The Veterinary Center

Instructions:-

The Veterinary Center

The main aim of the veterinary firm is to deliver animal healthcare services to the people both within and beyond the region. To this end, it provides animal wellness services, offers grooming services and sells veterinary medicines and dietary products such as animal feeds. Other than that, it provides consultancy services to animal and pet owners. These functions are in turn carried out by a team of veterinary officers and support staff, who utilize the medical apparatus and veterinary equipment available at the center. Apart from medical apparatus, they also leverage computers systems to facilitate communication and record keeping. In line with its core objectives, the center also stocks medical supplies and dietary products that are prescribed to pet and animal owners. Finally, like most if not all organizations, the firm requires financial resources to fund its operations. The firm’s financial muscle is therefore one of its key strengths (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2009 ).

The firm has five major customer segments which include its employees, their families and close friends; pet and animal owners living in the area and beyond; animal and pet rescue centers; local animal rights and welfare agencies and other community members seeking the services of a qualified care center for their pets. The veterinary center is in a position to interact with all these segments through various channels such as telephone and audio-visual advertising platforms, print media, animal welfare centers, trade fairs, websites, customer care centers and its customer follow-up service.

In order to compete favorably with other key players in the industry, the firm makes deliberate efforts to provide high quality, yet very affordable healthcare services for pets and other domestic animals. This makes it an ideal referral center for services that cannot be offered in other smaller veterinary centers. The firm also employs mobile veterinary officers who provide home-based care services thereby making the access of veterinary services more convenient for its clientele. Because it is keen on customer satisfaction, the center not only provides high quality services but also engages in follow up activities to ensure that customers are satisfied with its services. The center’s modes of payment are also very flexible, which further enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty.

While the firm already has considerable competitive advantage over its peers, it aims to cement its position in the industry by making this advantage more sustainable. To achieve this, it closely monitors its external environment and maintains healthy relationships with its major stakeholders. The veterinary firm’s key partnerships include competition, strategic alliances between non-competitors and buyer-supplier relationships. Competition is evidenced by the strategic alliance between the veterinary firms in the area, which entails the sharing of scientific and practice based information on business techniques (Amit & Zott, 2001). Information sharing is also facilitated by the regional veterinary referral center, which is responsible for dispatching information on contract and updates to be made in the operation of the firm. Moreover, the firm has also forged strategic alliances with a myriad of vendors and sales outlets in the area (Baden-Fuller & Morgan, 2010). This relationship affords it free publicity because these partners refer customers to the firm. Apart from these stakeholders, the firm also liaises with its suppliers to minimize unexpected shortages and members of professional bodies to ensure professionalism.

Lastly, because the firm’s management appreciates the negative impacts of its operations on the environment, they strive to be socially responsible and engage in sustainable supply chain management. This is achieved by recycling of some inputs, offering discounts through its service centers, donating to charity, offering employment and paid vacation to its existing employees and focusing on customer needs.

References

Amit, R., & Zott, C. (2001). Value creation in e‐business. Strategic Management Journal, 22(6‐7), 493-520.

Baden-Fuller, C., & Morgan, M. S. (2010). Business models as models. Long Range Planning, 43(2), 156-171.

Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. ( 2009 ). Business Model Generation. Amsterdam: Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur.