Overview
AskTheDoctor.com is a company founded by a doctor, Suneel Sharma, and his long time friend Prakash Chand. Over five years, the firm has grown to a significant competitor on the internet, with over 40000 visitors daily. The firm faces obstacles such as licenses for medical practice. Due to this, the firm has to offer free service to enhance its advertising capabilities. Work at the firm is demanding and requires a significant commitment for the firm to make meaningful progress. However, the doctor who is overseeing the medical services provided by the firm is not able to commit himself to full-time duty. He feels that the firm simply cannot earn enough revenue to pay him.
On the other hand, the firm’s website design department, headed by the other partner, Chand, is struggling to keep up with the expanding firm’s visitor stream. He is handling much of the business alone, and this strains him. Also, he owns another business enterprise, to which he is more dedicated than to the online health services firm. At one moment a pharmaceutical firm, GlaxoSmithKline offers to buy their entire firm for close to a million dollars, but the partners want more money.
The pharmaceutical firm revokes the offer, and the owners of AskTheDoctor.com maintain that they deserve more money for their firm. None of the partners is sure about relinquishing the ownership of the firm.
The company’s marketing decisions are wise. They change their name and engage in some mass media advertisements to popularise their products. Moreover, their services are of high quality. This reflects the fact that the company has high-quality staff. Despite the progress that the company makes in its strategies and expansion, its revenues remain low. Furthermore, the company’s workload is becoming an unbearable burden for the two partners.
The partners’ decision not to sell the company seems to be a good decision for the firm’s future. However, a plan for the development of the company must be drawn to keep the company afloat. In the first place, the company lacks proper management to run the daily affairs. Due to Chand’s dedication to his cleaning company, he cannot attend his duties at AskTheDoctor.com. A keen analysis of AskTheDoctor.com’s performance and growth reveals that a significant recession in the market would bring the firm down. Although the firm is not running at a loss, the revenue of 3000 dollars cannot compensate for a significant fluctuation in the market.
The First Recommendation
The first solution is to allow Kosmix to hire doctors for AskTheDoctor.com. Although Sharma values the personal relationship between him and the online visitors, he must delegate his duties to another person to ensure that answering the questions is done promptly. This is an important improvement to create a larger traffic flow.
Justification
To solve the problem of shortage of doctors, the best action is to hire a management team to oversee the answering of health questions over the internet. The design of the website must be dynamic and requires constant restructuring and staffing to be able to handle more visitors. This will also increase the aped with which questions are answered.
Implementation
An internet technology firm, Kosmix, is interested in entering into a partnership with the online health services provider. The firm presents the best opportunity for AskTheDoctor.com. An offer to hire more doctors by Kosmix is the best solution for the shortage of staff at AskTheDoctor.com. This will give Sharma, the doctor, a relief from the strenuous duties at the online services company. For the firm to feature as one of the major players in the business, their website visitors must be more than100000. This will increase the number of advertisers willing to pay for a space on their website.
The Second Recommendation
The second solution for web design problem is to find a specialized web designer who can keep up with the changing technology and the growing business. Also, the specialized company will be able to monitor the position of the firm in the market, facilitating crucial decisions by the health services company.
Justification
There is a need to support the website technologically for it to be able to handle more visitors. Chand, who oversees the maintenance of the site, has to get additional labor and expertise from another party.
Implementation
On the other hand, accepting the Kosmix offer to power their new venture in a similar kind of business will give AskTheDoctor.com a chance to expand its business. Chand, who oversees the web design at the company, will get relief if the partners accept the Kosmix offer. This is because Kosmix is specialized in internet technology, and has the best staff for this job. Also, the owners of the firm do not have to worry about the expansion of the firm for a while. The two entrepreneurs can consider Kosmix as a partner in the business to streamline their business.
In the partnership between AskTheDoctor.com and Kosmix, the founders of the former still maintain ownership of their firm. Moreover, they could still control Kosmix’s venture into the online health solutions business. This way, no competition will come from Kosmix, but revenues will increase tremendously for the two entrepreneurs.