Business Integration Strategies for SMEs

The provided document is a collection of references related to business integration strategies, focusing on the perspectives of managers, entrepreneurs, and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The references cover topics such as global market trends, product diversification, forward integration, and corporate governance. They also provide insights into the effects of economic turbulence, supplier environmental performance, and the implementation of innovative development strategies in competitive enterprises.

Running head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Marketing management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
Universal hospital, AL Ain city, Abu Dhabi is one of the major hospital chains in the
United Arab Emirates with having diverse range of services. This includes neurosciences to
obesity and dentistry. Moreover, there are expanding their base in the United Arab Emirates with
opening more hospitals (Malik, Abdallah & Hussain, 2016). However, in the current scenario,
the competition is increasing in the heath care sector and with the entry of the global brands, it is
more important for Universal hospital to determine and identify their positive and negative
factors and initiate strategic options accordingly. In addition, it is also important for them to
determine the available strategic options for their business enhancements.
This report will discuss about the negative and positive factors for Universal hospital, AL
Ain city. In accordance to these factors, different strategic options will be discussed in relation to
the Ansoff matrix.
SWOT analysis of Universal hospital
Strengths
 One of the major strengths of the Universal hospital is the brand value. This is due to the
reason that Universal hospital is one of the major chains of hospitals entire region of
United Arab Emirates (Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2016).
 Their enhanced and positive brand value helps them to attract more customers compared
to others.
 Universal hospital is present in the centre of the city and just 2o minutes drive from the
Abu Dhabi International Airport. Thus, they are having the strength of location
advantage.

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 They are having diversified services as offerings. For instances, patients will have the
facilities of neurological treatment along with dentistry and different pathological
services (Qiu, 2014). Hence, this can be treated as their strengths due to the reason that
with having the diverse service offerings, diverse range of customers can get attracted.
 Universal hospital is having their number of branches across United Arab Emirates. Thus,
their capability is their strengths due to the reason that with having number of branches
across United Arab Emirates, the target customer segments are more.
 Therefore, more target customer segments reflects more generation of the revenue (Spiess
et al., 2014).
 According to the information available from the official website of Universal hospital,
they are having state of art facilities of providing latest medical treatment to the patients.
 The technology of them is at par of the global standards and is latest in the industry.
Thus, it helps them to create positive word of mouth among the customers and it also
helps them to retain their existing customers effectively.
Weaknesses
 One of the major weaknesses of them is the status of late entrant in the market. This is
due to the reason that Universal hospital was founded just a few years ago. However,
before their foundation, there are other hospitals already being established in the
domestic market.
 Hence, it is difficult for them to compete with the established players being a new comer
in the market.
 Access to the resources is also limited for them as they have just entered the health care
market. Some other established players in the same industry are having more access to

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the capital. This is restricting Universal hospital to invest more in different departments
as accordance to the industrial requirement.
 They are only having their presence in the domestic market of the United Arab Emirates.
Thus, their market presence and opportunities are also limited with not having any
opportunity to tap the global or foreign customers. This is another reason for them to trail
behind their global competitors.
 With not having the global presence, their brand value is also not getting enhanced or
exposed.
 Differentiation strategy is not present in the business strategies of Universal hospital.
This can also be considered as one of their key weaknesses due to the reason that without
having the differentiation strategy, it is difficult for Universal hospital to create
distinctive image in the market and to stay ahead in the competition (Ray Gehani, 2013).
 In addition, without having the differentiation strategy, it is also difficult for them to
attract customers by offering distinctive service offerings. It is limiting their sources of
gaining competitive advantages (Lechner & Gudmundsson, 2014).
Opportunities
 Average customer income in the global market for the major section of population is
increasing. Thus, it will be an opportunity for Universal hospital to tap this growing
market. The more will be the income of the global population, the more potential will be
the market opportunities.
 In the current time, the intensity of diseases and health concerns for the people are
increasing, which will be an opportunity for Universal hospital to increase their market
share and each.

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 Customer preference for having modern day health care is increasing and thus it is an
opportunity for Universal hospital to attract more customers.
 Economy of the United Arab Emirates is rapidly increasing along with purchasing power
of the average population (Kamal Hassan & Saadi Halbouni, 2013). Thus, demand for
having proper health care is increasing and it is a huge opportunity for the Universal
hospital.
Threats
 One of the threats for Universal hospital in their business operation is the threat of new
entrants. United Arab Emirates is attracting huge foreign investment in the recent time
and thus more global players are entering in the health care sector (Omri, 2014). This is
increasing the threat of more competition in the market. It is important for Universal
hospital to be effective enough in cutting of the competition.
 Economic recession is another potential threat for them due to the reason that purchasing
power of the customers will get reduced with having economic recession and they may
get less attracted towards the higher end health care services (Cowling et al., 2015).
 Rapid advancement in the technology is another potential threat for the Universal hospital
due to the reason that it will incur added cost for them in frequently changing existing
technologies. Thus, they should adopt sustainable approach to the initiation of
technology.

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Growth strategies of Universal hospital
Figure: 1
Market growth strategies
Market development strategy
The first element is the market development strategy. With the help of this strategy,
Universal hospital can develop new markets with their existing service offerings. Universal
hospital can enter in foreign market in the Middle Eastern regions with their medical facilities
(Malysheva et al., 2016). This will help in having more number of target segments with the same
service offerings. In addition, they have gained enough expertise in the health care sector, which
will help them to enter in the foreign market effectively. They should have their branches in the
domestic regions also where currently they are not present.

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Market penetration strategy
Market penetration strategy will help Universal hospital to further penetrate in the
existing market with the existing service offerings. In this case, pricing strategy will play a huge
role (Johanson & Mattsson, 2015). This is due to the reason that if they can offer their service in
more affordable and competitive price levels, then more customer segments can get attracted and
will have more market share in the existing market. This strategy will also enable Universal
hospital to invest less in having a viable strategic option.
Product development strategy
Initiation of the product development strategy will help Universal hospital to develop
newer service offerings for the existing market. Thus, it will help them to target the existing
market holistically by offering different level of services. For instance, apart from the existing
services of the Universal hospital, newer services such as cancer treatment facilities will help
them to target more diverse range of customers in the existing market and thus the customer
segments will get increased (Zeschky, Winterhalter & Gassmann, 2014). It will also cost less
compared to the product diversification strategy due to the reason that developing products in the
related business line of Universal hospital will ensure that less cost and expertise is required in
developing new products.
Market diversification strategy
Diversification strategy will enable Universal hospital to develop and offer new service in
the new market. For instance, Universal hospital can have medical schools and colleges for
education along with their hospitals. These schools can be built in the new locations with having
higher number of potential medical graduates. This will help them to reduce the dependency

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from the single business line of only having hospitals and can have diversified range of
businesses (Bowen, Baker & Powell, 2015). In addition with the help of the market
diversification strategy, they will be able to set their footprints in the new markets.
Unrelated diversification strategies
 It is recommended that Universal hospitals can have medical colleges and training
institutes nursing in different locations.
 This will help to tap the education sector also.
 Moreover, this will also help universal hospital to have their sourcing of the human
resources without external assistances.
Integrative growth strategies
 It is recommended that universal hospital should initiate vertical backward integration
should be initiated. This is due to the reason that with the help of the backward
integration, the cost of sourcing raw materials will get reduced for them. Universal
hospital can acquire the firms, which will enable them to have own manufacturing
facilities of their raw materials.
 Forward integration is already being initiated by the Universal hospital due to the reason
that they already cater to the end customers with their service offerings (Glock & Kim,
2015). However, it is also being recommended they should offer the customer service and
medicine support by their own.
 Initiation of the horizontal integration will help them in cutting off the competition and
creating more market share in less time. It is recommended that they should go for the
initiation of the merger strategy with the established health care players in other markets

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in order to gain market presence in the global market. Merging with the health care
organizations in the foreign market will help to leverage on the brand value of the
partnered firm in operating in the foreign markets.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that there are various strategic options available for Universal
hospital in developing their future business. This essay discussed about the positive and negative
factors for Universal hospital in order to determine their business effectiveness and
competitiveness in dealing with the market challenges. Various issues and challenges are being
identified in this essay. In accordance to these challenges, different strategic options are being
discussed in this essay. It can be concluded that effective implementation of these strategies will
help Universal hospital to enhance their business performance and made them more effective in
enhancing their business potentiality. This essay also discussed about the integrative growth
strategies, which will help them to initiate business integration process effectively.

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Reference
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perspective on early and rapid internationalization. Journal of International Business
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medium-sized enterprises in a global economic recession? UK evidence on sales and job
dynamics. International Small Business Journal, 33(5), 488-513.
Glock, C. H., & Kim, T. (2015). The effect of forward integration on a single-vendor–multi-
retailer supply chain under retailer competition. International Journal of Production
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Johanson, J., & Mattsson, L. G. (2015). Internationalisation in industrial systems—a network
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Kamal Hassan, M., & Saadi Halbouni, S. (2013). Corporate governance, economic turbulence
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firm performance. International Small Business Journal, 32(1), 36-60.

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Malik, M. M., Abdallah, S., & Hussain, M. (2016). Assessing supplier environmental
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