2-2 Journal: External Forces

Strategic Planning
Name
Institution
Tufts-New England Medical Centre (TUFTS_NEMC) is in the process of planning on how to rise again after a period of loss-making. The process is under the leadership of Ellen Zane, the newly appointed CEO (Cawsey et al., 2011). However, some external factors have a profound impact on the strategic planning process. The external forces form the threats to the planning proposed by the organization.
The external forces affecting tufts include high competition in the medical industry and a high cost of pharmaceutical products. Also, underfunding by the federal government and oversubscription of the Medicaid and Medicare are external forces. The reimbursements by the medical plans are way below the cost which is expensive (Cawsey et al., 2011). The competitors are the big hospitals in the area and especially those that formed a merger. The space they occupy is in the provision of the healthcare plan and offering high-quality healthcare. They are thus able to take customers away from Tufts.
The high competition is brought about by the other hospitals providing better services to those given by Tufts. Although the hospitals are costly, people choose them due to better services. Increase in price of pharmaceutical products has led to increased cost of Medicare (Cawsey et al., 2011). The high cost works against the mission of Tufts of providing medical care that is affordable. Tufts have a competitive advantage over the competitors in that it has hired a competent CEO who has enough compared to the other players.

Tufts also has existed for long, and thus people identify with the brand. The external factors mostly affect the customer base reducing them significantly which in effect leads to losses in the hospital.
The external factors have to be factored in during strategic planning. In this case, the organization can consider the threats and opportunities presented by the elements. Preparation will thus involve dealing with these threats and grab the opportunities. The organization can address the threat faced by using the competitive advantage (Cawsey et al., 2011). In this case, it can deal with the threats using the many years of operation. Consolidating on the loyal customers will also help to counter the newly found threats.
In conclusion, Tufts are facing some external threats such as competition and a high cost of medical products. The organization can use many years of experience to provide quality services to the customers. With this, it will turn to be competitive as before.
Reference
Cawsey, T. F., Deszca, G., & Ingols, C. (2011). Organizational change: An action-oriented toolkit (Vol. 2). Sage.