CVS’s Acquisition of Aetna Inc.

Discuss about the Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage Strategy.

USA based CVS Health Corporation has made an official bid to acquire the No. 3 U.S health insurer Aetna Inc for a reported deal of $66 billion which will make the price each amount of share of the latter company close to $200. The deal if effectively falls in place will surely be a game changer in the health industry of the mentioned country. Healthcare tie ups will be a popular route for both the insurers as well as the pharmacies to make sure that the costs related to the purpose of health are reduced somehow to make sure that they are affordable. A strategic tie up with the insurance company will be providing the much needed edge to CVS Health Corporation (Peppard and Ward 2016). The deal between the two companies will also help millions of people who are the members of Aetna towards the retail pharmacies of CVS, walk in minute clinics and the specialized home services that will be easier for the company to have a clear focus on providing the best quality Health Service to the users of the service. The business analysts who are analyzing the following deal minutely as they have earlier predicted such a sudden deal as because CVS had been running on a loss given its retail business. Thus the management of the company was in a pressure to adapt new strategies that would help them to turn over the current crisis (www.wsj.com).

The following deal adds a lot of strategic value to the health care industry of USA. The modern days has changed the way the companies as well as the clients or the customers perceive about the health industry. Often the companies have to go the extra distance to get close to the patients and assure them about their presence all the times when needed. The insurers have been wanting for closer relations that would be beneficial for them to manage the health care costs, negotiating drug prices with the suppliers of the country and many more as such.

The financial aspect of the deal cannot be avoided at any cost as CVS Health Corporation has offered a whooping sum of amount to the latter company. The price tag of $66 Million is hard to reject and a lot of different meetings with top officials of the company have revealed the price tag of the company is the most suitable in economic terms as the price implies the economic importance of the mentioned deal in USA. The structural efficiency of the following deal would be beneficial for a huge reform in the health sector of the country. The people suffering from health ailments can now easily avail a number of different health loans that are easily supplied by the insurance companies to their respective clients.

Changing Landscape of Fortune Top 10 Companies

The decision of the management of CVS Corporation is surely a commendable step that is to be undertaken by the organization in the form of making a staggering bid of $ 66 billion which is one of the most fascinating events to be happened in recent times given the deal falls in place (Peppard and Ward 2016). The current trend of the market shows that CVS health corporation has been facing difficulties in managing its own set of operations. It will be tough for the management to effectively make the following deal a success as because concerns are there on the effective strategic management of the organization. The management of CVS will also feel the heat as because they have to fix, formulate, integrate and implement all the different types of strategies and also manage both the business effectively. However the company must carry forward with such a huge deal to make sure that the company must take aggressive measures in marketing and their brand promotion.

The most admired companies of 2010 in the Fortune list	The most admired companies of 2017 in the Fortune list
1.     Apple 2.     Google 3.     Berkshire Hathaway 4.     Johnson and Johnson 5.     Amazon.com  6.     Procter and Gamble 7.     Toyota Motor 8.     Goldman Sachs 9.     Wal-Mart 10.  Coca-Cola	1.     Apple 2.     Amazon.com 3.     Starbucks 4.     Berkshire Hathaway 5.     Disney 6.     Alphabet 7.     General Electric 8.     Southwest Airlines 9.     Face book 10.  Microsoft

The fortune list of companies between these 7 years ranging from 2010 to 2017 has seen a number of changes (www.fortune.com). Apple, Berkshire Hathaway and Amazon.com have been able to stay in the list. Whereas the other companies like Coca- Cola, Toyota Motor have failed to retain the top 10 rankings. The growth of Apple over the years has been remarkable and the launching of a number of different high quality product has helped the organization to retain the topmost spot for a record 7^th time, which is no doubt one of the most admirable and professional performances by such a company (Hill Jones and Schilling 2014).

It is strange to find Coca-Cola falling apart from the top 10 list of Fortune (www.fortune.com). The mentioned company has one of the best organizational structures and thus not staying in the top 10 is strange. However there are some serious issues that Coca Cola currently faces. These issues have been the main reason behind the downfall of the company in the last few years. The biggest challenge in front of the management of the company is to battle the sugar demons. The sugarised drinks constitutes almost 100% of the company products, the company has recently adapted some strategies to manufacture non sugar drinks that is healthy for the health. Products like Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Life and also the Coke Zero Sugar. Reports of the company suggest that the sales of the original brand of the aerated drink are on a slide. Absence of proper strategies has resulted in such a downward slide of sales figures. The management of the company has failed to understand the choices of the customers and has stuck on to traditional drinks. However the paradigm shift of the consumers towards new tastes has hurt the cause of the company (Hill Jones and Schilling 2014).

Challenges Faced by Coca-Cola

It must be noted that the policies of the company clearly states that it is strictly committed to lower the sugar levels and the calories of the company (Hill and Jones 2013). However the company fails to convince the market analysts and the consumers about its intentions of shaking of the junk food tag. The company has also faced some recent problems when a dead lizard was discovered in a bottle. This led to widespread protests and strict manufacturing checking that made the management too weak to get over the crisis. On the other hand Advertisement of the brand has been another main concern. Television is by far the primary advertisement channel for them. But the rapid increase in the consumption of mobiles and the huge rise in the use of smart phones have had a negative impact on the advertisement of the company. The company has to turn itself into a digital brand and enhance ways to increase digital marketing to promote their brand and gain the attention of the customers. The company has taken some drastic measures to improve its global rankings by means of One Brand Strategy all around the globe where it carries out business.

General Electric has been one of the companies that have reached the top 10 list in 2017. It was not on the scene in 2010 but banged back in the year 2017 in the top 10 of the Fortune top 10 list of companies (Hill and Jones 2013). The amazing turnaround has been the result of some simple strategies like;

1. Massive portfolio transformation that includes television broadcast, appliances and other such promotional campaigns
2. Leadership qualities of the officials engaged in the top level management duties
3. Building up of strong relationships both with the customers as well as the employees of the company has been key to the overall growth strategies of the company
4. Treating the customers in a fair and efficient manner. Addressing all their issues and concerns

Strengths	Opportunities
·       A large number of portfolios. Aviation, motors, finance, energy, gas ·       Strong workforce and a good level of R&D capabilities ·       Balanced Business model as 50% business outside the United States	·       Acquisitions and takeovers ·       Infrastructural Growth ·       Growing demand for commercial airplanes
Weakness	Threats
·       Company is dependent on third parties for raw materials ·       The company is a strong brand and thus it is easily targeted for minor issues ·       Large number of portfolios have made the management cripple under high pressure	·       Environmental policies and regulatory norms ·       Powerful global brand, economic and political risks ·       Security threats is one of the biggest issues

The large number of business portfolios of the company helps it to be one of the largest in the global sector and earn huge amount of revenue.

Large number of workers and thus the strong level of R&D capabilities.

Proper and efficient management can help the company to attain a strategic competitive advantage in the market which will ensure its sustainability. General Electric already has a great competitive advantage in the market because of its advanced and innovative products. The organization follows a culture based business model where focus is provided on individual assessment and leaders perform as a team and not as an individual.

1. Implements the best strategies that are relevant to the future
2. The management of the company adapts to the practices and implements them in a much better way.
3. The company continues to evolve and change the management practices

The management of the company JNU Limited is run on the basis of a limited partnership and is managed by a group of shareholders who have a common interest in collaboration, innovation, human development and learning models. The mentioned company brings with it the management of a varied range of skills and competencies. The management of the company has introduced new training and development programs for the people who belong to the lower level of the society. This training program helps the organization to fulfill its corporate social measures and make sure that the people receiving such trainings are able to learn the community knowledge effectively. The company also gives the society an outlook on how the communities that are small in nature can relate themselves with the large cosmopolitan or urban learning centers and how the traditional systems meets the current cosmopolitan systems  in a proper and meaningful way (Eden and Ackerman 2013).

Turnaround Strategies of General Electric

Strengths- The mentioned company consists of the main power of being visionary, innovative, and technologically well equipped and has an aim towards the different types of solutions for the knowledge and needs of the people. The following power of the organization is described by the trans cultural items and the development of software (Freeman and McVea 2015). The company mentioned here has experienced executives in its ranks who are involved in innovating new ideas and thinking of new solutions that can effectively tackle the upcoming approaching problems that are related to knowledge development. The staffs of the mentioned company have different cross cultural communication skills, clear clarity of vision and competency in the development of human resource issues that helps to understand the needs and redesign them into proper solutions

Weaknesses- Although JNU is altruistic in nature, the management of the company must transform some of their knowledge into competence of business or face the possibility of reducing the vision to manage their business in the competitive market (Eden and Ackerman 2013). The following is just an assumption of the that the visionaries in the company have the business capability to develop and grow the business according to the business theories and concepts.

Goals- The main goals of JNU are to create a large number of institutions and companies at different levels of the organizational structure local, regional and international levels. It is intended that there will be the establishment of trans-cultural focus points for regional networks for the purpose of the creation of the interactive relationships between national and international regions (Freeman and McVea 2015). The following networks and different relationship are formulated to define the common needs and the solutions to these needs. These goals are expected to make a value for the different meanings that address solutions related to the development of the factor in the table which could range from:

• Development of barefoot distance education programs for the different communities in the regions of the South of Asia. Sustainable farming practices;
• Development of the skills of the women
• Women skills development
• Advanced large husbandry
• Building ponds
• Technology Training
• Development plans for different small business
• To link the regional universities with the different rural communities through the development of the communication tools: o establishes decided upon learning and communication symbols, agreed on a central resource center, entrepreneurial; o train “barefoot” educators; o involve government—local and national—in development commitments; o select representatives to develop regional agendas.

The collaboration of the international universities can help to build a bond of culture that would be used to examine Trans-cultural learning and instructions (Barney 2014). Some of the main examples of the primary tasks include;

• Development of a joint research agendas
• Searching for relevant collaborative institutions
• The search for relevant grants
• Linking the education department across all the regions
• Defining the resources and strengths

The regional technical and agricultural institutions like the “Asian Institute of Technology” in Thailand faces different issues regarding rural development. However the institution has failed to break out of the academic approach to be innovative. UNESCO has proposed “Community Learning Centers” but these policies and frameworks need widespread implementation. The agricultural and food organization has adopted the policies that will help to promote lifelong education skills that are applicable in the development of the rural livelihood by adopting a approach that addresses all the levels of modern education (Barney 2014). Though the following are admirable policies, FAO is in search of institutions or organizations to relate its set of guidelines to actions and by doing so many of the organizations are stuck by a range of bureaucracies. The company has the capability to approach the different learning centers for making a deal with them. The organization has aimed tto determine the achievement of the goals with the development of the different regional groups that helps the organization to determine the different contextual needs of the organization.

References

“Fortune 500 Companies 2017: Who Made The List.” Fortune. N.p., 2017. Web. 28 Oct. 2017.

Barney, J.B., 2014. Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Pearson Higher Ed.

Counsel, First et al. “The Wall Street Journal & Breaking News, Business, Financial And Economic News, World News And Video.” The Wall Street Journal. N.p., 2017. Web. 28 Oct. 2017.

Eden, C. and Ackermann, F., 2013. Making strategy: The journey of strategic management. Sage.

Freeman, R.E. and McVea, J.A., 2015. A Stakeholder Approach to Strategic Management (No. 01-02).

Hill, C.W. and Jones, G.R., 2013. Strategic management theory. South-Western/Cengage Learning.

Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

Peppard, J. and Ward, J., 2016. The strategic management of information systems: Building a digital strategy. John Wiley & Sons.

Rothaermel, F.T., 2015. Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education.

Slack, N., 2015. Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., 2017. Strategic management and business policy. pearson.