CVS Company belongs to the food and drugs industry. To achieve the corporate objective, the company has its interest to reinventing pharmacy business so that it helps millions of people for better health. The company is motivated to make every individual have a unique health experience. The mission statement of the corporation best express the company interest.
Mission Statement
As of 2015, the mission of the company is “To improve the lives of the people we serve by making innovative and pharmacy services of high quality, safe, affordable and easily accessible way.”
CVS Health Key Objectives
SWOT Analysis
This management tool is very useful in analyzing the strategic situation of the firm. An effective strategy for any firm is best described by how best the firm fits the available resources and the external situation facing the company. For the company to fit well in the market through strategic management concept, it needs to use the opportunities that come its way and emphasize more on its strengths. CVS Health has demonstrated performance using this management tool. Internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) together with external factors the firm compose the tool.
Strengths. These are favorable internal factors for the company. CVS has several strengths including the following. The company has an adamant market position. It is serving a very broad market across the whole of America. In this market, the company has established itself very well that many customers prefer their products. Through this strength, the company has created much customer loyalty. The other strength for CVS is the wide retail network. There are many retail stores, pharmacies through which is it distributes its products. The corporation also has a strong inventory management system that checks movement of goods.
Weaknesses. These are the unfavorable internal factors to the company. For CVS Health Company, the main weakness that the company has is the low receivables on the turnover of the enterprise (Ostrom et al., 2015). The company needs payment for the purchases through cash instead of allowing payment to be made through banks and other electronic payments. The company, in this case, is at greater risk of loss in the event of an emergency.
Opportunities. These are favorable external factors affecting the firm. The company is offering most of its product to the target market of the old population in the USA. The aging population across America is an opportunity to provide health services and medications. There is considerable growth in the generic drug market. The company needs to invest in this market and scoop an increased market share. Going online in business is also another opportunity so that it reaches more customers.
Threats. There is increased online business counterfeiting thus fraud to loyal customers may happen. There are increased drug imports from Canada, which has created a stiff competition for the company products.
CVS Health Core Competences
The company has been fairing well in the industry. In America, it is reported to be the best drugs company with most of its pharmacies spread throughout all states. The core competencies for the corporation are classified as innovation, quality, efficiency and customer responsiveness. The management is working on material management so that it reduces the cost of production. This has increased the company revenues (Navarro, 2014). The company has also developed a reward program that has helps improve its responsiveness to customers. The company is innovative as observed in the labeling brands privately. It has also collaborated with many companies so that it reduces the competition in the industry. Accepting to introduce its outlets at Target Company is increasing business efficiency so that it reaches many customers.
CVS Health Basic Business Strategies
The core strategy that CVS is working reinventing the pharmacy business. To achieve this, the company has increased its interactions with customers by coming up with new methods to interact with their clients. Customer satisfaction is paramount in offering healthier care. The minute clinic is the innovative nature that has enabled the company to improve customer service. The business is working to improve retail clinic services. The customer is the main issue at CVS. The company has burned tobacco at its stores and introduced cigarette sensations that are helping reduce the risk of smoking.
The business strategies have helped the company gain competitive advantage. It sells its products at reduced costs so that all customers can afford them. This has attracted many customers to their stores because of convenience and customer service they are receiving. The company through branding, labeling, and packaging uses the aspect of product differentiation (Garver and Gagnon, 2015). More focus is given to clients.
Specific Strategies to meet CVS Objectives
Being Innovative helps the company to offer a brand that customers can easily identify among the many in the market
Customer responsiveness has the company to improve customer loyalty. The product the customer service provided at CVS is indeed geared towards creating an enabling environment for employees. The company has created programs that bring customers and staff. These including rewards regarding gifts, discounts, and presents.
Organization chart
Role of IT at CVS Corporation
Control systems to be employed
Customer Relationship Management (CRM). This tool will help keep a record of individual customers so that the company can note their medication progress. The other system to be employed is computerized physician order entry. This system is aimed at monitoring prescription given to customers.
CVS Crisis Management
The crisis that the company is faced with can be classified into health and safety, natural and physical emergencies. For health and safety crisis, the company has strategized to offer treatment to its employees through the health plan program. The one-minute clinic has allowed even the customers to enjoy the company services at reduced costs and high-quality products (Shrank et al., 2016). There are first aid kits in all the stores that help employees in the event they are injured. It also offers first aid kit to organizations that are dealing with many peoples in the corporate social responsibility program. For natural crisis like fire, the company has trained its employees on how to escape the fire and how to fight it. There is a collaboration with firefighters who have installed firefighting gadgets within the enterprise premises.
Lessons Learnt
The exercise has helped bring an understanding of what strategic planning involves. The company has clearly demonstrated that strategy requires to set what to achieve and within what period? The pharmaceutical industry faces competition from any other industry. It is how well a company places itself in the market that it can offer reliable services overcomes the competition. Use of IT is useful in all business, and the same roles that IT does to various organizations are available to Drugs industry.
References
Garver, M. S., & Gagnon, G. B. (2015). Seven keys to improving customer satisfaction programs. Business Horizons, 45(5), 35-42.
Navarro, R. (2014). Managed care pharmacy practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Ostrom, A. L., Bitner, M. J., Brown, S. W., Burkhard, K. A., Goul, M., Smith-Daniels, V., & Rabinovich, E. (2015). Moving forward and making a difference: research priorities for the science of service. Journal of Service Research.
Shrank, W. H., Liberman, J. N., Fischer, M. A., Girdish, C., Brennan, T. A., & Choudhry, N. K. (January 2016). Physician perceptions about generic drugs. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 45(1), 31-38.
