The world increasingly becoming competitive in all fields and enterprises. Individuals, business entities, non-profit organizations and other entities are all required to have a competitive advantage or risk prematurely exiting the market. University Research Co. LLC (URC), a US-based company has had a consistent growth and expansion outside the US. The company has been able to establish and leverage its competitive advantage in the consultancy and healthcare industry. This situational audit report analyzes the internal strengths and weaknesses of URC and how the company got to where is today. It assesses the company’s fact sheet, its internal conditions, competitive forces, its utilization of the available resources, organizational structure, strategies, leadership styles, and management and their role in achieving the company’s goals and objectives. While the company started as a US-based company, it has managed to consistently expand globally through the implementation of right strategies and plans. This report highlights the journey of URC and how the company has survived potential threats, learned and embraced change to remain relevant and operational.
Introduction
The success of different organizations is based on a variety of aspects that boost their competitive edge against their rivals in the same field of operation. One of the aspects is the management’s ability to strategically plan for the organization’s operations. The management should come up with a strategic plan that develops a vision of where the organization should be in a certain span of time as well as placing the organization in bigger picture perspective of how the organization should be seen in the near future. Simply, it can be described as a process of current risk-taking decisions with the idea of possible future consequences and situations (Lynch, 2018). Additionally, the plan should include both the short-term goals and the long-term goals and their implementation plan hence giving the baseline for a situational analysis for the organization (Lynch, 2018).
The situational audit, in this case, makes an in-depth comparison of the state of business or the organizations position in its market at the time of the audit and how it was expected to look like or operated if it has successfully achieved its strategic plan and the set goals and objectives. The audit should critically evaluate all the functions carried by the business and compare each of them against the expected goals (Lynch, 2018). For instance, if an organization’s short-term goal was to reach a clientele target of 100,000 in 4 months and despite spending on advertisement only manages to reach half the target, then audit report should indicate this as a failed goal. A situational audit can also be termed as a SWOT analysis in which the internal and external elements of the business are analyzed (Lynch, 2018). A strategic audit should also be a continuous process with the organization continually implementing the audit report’s recommendations. This audit report will focus on the internal factors at the University Research Co., LLC (URC).
Fact Sheet – University Research Co., LLC
URC is a global organization based in the United States of America with its headquarters located in Bethesda, Maryland. The organization focuses of duties such as development consultancy, implementing non-governmental Organizations (NGO) projects as well as service providing. The organization operates in more than 40 countries globally including the US federal government, private sector, and states. The organization was founded in 1965 and through its operations and cooperation with various agencies, NGOs and governments, it has earned a good reputation in its technical and innovation excellence (URC, 2018). The company is a legally registered Limited Liability company, privately held.
The Company focuses in areas such as social services, improvement of health care provision, and the development of health education around the world. Through their operations, the organization has increased the access and improvement of quality services in education, maternal health services, infant and child health, improved reproductive health, substance abuse, safe family planning methods, awareness of contagious diseases such as Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, Knowledge on healthy food and nutrition, and offered help as well as information about the handling of vulnerable children and families. The organization’s projects include management, communication services, research services, organizing training programs, designing social marketing campaigns as well as providing organizational performance assessment and systems analysis services to the NGOs and Agencies it works with.
The organization’s leadership team includes: Jay S. Wechsler who is the president; Cornelia Simpson who is the Chief Administrative Officer; Wendy Hsing- Chief Financial Officer; M. Rashad Massoud – Chief Medical and Quality Officer and also the Senior Vice president, QPI; Neeraj Kak – Chief Innovation Officer and also the Senior Vice President, CIT; Jennifer Mulik – Vice President of Program Implementation, IDG; Laurence Rosoff – Chief Strategy Officer; Refiloe Matji – Vice President, Southern Africa and, Lastly, Yousri Hann – Senior Director for Contracts, Grants Administration and Cost and Pricing (URC, 2018). The Organization has about 1200 employees on either permanent or contract basis spread in the various countries around the world with URC’s projects.
Mission Vision, Values and Goals
To achieve its purpose, the company is run and managed in line with their uncompromised set of principles as highlighted in their mission statement, vision, values, and goals that it seeks to achieve. They are:
Mission – “To provide innovative, evidence-based solutions to health and social challenges worldwide.” The mission has not changed and is well understood. It aligns to the key decisions made. Moreover, it is reflected in the programs and services offered by the company.
Vision – “A world where individuals, families, and communities have equitable access to quality health and social services.” The vision aligns to the mission statement and complements the organizations purpose.
Values
The company’s operations and interactions both internally and externally are guided by a value system. The first value is being mission-driven which entails unity in addressing global social challenges and health issues. The second is being international which entails having a globally diverse staff with diverse experiences working towards a common goal. The third is Evidence-based which entails the provision of high-quality services guided by evidence-based research and technical help. The fourth is collaborative which is based on respect of both colleagues and clients as a way of fostering unity in service delivery. The fifth is Principled which aims at upholding the virtues f honesty, fairness, and integrity during work as well as fostering professionalism in all operations (URC, 2018).
The company practices strategic goal setting. However, being a global company working in different countries that face different health challenges and at different levels, the company sets goals based on their different programs and in different countries. In most cases, goals are collaboratively set with their partners in the various countries. Nonetheless, Its goals are in perfect alignment with its mission vision and values (URC, 2018).
Strategy and Objectives
Being a donor-funded Company, the organization greatest focus is on the impact and outcomes of their programs and activities to their target populations. According to Bartlett (2016), such donor-funded collaborative projects practice evaluation methodologies based on the dimensions of project success. In this case, it can be through evaluating the achievements of the project or the impacts arising from the projects. This can include having scorecards with evaluation questions generated to a scoring matrix which allows the assessors to weigh the outcomes. Alternatively, the impact can be assessed by reviewing project records to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that interpret the project’s outcomes (Bartlett, 2016).
URC’s Organizational strategy is based on a data-driven approach to improve health outcomes through research and evaluation. In this case, the company conducts comprehensive evaluations and based on the data-backed results come up with implementation strategies that are guided by known challenges and experiences (URC, 2018). Similarly, through research, the company is able to find real solutions to real problems which helps in decision making during the implementation stage. The company’s research gives useful evidence to provide innovative quality care that attracts high demand, advocate for policy change where needed, provide evidence-based context for recommendations, as well as scale up evidence-based guidelines for cost-effective best practices (Harvey et al., 2008).
To evaluate the success of their projects, URC uses different research aided mechanisms. The first are the key performance Indicators whose evidence is recorded on each project’s report. Second; it uses rapid diagnostic tests to evaluate the average change in infections of diseases, for instance, malaria. The last is through operations research that helps in identifying the general indicators of quality as well as monitoring programs such as HIV/AIDS awareness (Harvey et al., 2008).
Strategy Types and Competitive Advantage
Every business, company, Organization or agency seeks to have a competitive advantage that keeps it in business or in operations. This includes non-profit organizations since they are also competing for a client base as well as continued donor funding. To achieve this, different companies apply their best suited organizational strategy. There are four major strategies from which organizations can choose one or more than one to have a competitive edge in its market field. This are from Michael Porte’s model of competitive advantage.
The first is the low-price leadership strategy in which an organization provides cheap products and services to its customers. In this case, the organization seeks to attract more clients by being a low-cost leader (Chang, Chiao, & Tsai, 2017). The second is Differentiation, whereby the organization targets high-value clients by providing products or services with unique features, quality or value. Such products are, in most cases, perceived to be of a higher quality than others (Chang, Chiao, & Tsai, 2017). This strategy attracts customers who are willing to pay a premium price for a superior commodity and are less price sensitive.
The third strategy is the integrated strategy. In this case, organizations can strive to provide differential goods at a low price. This strategy can be risky to the business despite targeting two types of consumers. The fourth type is the focus strategy. In this case, the organization targets a specific group of clients or niche in the market and then puts all the focus in it. Despite the market segment being smaller, it has a great potential of being profitable (North & Varvakis, 2016). Focus strategy can be divide to differentiation focus which involves the type, quality or value of the commodity or cost focus whereby the company can offer uniquely unbeatable low costs (North & Varvakis, 2016).
Strategic plans provide for the management an opportunity to achieve the organizations desired future goals and objectives. If chosen with the organizations mission and vision in mind, the strategy has a potential of improving productivity, client satisfaction as well as boosting return on investment (North & Varvakis, 2016). URC is in the Consulting and healthcare industry. Its source of a competitive advantage is the differentiation strategy. The company’s research-based services give it the uniqueness needed to make it thrive in both industries. Moreover, the organization has invested in collaborative implementation hence having an already available clientele base. Unlike other medical institutions, URC implements four approaches in improving the health conditions of its clients. Namely; Quality improvement, Health system strengthening, social and behavior change and research and evaluation.
Through research, URC has published numerous peer-reviewed journals and other publications suiting the improvement of health conditions in different parts of the world. This gives it a greater competitive advantage against other healthcare consulting agencies. Its diverse database increases its scope in the market and hence gaining the trust of many potential clients. Additionally, the organization’s projects complement’s the services offered at healthcare institutions by offering education on preventive measures. This is potentially advantageous since it can be a partner to the institutions rather than a competitor. In Botswana, for instance, it partnered with the Ministry of Health (MoH) through the department of HIV/AIDS in a bid to expand the care, prevention, testing, and counseling services. Through its extensive evidence-based research, URC was able to support the development of a nationwide model and guidelines for adolescent counseling and testing services (Harvey et al., 2008).
Organizational Size and Structure
Since its formation, URC has successfully initiated and conducted projects in more than 60 countries. Currently, the organization has running projects in more than 40 countries with an employee base of around 1200 people. It is currently working with international agencies such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Global Fund, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), among others (URC, 2018). Given the fact that consultancy services are part of the organization’s purpose, its growth is an added advantage given that it will increase in research conducted and reported to be used as an aid to other agencies willing to do projects in similar fields and country. Increased funding from the assist international agency will also aid in accomplishing its objectives as well as boosting its productivity in the current programs. However, the increased diversification has the potential of straining the management and staff. This, hence, calls for an equivalent increase in employees as clients increase.
In the past 5 years, the organization has penetrated in more developing nations especially in Africa and Asia. It is no longer a mostly US-based organization. Currently, it is the lead implementer for the systems for health program in Ghana. This is a five-year program to reduce maternal and infant mortality in the country with the help of Ghana’s health Service and USAID. In 2016, Jay Wechsler was appointed president from previously serving as the vice president for finance. In 2017, Yousri Hanna was appointed as the Senior Director for Contracts, Grants Administration, and Cost and pricing Nonetheless, the organization has not changed its leadership structure, strategic plan, objectives nor areas of expertise.
Organizational Structure
URC embraces a Functional Organizational Structure. A functional structure is whereby the institutions management is split into smaller groups or departments with each section having a director or manager (Lynch, 2018). In this case, employees are categorized according to their skillsets and assigned to the departments requiring their skills. The answer to the director in charge of the department who answers to a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), president, or the topmost officer in charge of the entity (Lynch, 2018). One of the advantages of this structure is the ability of employees to collectively focus their strengths towards achieving their department’s roles and goals. However, employees from different departments can also be called to handle issues in other departments but related to their department’s expertise. However, this is done through their manager/director. Therefore, there is little interference among employees since they are receiving orders from only one source. Additionally, the structure avoids bureaucratic processes, hence, quicker communication and approvals. On the downside, this structure lacks interdepartmental communication with different departments having different expectations. Moreover, employees view the organization through their department’s lens or their job function alone hence developing “tunnel vision” towards their work (Lynch, 2018)
URC’s structure aligns with and positively impacts to the organization’s mission, vision, goals, and objectives. It also aids in delivery of quality services in each of their eleven areas of expertise as well as complementing their approaches. The president is the topmost leader and is reported to by the; Chief Administrative Officer, the Chief Financial Officer, The Chief Medical and Quality Officer, the Chief Innovation Officer, the Senior Director for Contracts, Grants Administration, and Cost and Pricing, the Vice President of Program Implementation, and the Chief Strategy Officer. Each department has managers in charge of their activities and employees. The Chief Administration Officer, further, oversees five operational departments, namely; Compliance, Global Operations and Security, General Services, Global Human Resources, and the Media department (URC, 2018). In addition to ensuring easier reporting, this structure also ensure optimum productivity of employees’ skills and expertise.
Operational Departments
Organizational Structure Chart
Critical Resources
Every organization possesses valuable resources that either generate high income, handle technical functions, handle critical duties or generally greatly supports the organizations operations. URC’s such critical resource is the Human capital and network of international funding agencies. The two have been effectively leveraged for its competitive advantage. The Leadership team, for instance, has been able to ensure a steady diversification with minimal challenges. To achieve the organizations objectives, a well-organized team and good network of assist agencies are important given the fact that the organization’s goals are people-centered.
Based on the Resource-based theory, URC does not any valuable, rare inimitable and nonsubstitutable resource. This is a strategic resource that gives an organization an unbeaten competitive advantage since the competitors can hardly get it (Grant, Burgess, Monga, & Orlitzky, 2017). This can be a tangible resource such as infrastructure or an intangible resource such as an organizational culture that is; valuable, to the organization; rare, hence being unique, unimitatable; mostly due to legal protection of an intellectual right; and non substitutable, such that it can not be replaced by something else to serve the same purpose (Grant et al., 2017).
Based on the resource dependency theory, URC is greatly dependent on partner organizations, agencies, and governments to achieve its goals and objectives. While this kind of relationship might not always be beneficial to organizations, it is advantageous to URC. The resource dependency theory highlights the dependence of external resources might affect an organizations operations. However, this is inevitable since most organizations must engage with the external environment through transactions or hiring as a way of acquiring scarce resources (Grant et al., 2017). Unequal exchanges, however, can be harmful to either of the businesses, hence requiring businesses to effectively adjust their internal environments with external pressures (Grant et al., 2017).
The most important resource for URC is human resource. In any organization, the element of asset improvement to create a competitive advantage is largely accomplished by the human capital. citing the fact that URC is a knowledge-based organization, a skilled and knowledgeable workforce is more important to collect, analyze, document and disseminate data and knowledge (Grant et al., 2017). Human capital has the capability to innovate, create, understand and increase customer satisfaction for the organization. Additionally, it manages and organizes other resources to increase productivity hence creating a competitive advantages. For instance, the organizations management controls all other resources and allocates the required quantity where necessary (Cook, Halsall, & Wankhade, 2015).
Human capital is also responsible of the much needed social capital in healthcare. To achieve the organization’s objectives and goals, networking, and the human aspect is needed to ensure responsiveness and change on the part of the target audience. Additionally, the organization greatly invests in evidence-based research for quality improvement which can only be done by humans. Nonetheless, other resources are also needed to ensure a healthy organization environment and increased productivity. Financial resources, remunerate the human resources as well as paying for other factors of production. Technology makes specific duties and activities easier and faster as well as storing the organizations databases. Physical resources provide convenience while access to information improves the human resource’s skills and knowledge.
Leadership, Governance, and Management
Different entities, ranging from governments, small businesses, parastatals, multi-national companies, and non-profit organizations are run by the authority and binding decisions made by their governing bodies. This governing bodies have different leadership styles, control systems, and governance methods.
Managerial and Leadership Styles
Different leadership styles practiced by the management impact differently to employees morale and productivity. The first managerial leadership style is autocratic leadership. This is an aggressive, militant-like style that involves strict control and following of issued orders (Wart, 2017). The management pushes for optimal productivity with little or no participation or feedback from the employees. It hinders creativity and innovativeness. The second is Laissez-Faire. This style gives employees complete freedom to act as they like. The style works best for motivated employees willing to put effort at minimal supervision (Wart, 2017). It gives room for creativity and innovation.
The third leadership style is the transformative leadership style. It is an all-round effective style that gives employees an opportunity to critically think. Leaders practicing this style need to be dedicated, visionary, charismatic, inspirational and motivate their staff. The leader sets the trend and processes to a receptive set of employees (Wart, 2017) The fourth style is the hands-on or participatory leadership style. This is a collaborative style which takes into consideration the opinions and inputs of the employees when making decisions. The style might be time-consuming and requires compromise while deliberating on crucial decisions in order to take everybody’s input (Wart, 2017). Fifth; is the transactional Leadership. This is a results-oriented style which places more focus on work and results. the best performers are rewarded well while the non-performers are punished. This can be either through promotions, demotions or monetary rewards.
URC leadership style is a combination of Transformational and largely, transactional. Taking an example of the Current President, Wechsler, there is evidence of the transactional leadership style from his career journey. Wechsler started as an internal auditor before being promoted to a controller, chief financial officer and formerly, vice president for Finance. This is primarily due to his consistent good performance. Similarly, other executive directors have a consisted proof of promotional rewards to their current positions. This has effectively led to the growth of the organization as well as ensured positive outcomes from its programs around the world.
Management Control Systems
According to Siska (2015), Management Control Systems (MCS) are performance measurement mechanisms with which the management team have control over in order to steer the organization towards the achievement of its goals and objectives. They help the management to keep track of the institution’s performance. Additionally, they can act as a means of collecting and utilizing information to plan and make decisions that guide the managers and staff’s behaviors (Siska, 2015).
These control systems can be grouped as either normative or regulative controls. Regulative controls include; bureaucratic, financial, and quality controls. while normative controls include; team norms and organizational cultural norms. Regulative controls entail the organization’s standing policies and the set standard operating procedures (SOPs). Despite this policies enhancing goal achievement, they can also lead to lack of flexibility as well as constraints in organizational expansion. Bureaucratic controls highlight the hierarchy of authority. Financial controls consists of the organization’s key financial targets while the quality controls addresses the extent of variation in the organization’s processes that can be considered acceptable (Siska, 2015). Just like majority organizations and businesses, URC has put in place regulative controls that govern the implementation of their objectives. Primarily, all activities, programs, and information at URC should be evidence-based.
URC also has normative controls that set the accepted patterns of actions and behaviors of both the management and employees. Its value system guides the acceptable interaction of staff and clients as a way of achieving the organization’s goals and objectives. The organization shares a set of beliefs that and is guided by the Professional Services Council’s principles to prevent any kind of misconduct at the workplace (URC, 2018)
Organizational Leadership and Governance
URC’s organizational leadership is aimed at forming partnerships with different agencies to foster change in the healthcare industry. The organization has conducted numerous large and small projects around the globe in alliance with entities sharing the same vision and mission. Organizational leadership entails setting targets, creating a vision and consequently overseeing the employees and collaboratively working with others to achieve the targets (Wart, 2017). URC identifies its strength in building its staff’s talent, knowledge, and skills, in addition to, enforcing work ethics. organizational governance, on the other hand, can be described as the system in which an organization drafts and implements decisions to achieve its objectives while taking into consideration the interests of other stakeholders (Lynch, 2018). This is relevant and applies to URC as a concept for establishing structures that ensures the propagation of decisions and accountabilities throughout the organization. It is through proper governance that URC is able to reach all the 40 countries in which it has running programs in.
Strengths and Weaknesses
One of the strengths URC prides in as a healthcare and consultancy organization is the wide range of publications in its database. This makes it easy for it to launch a program in any country and any region in the world. Moreover, their published resources are a source of knowledge to both their employees and their clients. The publications include; annual project reports, case studies, evaluation and assessment reports, issue papers, technical bulletins, success stories, methodology reports, peer-reviewed journal articles, and project presentations (URC, 2018). Secondly, Their promotional materials enables them to reach their target audiences as well as provoking the interest of potential partners. They include; fact sheets, posters, press releases, project brochures, Technical briefs, promotional videos, and promotional presentations.
Thirdly, the organization’s leadership team has the much-required experience to run a global organization hence effectively steering its objectives. It's large, diverse, skilled and scientifically knowledgeable human resource is also a critical resource to the organizations success story. Moreover, the Organization has established a good rapport with appropriate entities with a shared vision. In addition to curbing competition and increasing its financial resources, this also gives URC a competitive advantage against other entities and organizations in the same industry.
Lacking a stable income generating activity for the organization makes it vulnerable and dependent on external help. Despite being a non-profit organization, The organization should come up with an income generating initiative in which the profits can help in improving its current projects as well as expanding to more countries. The second weakness is the lack of follow up after the completion of projects. Despite offering evidence-based solutions, the sustainability of such solutions might not be guaranteed after the exit of the organization. Constant follow up after the completion of projects would aid in improving the research conducted. In line with the organization’s mission, this would contribute to the information needed by governments and donors.
Learning and Change
Since its conception, URC has evidently grown gradually implementing changes over the years. During the 1960s and 1970s, the organization’s areas of expertise were hospital modernization, solving the challenge of alcohol and drug abuse, and model cities. In 1980s, the organization successfully expanded its areas of expertise to include job competencies training and analysis in fields such as early childhood development, drug abuse workers, hospital staff, and the military (URC, 2018). It specialized in technical assistance, training, and structural design in projects such as substance abuse treatment, child support enforcement, community rehabilitation, family planning and reducing school violence. Today, the organization specializes in 11 areas using four approaches. The current approaches are; quality improvement, Health systems strengthening, social and behavior change, and research and evaluation (URC, 2018).
Secondly, the Company successfully expanded to other countries outside the USA. Its first international countries were the Philippines, Egypt, Colombia, and Tunisia. Currently, the Company is managing projects in more than 40 countries and has worked in more than 60 countries. Additionally, in 1968, the organization founded an affiliate non-profit organization, the Center for Human Services, to broaden its scope. Notably, this is a successful trail of successful changes.
Conclusion
The above analysis is a clear picture of the current position of URC taking into consideration its activities, growth, size, competitive advantage, resources, leadership types, structure, and management. Evidently, URC has made a great impact in the health care systems and education around the world with a major focus on developing and least developing countries. By analyzing the company’s projects and implementation strategy, there is an evident alignment of the mission, vision, values, and goals with the management’s decisions. The organization KPIs are realistic and data backed hence giving its reports authentic and reliable information. Its differential strategic plan gives it an opportunity to thrive in the health sector by providing a better chance for partnerships with other thriving entities in the industry. additionally, the company has implemented the functional structure which has enabled it to reduce bureaucracies, inefficient communication in the departments. The selection and hiring of a scientifically skilled human resource is congruent with the organization’s purpose hence making it the most important resource to the company.
To improve service delivery by URC, more regional divisions should be introduced to reduce the workload of the current management as well as solidifying the networks created in different regions. In this case, I would recommend a change of the organizational structure to a divisional market-based structure to ease operations in ea
