Implementing Change at Springfield General Hospital: A Case Study

Making the Problem Worse

In the early 21st century, Minnesota Bio-labs looked for an alternative of using live animals in their tests. The company is a Minnesota based company specialized in testing and detection of sepsis. The company, over a long time, has been using rabbits in their test. Later on, in the 21st century, the company developed a new product line of using horseshoe crabs. The company, later on, intends to introduce the new product line into a new international market.

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Several factors triggered this and among them is Sepsis Detection Test. When Minnesota Bio-labs approved this test in the early 21st century years, they had done a series of examinations and comparisons between the two methods and the latter one, won because of its advantages. The advantages of Sepsis Detection Test include their affordability. The technique is less expensive. The cost of testing rabbits and other mammals was way much than the cost of testing horseshoe crabs and returning them in water. An article on sepsis detection indicates that the use of rabbits and other animals takes longer than when a detection test in a horseshoe crab (Calvert et al., 2016). The average time taken to test sepsis in a rabbit is up to 72 hours. This time was significantly reduced when the company started using crabs instead of rabbits.

The other reason Minnesota Bio-labs settled for an alternative was because of increased complains from the animal rights departments. Several complain had been raised at the courts from the department of animal rights. In response to the court orders, the Minnesota bio-labs decided to stop the use of guinea pigs and rabbits for their tests. Using the methodology of the horseshoe crabs was eco-friendly, and crabs did not die in the tests. They were returned inside the water to regain their lost blood.

Another reason MB opted for an alternative is that most of MB’s growth over its history had come from acquiring other businesses and integrating their products into the company’s offering. This made the company settle for a different methodology that would develop the horseshoe company that produced test crabs.

The company, after their strategy meeting in Minneapolis, has approached the general managers of France, Japan, United Kingdom and German into considering adopting their new approach. In as much as the general managers agreed to the idea. I have a prediction that they will take too long to adopt the methodology because of bureaucratic policies. The company follows the bureaucratic form of management. In the structure of governance, decisions are made slowly because for each decision, a series of people have to sign an agreement before they are put in place. The company is completely centralized, and according to a book on bureaucracy, no one can make decisions on their own without consulting all the other departments (Albrow, 1970). This is most cases is usually very long. It takes quite a long time to locate all the relevant signatories at once in each department, and this is why I feel like it will take longer for the other branches of the MB to implement the methodology of using horseshoe crabs in place of animals like rabbits and other rodents and small mammals.

The other prediction I would make concerning the decision is that the MB-France, MB-German, MB-United Kingdom, and MB-Japan should brace themselves for a drop in their profits. Introduction of the new methodology is like an introduction of a new product into the market. New products, when introduced into the market, take quite a long time before they penetrate the market. Unless the company employs market penetration skills, the new product line might bring huge loses. Chandola and Fu (2017), in their article, have identified market penetration strategies like pricing, promoting, marketing and diversifying. Some of the techniques that I would suggest the company adopts upon introduction of the new product line has been mentioned in an article on market penetration. These strategies will help them attract new customers as well as win the trust of those who were loyal to the old methodology. The strategies, when put in place, will cost the company a huge amount of money. Once the cost of operations has been increased, there will undoubtedly be a lower amount of profit yielded from the operations; however, much sales they make. It is because of this reason that I predict that the company will suffer a lower profit amount of even losses and the managers should therefore be prepared for that.

Lastly, I would predict that the country general managers would fire and hire new staffs. Development of a new product line comes in with the need for members to have the necessary skills of developing the product. Since the product has already been designed, the same skill is still needed in the retention of the product's quality. For our case, the horseshoe crab is the new product that has been introduced in the market. The company will, therefore fire the staff that initially worked with the old product and employ a new group with skills and knowledge on the horseshoe crab methodology.

Alternatively, I predict that for the success of the Minnesota Biolabs, the other country general managers may choose to train their staff and equip them with the new skills instead of firing them. All jobs provide their employees with job security of a given period. Once contracts have been signed, it is not easy to fire someone before their contract ends. For the protection of the staff's job, they may be trained instead and then continue with their jobs as before. Ernst and Rübsaamen (2010) state it is crucial that companies train their staff every time they introduce a new product in the market. The country general managers should therefore train their staff who have been dealing with the rabbits to test sepsis previously and take them through horseshoe crab based testing.

International marketing can be described as the dull direct entry of a product or product line into a new country. Minnesota Biolabs intends to introduce its new product methodology into France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan. The four countries will provide an international market to the services offered by Minnesota Biolabs. The company is therefore required to adjust its design to maximize the promotion of the new products into the new markets. To achieve this, the company should improve its advertising limits. If initially advertisements were only done in Minnesota, they should expand the scope to the new countries. A broader spectrum of promotion that is customized to stay relevant to all the states can be introduced.

Apart from advertisements, the company should work on public relations with the said countries. This is aimed at building the mutual relationship between the host country and the other international markets. The public relations can be done by first identifying a target audience, and then creating a tailored message to them to win them (Boulding and Lee, 1994). Lastly, is sales promotion. Prices can be reduced to attract new buyers. Other promotional designs that can be taken into account by the company is issuing of printed shirts among other prints like fliers and posters.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it was wise for MB to consider an alternative to their process. The methodology the settled upon is cost-effective, and it does not kill any animals. Other companies using the method that involves the killing of animals should consider reviewing their practices to protect animals. The company should also invest a lot of money in promotion of the new product line, and push the new product into the new markets. A good investment in the advertisement will ensure the product stays relevant to the needs.

References

Albrow, M. (1970). Bureaucracy. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Boulding, W., Lee, E., & Staelin, R. (1994). Mastering the mix: Do advertising, promotion, and sales force activities lead to differentiation?. Journal of marketing research, 31(2), 159-172.

Calvert, J. S., Price, D. A., Chettipally, U. K., Barton, C. W., Feldman, M. D., Hoffman, J. L., ... & Das, R. (2016). A computational approach to early sepsis detection. Computers in biology and medicine, 74, 69-73.

Chandola, V. K., & Fu, H. (2017). Market penetration strategy of smartphone companies from China for India market: a multiple-case study. International Journal of Business Marketing and Management, 2(4), 10-16.

Ernst, H., Hoyer, W. D., & Rübsaamen, C. (2010). Sales, marketing, and research-and-development cooperation across new product development stages: implications for success. Journal of Marketing, 74(5), 80-92.