Defining the Competitive Field – Stonebridge Assisted Living Center

The Challenge

M1 focuses significant attention on the extremely important topic of market structure, including environmental surveillance. Among other things, you were introduced to Porter’s Five Forces Model, via your readings, which serves as a useful reference for defining competition. Specifically, you are to place yourself in the role of Strategy Officer for a soon-to-be-established assisted living center based in the city of your choice. (An actual city must be selected as this assignment calls for formal market research.)  This entity will be named Stonebridge Assisted Living Center and it will offer the usual and customary array of services provided by assisted living centers. (If you are unfamiliar with assisted living centers and the types of services offered, conduct associated research and perhaps even visit one to gain a proper understanding before completing the assignment.)

Stonebridge Assisted Living Center’s owners, new in their role as healthcare entrepreneurs, wish to gain a better understanding of competition in the market and enlist you to prepare an associated assessment. The owners are familiar with Porter’s Five Forces Model and feel as though their knowledge of suppliers and buyers is sufficient. Noting the highly competitive market, however, they would like to bolster their knowledge of existing competitors, potential entrants, and substitutes and have requested your assistance and advice. (As the owners indicate that the organization is in a competitive market, the city you select must mirror this attribute. Smaller municipalities likely will not qualify. As such, moderately-sized or larger municipalities should be selected.) Your task is to perform a market assessment, identifying existing competitors, potential entrants, and substitutes in the city of focus for assisted living services.

Doing so will require you to consult a variety of information sources (e.g., telephone directories, the Internet, industry databases), reflect on your own knowledge of the marketplace, conduct field research, and explore other relevant avenues in an effort to comprehensively identify the noted competitive forces across the three designated categories of Porter’s framework. Competitive forces in each category must be explicitly identified (e.g., existing competitors and potential entrants must be listed by their specific brand name, substitutes must be explicitly identified and named). Note that general portrayals will be penalized harshly; specificity is required.

The end result of your efforts should yield a comprehensive overview of the competitive threats in the city of focus, affording the assisted living center’s owners with details that will help them plan operations.

In presenting your work, identify the title, your name and student ID number, and submission date at the top of your submission and supply the following headings, exactly as they appear below, placing each in bold text:

• Abstract (Your paper must include an abstract of approximately 150-250 words. An abstract is a stand-alone summary of your submission; it must be presented at the beginning of your paper, although, for obvious reasons, it is prepared after you finish your paper. If you aren’t familiar with writing abstracts, simply Google “how to write an abstract” or similar phrases for a wealth of helpful tips.)
• Introduction (In this section, supply a brief introduction, helping the reader grasp the intent of the forthcoming work.)
• Background
  • City Profile (In this section, supply a brief overview of the city of focus, noting its name, population, demographic characteristics, and any other helpful background information.)
  • Service Profile (In this section, supply an overview of the area of medicine addressed by the organization: assisted living services. Provide a definition, note major areas of focus, and offer other helpful details, demonstrating your grasp of this particular area of medicine.)
• Competitive Threats
  • Existing Competitors (In this section, identify assisted living centers by name currently in operation in the city of focus. Be sure to supply brief profiles of leading centers, aiding the owners in their quest to understand competitors.)
  • Potential Entrants (In this section, identify healthcare providers by name who are not currently providing assisted living services in the market, but might have the potential and desire to do so in the future. Be sure to indicate your view as to the likelihood that these entities actually might pursue offering such services.)
  • Substitutes (In this section, identify offerings that might serve as substitutes for assisted living services. Be sure to identify substitutes by name and indicate their threat potential.)
• Conclusions (In this section, summarize the report, being sure to express your thoughts on the overall competitive environment faced by the given center.)
• References (In this section, supply a list of references conforming with the instructions listed elsewhere in this communication.)

Scholarly articles that must be cited in work below:

Chen M. Sun Tzu’s Strategic Thinking and Contemporary Business. Business Horizons. 1994;37(2):42-48.

Porter ME. The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review. 2008;86(1):78-93.