. Change of Government is expected in US. Economic Emerging economies of China, Brazil and India have great market potential for FPH. Global economic downturn in Europe and US, which bears trickle down effects in the rest of the economies. Socio-cultural Aging and obesity has made the people to become more health oriented, due to which the demand for healthcare products and scope of research has been escalated especially in developed economies. The aged retired segment would become dependent over government for income and health programs. This might affects the affordability of high-tech healthcare products by the segment and also adds to government expenses. Technological Continuous Innovations in technology and research are expanding growth avenues for medical device manufacturing businesses. Curbing federal budgets for research and development can possibly limit the growth of high-tech medical equipment manufacturers. Legal Patents have secured the new product development and secured possibilities for innovation to many healthcare equipment manufacturers. Healthcare industry is highly structured in USA and other developed economies. Industry is faced with extensive legal limitations. Environmental Consumers and communities are becoming environmental focused. Consumer and environment protection laws have been developed which strictly compels the industry to abide their operations to environmental standards. Global Demand for healthcare products has increased across borders. 20% of the healthcare market stems from US alone, while France, Germany, and Australia, Asia, Japan and UK offers great potential and government support. Legal, social, economical and political trends differ across countries which have implications for FPH. Macro-environment summary Globalisation has eased manageability of operations for businesses. Ageing, generation gap and obesity are some socio-cultural factors that have fuelled the market demand and potential for healthcare products in a diverse range of global markets of US, Europe, China and Japan. But the economic slump in major markets of US and Europe has restricted government spending for research and development and also for reimbursing domestic home care products. Medical device industry is characterised with intricate legal structure especially in US and other developed countries which limit a firm’s ability to launch a product in the market. But patents, licensing and insurance programs are expected to support the innovative production and market penetration for FPH as it got the patents for its products. So the company needs to consider all these macro factors before developing any strategy to pursue the global markets. Industry Environment Opportunities Threats Power of suppliers Demand for healthcare products has increased. Power of material suppliers is no or moderate. No direct threats. Power of buyers Demand for healthcare products has increased. Industry Patents often serves as a means to manoeuvre the power of buyers and dealers in highly structured industry setting. The third party players and dealers, in US, have the power to reject products if they do not comply with the industry standards. Rivalry amongst existing competitors Competition exists over technology and pricing. Existence of big players like Respironics and ResMed. Threat of substitutes FPH embarks on innovative products that could deliver patient comfort and affordable pricing. Threat for replacement products exist for FPH Threat of new entrants The industry demands huge capital investments for growth and survival, which limits the scope for new entrants. The industry offers great market potential which might attract new comers. Overall industry attractiveness The industry is in the phase of growth and offers great market potential across global markets. But all the market attractiveness is accompanied with high cost of research and development, patents and licensing, and huge marketing and distribution expenses which creates implicit barriers for new entrants. The demand for healthcare has inflated in the past 2 decades with the growing awareness of health issues in US and other global markets, which will serve as a driver of investment in research and development and medical devices production. Competitor analysis from above Respironics, ResMed and FPH are the top existing competitors in the medical healthcare products’ manufacturing industry. FPH secures 3rd position in the current market share of about 8% for healthcare products. The top ranking rivals are Respironics and ResMed, which secures 40-40% share of the market respectively. All the three rivals compete over price and technology. The Respironics and ResMed are bigger players of the industry with huge capital and market share. The market penetration of Respironics is the broadest and the deepest relative to that of ResMed and FPH. Respironics specialises in Sleep therapy products whilst the ResMed’s speciality is SDB and respiratory disorder diagnosis and treatment. Both the industry leaders are investing in huge sum of dollars for creating awareness about SDB, OSA and other respiratory problems amongst physicians, consumers and patients, and other medical industry players. Internal Environment and Tangible and intangible resources Strengths Weaknesses Firm Infrastructure Financial resources Organisational resources Physical resources The company has sound financial pool of resources. Its asset to liability ratio is 4.2 which is the highest of all amongst competitors. The company posses patent rights which serves as organisational resource. The technology used by the company is high-tech and ultra modern. The physical resources comprise of a state of the art facility for operations. FPH has an open environment culture. Highly informal organisational system and culture in a highly structured industry. HRM Training and development Knowledge management Trust Managerial capabilities Organisational routines Staff retention FPH human resource comprise of 1200 personnel. HRM practice focuses on recruiting new talent. Open environment to support knowledge sharing and mutual learning. Operations are teams oriented to induce trust, manageability, motivation, communication and innovation. No structured organisational routines. Fresh graduates’ hiring practice might limit organisational focus to fresh talent and creates experience vacuum and vision deficiency amongst the human capital. Technological development Technological resources Innovation Scientific capabilities Capacity to innovate FPH competes for technology. It rigorously focuses on expanding the R&D capacity and capability. It deploys around 17% of its human capital in R&D. FPH entered OSA market as innovator of heated humidification systems. It has expanded its R&D facility to support operations for growing OSA business. The market share of the company is only 8% which could limit the FPH ability to balance earnings and investments required for technological innovation and developments. Procurement No direct opportunity No direct threat Inbound logistics No direct opportunity No direct threat Operations R&D in New Zealand, manufacturing in US and New Zealand, and direct distribution in 90 major countries. Product focused operations. Direct distribution incurs huge costs. Outbound logistics 90 Distributors in China, Japan, India, Sweden, Dubai, Brazil and New Zealand. And a couple of manufacturers. Marketing and sales Reputation with customers Brand name Perceptions of product quality, durability and reliability Reputation with suppliers FPH is known for its innovative products and humidification systems. The products are designed around patient value and comfort requirements. The positive response and support of the consumers has promoted FPH to launch a whole range of products of oxygen therapy, non invasive ventilation, laparoscopic surgery, and humidity therapy. Most of the market is already been captured by the leading rivals. FPH has to differentiate its products through innovation or pricing or some other way to create customer switch behaviour. Service Provision of services to the community or consumers could create corporate goodwill and citizenship. Product focused operations. No services are provided to the community as initiatives taken to promote awareness by competitors. Internal analysis summary The FPH is characterised with a sound financial and technology oriented organisation, whose primary driver for operations is patient comfort and value. FPH’s organisational culture is strategically maintained open for staff to promote learning, communication, innovation and knowledge sharing. The company acquires patents for its extension of R&D and operations in OSA business, this serves as an edge for research and innovation in OSA category against rivals. The company’s HRM policy is to hire Fresh talent from the labour market which at one hand gives edge to PFH in maintaining R&D cost low whilst on the other hand put the FPH at the risk of accumulating fresh talent at the cost of forgiving experience. The operations of FPH comprise of research, new product development, marketing and distribution of products. The company uses direct distribution in most of the geographic market segments it serves, which is a cost intensive process. The company also uses third party distribution in Asian pacific markets and few others. The company’s product reputation heavily relies upon the extent it differentiates the products from that of competitors’ offers because of the prior presence and market penetration of industry leaders. The company also faces threat if it could not manage to expand its market share in future, this is mandatory for FPH because the high cost of innovation can only be compensated either by high margin earnings from a niche market or by low margin earning from a big hunk of market. Unlike the rivals, the company FPH currently is product innovation focused only and is not providing any services to the consumers and to the community. Core Competency Analysis Capabilities Valuable (Y/N) Rare (Y/N) Costly to Imitate (Y/N) Non-substitutable (Y/N) Competitive consequence Performance implications Research and development Yes Yes Yes Yes Cost effective R&D operations and affordable products Market penetration and expansion Technology (patented) Yes Yes Yes Yes Diverse innovative products Quality products, customers’ loyalty and big market share Human resource capability Yes Yes No No/yes Temporary competitive advantage Above/average returns Innovation capability and capacity Yes Yes Yes Yes Competitive edge, brand image and market leadership High margin returns Structural capability (informal design, learning and teams work) Yes Yes No Yes/no Temporary competitive edge Above/average returns Consumer/patient oriented approach Yes Yes Yes Yes Competitive edge Above average returns Strategic Analysis Summary Strengths 6. Sound financial position 7. Core competencies developed in technology, R&D and innovation 8. Learning informal organisational culture 9. Good market response for humidification systems and OSA products 10. Customer/patient oriented philosophy of FPH enables teams to work close with consumers and target the areas for innovation Opportunities 7. Growth of healthcare industry research, production and servicing altogether across the globe 8. Awareness of OSA and other healthcare concerns 9. Changing demographic trends 10. Escalating demand for healthcare products 11. Government reimbursements and insurance programs to support domestic home care 12. Limited scope for new entrants to compete in a technology and innovation intensive industry Weaknesses 5. Small market share 6. Predominant fresh talent and limited experienced staff 7. Lack of community servicing efforts which indicates a bit of selfishness Threats 6. Existence of big players in the industry 7. Small market share as compared to the huge share of rivals 8. Industry offers great market potential which might encourage new entrants 9. Competition is focused around technology and pricing 10. Competitors’ involvement in awareness campaigns and efforts enhances their goodwill repo and their funding into medical universities and research labs also extend their research and development capability in medicine industry. Current vision Growth and penetration of FPH market in humidification, OSA and natal care business, for the next ten years. Current Mission – Strategic intent Expansion and diffusion of FPH market in humidification, OSA and natal care business. And market penetration for a whole range of products of oxygen therapy, non invasive ventilation, laparoscopic surgery, and humidity therapy. Is it achievable bases in SWOT (if not why not and what strategies need to be implemented to achieve it) Yes it is achievable because the company has competencies in R&D, technology and innovation. However the FPH must has to focus on identifying to the buyers, dealers and the end-consumers, that how these products are beneficial to the consumers, what value requirements it meets and how these are innovatively different from the competitors’ products. The strategy to be focused here is differentiation to take edge against the rivalry. Prospective strategies for the future (based on SWOT) Growth strategy, Price-leadership strategy, Innovation strategy (differentiation) 1. Growth is required and mandatory for FPH for achieving economies of scale in the operations. 2. Price leadership is possible with low cost R&D and production competency of New Zealand, where technology and patents creates edge against competition and maintains the operating cost low. 3. The innovation and patient focused approach would enable the FPH to create breakthrough differentiated products that ease usage and deliver value to consumers. Read More