Huge market at hand

The population is surging, the patterns of diseases are altering, salary levels are rising, clinical needs aren't attended, health issues aren't being attended, demand for quality care is needed at moderate prices and medical tourism is all set to rise. So is the need for modern equipment. In any case, demand for modern equipment is needed in India on a basis of 12%-15% yearly. Many foreign companies commence their initial 500 surgeries in India after getting approval from FDA. Medical services are still shallow by the way. China has 106 doctors while India has 60 doctors per 1000. Australia has 247 doctors per 1000 people. The rural areas suffer a lot from this lack of doctors. The Indian healthcare industry is slow with respect to IT skills adaptation. Just a few handfuls of the hospitals are using the high tech facilities and infrastructure. Thus there is an urgent need in the improvement of the IT infrastructure of India (Woodman, 2011).

China an emerging market

China is the new Mecca for medical care and operations now. It is dealing in a wide spectrum of medical facilities such as neurology, cardiology, orthopedics and other services. Many private and government hospitals have international wings for services in bigger cities. Some hospitals provide western care and treatment while some provide conventional Chinese treatments (Woodman, 2011).

In the end

In the end, the patients or the clients don't have much power in India as is the case with suppliers as there aren't many manufacturers of medical equipment. Thus there is no competition for the time being and healthcare remains a vacant industry in India at large. Thus that's the idea behind Fortis Healthcare Limited's aims and objectives in India (Woodman, 2011).

5: Corporate level strategy pursued by Fortis Healthcare Limited

The corporate strategy of Fortis is certainly to venture and expand into new markets. It aims to sells its products in new markets and making headways in new markets. Fortis has been using the mergers and acquisition strategy for this matter (Herzlinger, 2008):

Mergers and takeovers

Fortis Healthcare Limited was busy in purchasing some ten hospitals in India for a staggering price of 9.09 billion rupees, according to Wall Street Journal. This strategic move was to capture the hospital segment completely. This acquisition will enable Fortis Healthcare Limited to 38 hospitals and 52,000 beds in India. Apart from that, ten more hospitals were added after Wockhardt's deal was signed (Herzlinger, 2008).

Global alliances

Fortis Healthcare Limited is enabled and equipped with world's finest infrastructure, medical treatments, technology equipment from all over the world targeted in the Indian soil. Its aim is to provide high quality care to its customers all across the world. In order to improve its treatments, processes and surgeries, it has collaborated with international service providers to corroborate on insurance, healthcare, medical, travel, tourism and other fields (Herzlinger, 2008).

Prominent names are:

Bupa

Aetna

Cigna

GMC services

The collaboration with international brands ensures that quality services are given to patients and health coverage is available for the clients in country and out of the country. Mostly, Fortis Healthcare Limited is operating in Asia-Pacific region and India (Herzlinger, 2008).

It has created a large network of hospital which is working to support its clients. Fortis Healthcare Limited meets its quality service goals by collaborating with world class service providers which impart immediate medical advice, medical expertise and healthcare services (Herzlinger, 2008).

Worldwide environment and technological environs

The healthcare systems in United States of America and Europe are under fire for being very expensive with health infrastructure strained. The National Health Service in UK is certainly under the weather for the exact same reason. The patients have been waiting for one year for surgery. In United States of America, 50 million population is not insured at all. They can't pay for their treatments. There is acute shortage of nurses and trained staff (Herzlinger, 2008).

Now the patients are regularly visiting India to get their operations done as their hospitals are affiliated with Indian private hospitals (Gulati and Taneja, 2012). India is known for providing low cost services for high quality care in quite many fields such as (Herzlinger, 2008):

Dentistry

Cardiology

Cosmetic

Orthopedic surgery

Eye care

Health checks

India is capable of offering world class operations such as:

Hip replacement

Bypass surgery

Organ transplant

Vision correction

Dental surgery

Cosmetic surgery

The price of a treatment is a fraction of what it is in UK and USA. The cost of surgery is still high for that matter. The surgeons can't be bought...

In New York City is $100,000 while in India it is $4,000. This drives down the cost of treatment to the ground. The diagnostic tools and tests being less pricey in India; it has the ability to become the Mecca for health screening (Herzlinger, 2008).
In a regular clinic in London, a routine blood test, x ray test, lung test, electrocardiogram test and abdominal test can cost like £350. While in India, the same tests can be done under just $84 at Max Healthcare. The Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan can cost only $60 in India while in New York City it can cost around $700 (Herzlinger, 2008).

Evaluating future prospects

Fortis Healthcare Limited is a new entry into the healthcare industry. It has however ventured into pharmacy business and old age home business. In the future, the possibility of specialty hospital business won't be so profitable anymore; therefore it's time to move on. The old age homes and pharmacy mills will be the mainstay while the super specialty hospitals won't be profitable anymore with the arrival of life style diseases. Its better to sell off these hospitals to other enterprises in the region. It's a new entry in the healthcare region but is armed with a long portfolio (Herzlinger, 2008).

6: Nature of business strategy adopted by the company

Fortis Healthcare Limited is more based on emergency and diagnostics yet it needs to diversify and provide a unique spectrum of services (Herzlinger, 2008). The top priorities in this case are

Cardiac problems

Knee replacement

Neurological sciences

Fortis healthcare Limited has been granted special status for cardiac problems. Fortis Healthcare Limited operates the most cardiac surgeries around the world (Herzlinger, 2008).

Fortis Healthcare Limited is different from others as it provides a narrow spectrum of services at its clients at high costs. It has remained true to its core (Herzlinger, 2008).

Core business strategy

Fortis Healthcare Limited has undergone organic and inorganic changes building a brand in India. Fortis Healthcare Limited has the capacity to carry through its operations and investments as planned. It is planning to build super specialty hospitals, which have short periods of gestation as compared to general hospitals. Fortis looks to expand its branches in India and provide growth opportunities (Herzlinger, 2008).

The lifestyle diseases are big in India which means the high end hospitals need to stay focused on that. Cardiac arrest is said to rise within a short period of time as India delves deep into disease and poverty. India should start following the first world countries pattern and change to lifestyle diseases from infectious diseases. It has been in the McKinney report that cardiac patients increased from 16% in 2004 to 19% in 2008. Hence the amount of cardiac related treatments has also increased from 1.5 million to 1.9 million. But it lags behind Thailand, Brazil and American as of yet (Herzlinger, 2008).

Cardiac care is so appealing in quite many ways. The entire market continues to grow in terms of volume as the shift towards life style diseases continue, it engages more profits and higher viability for the hospital sector. Average realization for cardiac related disease per inpatient is greater than that for other diseases. The cardiac patient's treatment in case of India accounts for just 4% in 2001 (Herzlinger, 2008).

7: Fortis's structure, control systems and their strategy

Fortis Healthcare Limited is led by ten members of board of directors. Two of them are chairman and vice chairman. Fortis Healthcare Limited started off in India in 1996 and today it is operating in Dubai, Singapore, Mauritius and Sri Lanka as in these locations medical facilities are increasing and improving fast. Fortis Healthcare Limited is operating 65 different facilities in this location at present. All of them have been bought or acquired. The total number of employees working in Fortis Healthcare Limited is 17,000 at present. It has a total of 10,000 beds in five countries (Herzlinger, 2008).

8: Proposals and suggestions

Fortis Healthcare Limited has a complex corporate framework, thus it is susceptible to mismanagement and corporate blunders. It's needs to simplify its corporate structure (Herzlinger, 2008).

Furthermore, the company has high operating costs along with fixed costs. Its rate of profits depends on its occupancy of beds. In case, occupancy decline then its profit margins can get sidelined. Thus, it needs to develop an approach for financing its needs and investments (Herzlinger, 2008).

References

Connell, J. (2011). Medical Tourism. CABI - Business & Economics.

Dhawan, J (2007). The Changing Face of Indian Economy. Atlantic Publishers & Dist.

Gulati, S., & Taneja, U. (2012). Specialty Hospitals Leveraging Information Systems For Greater Success. Internet Journal…