What was the most valuable thing that you learned in BUS656 this term Essay

What was the most valuable thing that you learned in BUS656 this term - Essay Example This concept provides numerous ways to create market segments that can be used to leverage business potential. The highlighted point is that of defensible market segments, which would actually help in capturing market share for a large as well as small business. The defensible market segments not only create business but also sideline competition from others in the industry. Creation of defensible market segments allows a particular business to stay on the top until competitors surpass the defensible segments with better products and/or customers’ needs change. Defensible segments can be of value with the positioning strategy of the business, especially in weak market segments. Understanding customers’ buying behavior and needs help in creating defensible segments. In addition, customer behavior in terms of frequency of purchase, attitude towards a particular product and a new product of the same brand can be advantageous to creation of defensible market strategy. Positioning strategy of products aimed at defensible segments provides opportunity to increase market share of new products. Greater product differentiation and an established brand automatically increase purchase size of customers, but cannot create defensible segments. This module highlighted the significance of defensible segments and acquiring market share as well as identifying market segments that can be used to find a slot for a particular product. Understanding markets will also help in designing products to meet the market/customer demands, which may be used for positioning the products. Once the market and customer needs are identified, it becomes simpler to find positioning strategies accordingly. It is difficult to capture greater market share of products that create defensible segments. Here, a strong positioning strategy would be of great value for the business. Positioning strategy helps in putting

Medicare Prescription Drug Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Medicare Prescription Drug - Essay Example There are many reasons why changes to Medicare were deemed necessary One of the main reasons is that there had been an increase in the number of Americans who were uninsured. Numbers show that those without health insurance had increased by 2.4 million between 2002 and 2003 and stood at 43.6 million in 2003. Costs of health care have been consistently increasing due to various reasons such as expensive new technologies, overusing of equipments and devices, etc. There has been a need for reform in medical liability. It must be possible for patients to seek punitive damages. Legal system was being misused by lawyers. There was a gap in information sharing between nurses and doctors it had to be addressed and also doctors had to be assured that the information they share would not be used to sue them or the hospital. Health care industry had progressed in all aspects but failed to make progress in information technology. The methods of information management were still old school and he nce this had to be changed to improve the services. Therefore modernization of information technology was essential (Bell & Friedman, 2005). Projections said that Medicare would be bankrupt because of the baby boom generation. That is, the number of seniors has increased and in turn the Medicare costs. Even though Medicare was doing a decent job, it lacked flexibility. It did not offer many choices to its participants. It was to address these and many more issues that changes were necessary to Medicare. Main Provisions of the New Legislation and Accomplishment of Desired Goals Prescription drug coverage which enabling seniors to take the drugs they needed rather than being dictated by the government (Office of Legislation, 2004). Choice of individual health care plans that would best suit the individual’s needs. Freedom to choose the place, hospital and doctor along with the kind of care and treatment needed (Office of Legislation, 2004). To fully cover disease preventive mea sures such as cancer and diabetes screenings. Protect seniors from high costs that would burn a hole in their savings. The desired goals have been accomplished to a certain extent. There have been improvements made and the information technology system has certainly improved. Parties Involved In Setting the Agenda for This Policy Change and Their Roles, Interests and Influences Following were the main agenda setters: The then President and his administration (President Bush), AARP, The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, The National Institutes of Health, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Each of these agenda-setters have had interests and played a role in the policy change. President Bush and his team ensured that issue would not die down and continuously brought issue to the limelight through their campaigns. AARP too pushed for a universal drug coverage plan rather than those that would only be targeted at the poor (Campbel & Morgan, 2005). Controversies Sur rounding the Legislation and Claims of Supports and Detractors The legislation was controversial for two main reasons. One was that it needed seniors with higher incomes to pay more for coverage and there were billions of dollars that was needed to stop elimination of existing coverage for the retirees by the corporations. Another reason was that private insurance companies were now given a vast role in health care. Supporters of the bill claimed that modernizing of the Medicare will lead to a better system and