SMH June 2019 B: Strategic Planning Analysis of King Faisal Hospital

This discussion post analyzes the strategic planning process at King Faisal Hospital and Research Centre (KFSH) in Saudi Arabia. The analysis incorporates a PESTEL analysis to understand the external environment, identifying factors such as fluctuating oil prices, population growth, and political influences. It also utilizes Porter's Five Forces model to assess the competitive landscape. The post highlights the hospital's strengths in oncology, genetics, and transplants, while acknowledging weaknesses in areas like cardiology. Recommendations include focusing on core competencies, securing alternative funding, and expanding services. A core competence, demography should work as the main axis of the planning of the logistics of a medical facility and this element is missing from the case study. The discussion also touches on the importance of adapting to the changing environment and the need for strategic foresight to maintain a competitive edge, and also the lack of the core competence is a major factor that can cause a policy paralysis for this hospital in the coming future.

SMH June 2019 B – Initial Post
Below is a PASTEL analysis “conducted to highlight some of the unique features of the environment
in which the” (Walley, 2017) King Faisal Hospital and Research Centre (KFH&RC) functions.
Economic  Oil price fluctuates
 Oil reservoir in kingdom is decreasing
 Population growth in the kingdom- thus more energy consumed and
less oil sold, leading to less funding for public sector
Technological  New infrastructure with new equipment
Political/Legal  Minister of health has a say in how strategic planning is done
 Government refers patients to hospital
 Tribal allegiance
Social/Cultural  Riyadh is more conservative- thus male and female do not mix in
meetings while Jeddah is more open.
 Population is growing – with increase in aging population
 Poor health due to low level of exercise, dietary changes and genetic
inherited diseases
 Consanguinity increase feasibility in transplants
Competitive  Other state funded hospitals are competing for same funds and the
fact that they have built a reputation is sectors such as cardiology
take more funds.
 New military hospital is competing and having more political back up
Table 1 - Categorisation of External Issues
Noella Schembri Page 1

SMH June 2019 B – Initial Post
Strengths
KFH&RC has good reputation for oncology, genetics and transplants in Saudi. They
also have two locations and are investing more in their centres.
Weaknesses
Competition have better reputation in sectors such as cardiology and thus they
secure funds instead. The KFH&RC are not in the national patient referral system
and are too late in the game thus they now depend on manual referral.
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SMH June 2019 B – Initial Post
Recommendations
Figure 1- Porter's 5 Forces Model ( Harvard Business Review, 2008)
The Five Forces tool could be used in strategic planning to increase competitiveness
of the KFH&RC in getting both governmental and non-governmental funds. Also, the
management needs to focus on getting alternate funding for investment and not
relying completely on governmental funds. As mentioned in the case study, the
hospital can invest in providing care that currently is not being provided elsewhere in
Saudi thus expanding their services and gain an advantage over competitors given
that this service is not offered in Saudi.
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SMH June 2019 B – Initial Post
Another recommendation is for the hospital to invest in medical schools which could
increase manpower for the new infrastructures.
Bibliography
Harvard Business Review, 2008. YouTube. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYF2_FBCvXw&t=49s
[Accessed 10 July 2019].
Walley, P. (2017) Case Study Strategic planning at King Faisal Hospital and Research Centre Saudi
Arabia. In Johnson, G., Whittington, R., Scholes, K., Angwin, D., & Regnér, P. (Ed). Exploring strategy:
text and cases. Pearson (Intl): 729-733.
Hi Noella,
I appreciate the exhaustive coverage of all the topics related to the establishment of
the hospital. The findings of PESTAL, five force analysis, and SWOT analysis indeed
are very handy documents for the planners, especially when we look at them
together. However, I would like to add one more factor that may have a bearing on all
the analyses done by you. This factor is core competence, my in-depth study of the
case study gives me an idea that the promoters of the facility never ascertained
about the core competence of the facility.
For instance, the core competence of a military hospital lies in the fact that it mainly
caters to the military personals. It provides a one-stop solution to all the military
personals. This sets a demography based competence with the facility. While
studying your analysis reports I realized that the absence of the core competence is
a major factor that can cause a policy paralysis for this hospital in the coming future.
The core competence, demography should work as the main axis of the planning of
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SMH June 2019 B – Initial Post
the logistics of a medical facility and this element is missing from the case study
(Sapp,2017).
Sapp, D. (2017). Facilities Operations & Maintenance - An Overview. WBDG, (Online), Available At:
https://www.wbdg.org/facilities-operations-maintenance. Accessed 12-07-2019.
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