For the exclusive use of X. LIU
KEL170
MARK JEFFERY AND JOSEPH F. NORTON
MDCM, Inc. (A):
IT Strategy Synchronization
Introduction
MDCM, Inc., one of the world’s largest contract manufacturers for medical devices, had just announced its fifth consecutive quarterly loss. The firm posted revenues of $1.12 billion with net losses of $33 million for the second quarter of 2002. For Max McMullen, this was yet another agonizing episode since he took over as CEO two years earlier. Despite major company reorganizations, his promises to the shareholders for operational and cost improvements had not been realized. Given the company’s lackluster record, the next twelve months were critical in proving that these promises could indeed be
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If we don’t do our due diligence we will never get this right. This is not the time to just blindly cut IT spending. I need us to work together as a team for the benefit of MDCM. We clearly need to align our IT initiatives with our corporate strategy. I need your help to understand the primary strategic business goals and how IT should support these goals. I think we should do a daylong session and really hammer out the details.”
MDCM, Inc.
Medical device contract manufacturing is our business. That’s why we named the firm MDCM. —MDCM, Inc. chairman and CEO Max McMullen, 2001 Annual Report
For more than thirty years, MDCM, Inc. had specialized in medical device contract manufacturing and assembly, clean room medical injection molding, and the design and fabrication of specialty assembly equipment for medical device manufacturers. Although the firm’s corporate domicile was in the United States, it had nineteen foreign subsidiaries with locations in thirty-five cities. Its U.S. arm, MDCM Corp., was the oldest and largest subsidiary and was an FDA-registered firm. It had facilities in eight states, including New Jersey, Ohio, Colorado, and California. Founded in 1972, the company had a staff with decades of experience in the design and manufacture of medical products. The company’s focus was to provide an end-to-end package of medical device contract manufacturing services. As a pure contractor in the business, it did neither research and
The purpose of this article is to illuminate the need for any organization to have its IT strategy and business strategy properly aligned. While many organizations view IT and business alignment as an event – it is actually an on-going process, or continuous journey. Therefore, the main problem is that many organizations of today still hold these two principles (business mission & IT strategy) as two separate entities. However, in the Information Age – collaboration is key to capturing and retaining market penetration. To not have alignment with the IT and business strategy together is not a matter of want it is a matter of survival. This report will expand upon the need for business and IT strategic alignment as well as examine what happens in lack of a comprehensive plan. This will be done by examining the Vermont Teddy Bear company prior to and after the arrival of Bob Stetzel, the Vice President of Information Technology. This document will view it findings and make recommendations on the immediate and future operations of the company.
Ecton is going to position the company to be acquired but the board of directors and clinical advisors has some concerns about the ramifications of that plan. This paper evaluates Cannon’s Phase III Plan on March 1998. Cannon proposed a path for the next year containing five major points (Edward, 1999, 8 and 9). The bottom line of this proposal is positioning Ecton to be acquired by the end of the 1998. One of the crucial concerns of this acquisition is the possible effects on “Ecton’s product development process”. Another concern Cannon holds is the ability of Ecton to penetrate a very harsh market fills with big, established, and advanced manufacturers. Also, Cannon is not sure on how to approach specific market
recalls related to product quality problems. Observers felt the company would have lost even more
In the “Mini Case Study: IT Planning at ModMeters”, it is clear that the communication skills between the business managers and the IT managers were in need of improvement. IT planning is a method used to form clear objectives for IT organizations that connect directly back to the enterprise’s strategic business goals (“IT planning”, 2014). IT strategic planning assists in directing the business strategy, based on IT capabilities and opportunities and determines IT’s role in delivering the business strategy. There is a clear lack of communication and individual opinions on taking ModMeters global. Although CEO John Johnson and other high leveled corporate employees believed the idea was promising and seemed to look good on paper, Brian Smith, CIO of ModMeters had different thoughts on the expansion. Brian Smith knew that although the new initiatives were theoretically doable; however with such tight resources including people, time, and money, he knew that finding the means to support two new strategic initiatives was nearly impossible (McKeen, J.D., & Smith, H.A., 2012, p. 69). There seemed to be a major lack of communication when planning the new initiatives and the miscalculation of funds to do it successfully.
McKesson, now “the world’s largest health care services company,” has a combined customer base of about 5000 hospitals, 25,000 retail pharmacies, 35,000 physician practices, 10,000 extended care sites, 450 pharmaceutical manufactures, and 2000 medical-surgical manufacturers (Chicago tribune 1998). Mckesson has a 13.2% market share of the Health Information Technology industry and employs roughly 37,000 people. Mckesson’s hospital information system solutions includes their electronic health record system (HER, Total Coordinated Care product suite, InterQual Decision support products,
The purpose of this article is to bring awareness of the possible upcoming changes in health care laws with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). One of the cost saving initiatives proposed the ACA under review in this article is Section 6407 (Osborne, 2014, p.344). Which calls for restrictions on providers that are allowed to order Durable Medical Equipment (DME).
This paper will focus on the health-tech business and takes a look at Philips’ strategic plan, capacity plan, and how it implements these into its portfolio management process. I will be going over the program management plan and how projects are managed as well as identifying any conflicts in cost, schedule, or quality and how to resolve them. Additionally, there will be a change management plan that focuses on managing organizational and cultural changes. I will also create a resource utilization plan to analyze and plan resources.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARYSilicon Valley Medical Technologies (SIVMED) was founded as a research and development firm. In the beginning, SIVMED performed its own basic research, obtained patents on promising technologies, and then either sold or licensed the technologies to other firms which marketed the products. The firm has since then grown and is now contracted to perform research and testing for larger genetic engineering firms, biotechnology firms, the US government, and is now widely recognized as the leader in an emerging growth industry. SIVMED's founders were relatively wealthy individuals when they started company, and they committed a great deal of their own funds to the venture. Their personal funds, however, were soon exhausted by the
In the medical sales industry, most of the competitive advantage comes from the doctor preference. Because of the high cost and amount of time that it takes to learn how to use a different company’s medical equipment, most doctors use one company’s products for life. Stryker has always recognized the existence of brand loyalty and has made it a top priority to develop excellent relationships with its customers. Hospitals that use Stryker’s equipment are more likely to continue to buy from Stryker because of their diverse product offerings. The key factors that differentiate Stryker from its competitors are innovation, reliability, service and reputation. As of December 31, 2010, Stryker owned approximately 1,125 United
The combination of the state-of-the-art products and a rapidly expanding market resulted in AMT’s sales growth in excess of 30% per year. Sales volume, which had grown continuously from the start, was always large in relation to available capital. The situation was worsening by large operating losses.
Overview: Johnson & Johnson (J&J) operates in 265+ companies throughout 60+ countries, with a workforce of 126,500+ employees throughout three business segments (Johnson & Johnson, n.d.). From 2006-15, J&J’s total sales improved from $50.5 to $70.1 billion, and total net earnings climbed from $10.1 to $15.4 billion (Johnson & Johnson 1, n.d.). The medical device* segment amounted to 35.9 percent of 2015 total revenues (Johnson & Johnson 2015, n.d.). This analysis shall review the supply, demand, and market equilibrium, as well as production costs and the market structure, for an artificial hip implant.
Customer * Material mgrs of hospitals * Healthcare professionals * Medical research institutions * Industry – hospitals, medical laboratories, non hospital
In the current situation, the project team faced two direct delays. First, they were “running into some serious engineering problem trying to fit the data displays and battery units into the customer size specs marketing provided” (Donnellon & Margolis, 2009, p. 4). Second, the Indian software design firm which was the outsourcing firm of IntenseCare project would delay their delivery. Both problems seemed would trigger a big delay of the project. However, two well-known pubic competitors “had announced they were moving into MediSys’s key markets with products
CMR Enterprises is confronting an issue with one of its most valuable clients, Blackstone. Blackstone as one of the biggest customers in the area, giving CMR an opportunity for immediate market share and his volume supported its goals to standardize its processes into flexible cells. They approached CMR looking for a new partner to work on a business that represented 25% of CMR’s residential business during the first year of this relationship. Sam Marcus was counting on further growth with his customer to pay his debt and fund expansion efforts. But relationships with Blackstone had become increasingly intense on residential construction.
Frenzel (2004) claimed that to be successful, a firm’s IT management team must take action on the following critical areas: business management issues; strategic and competitive issues; planning and implementation concerns; and operational items. If for any reason, the organisation experiences difficulties in the above areas, the manager will need to set goals and objectives to overcome and prevent these issues.