Case Study: No Time for Strategizing

Downstate Medical Center is a 400-bed teaching hospital with a board composed of business and community leaders. Downstate is considered by most in the region it serves to be the key hospital. The board is devoted to the hospital and meets quarterly. Tis executive committee meets monthly and follows financial, quality, and other operational activities at the hospital closely in exercising its oversight duties. The executive committee and the entire board scrutinize the key aspects of the hospital's operation closely and regularly. It is the custom of Clare Lipton, who chairs the Downstate board, and Nathan Robertson, president and CEO of the hospital, to have lunch together in the hospital's boardroom on a weekly basis. Recently, the conversation has focused on how to get the board more engaged in strategizing. Lipton has made the point that she feels the board is happy about how things are going at the hospital, and with Robertson's performance, but has added, "We are sailing along nicely, but we don't know what the future holds for the hospital and where it fits into that future."

QUESTIONS (answer each question with at least ten to fifteen sentences with references)

1. What are the appropriate roles of the CEO and the board in strategizing the future of Downstate Medical Center?

2. If things are going well at Downstate, why should its leaders give more attention to strategizing? Provide a SWOT analysis based on your analysis.

3. What do you recommend to Nathan Robertson and to Clare Lipton as a way to begin strategizing for Downstate Medical Center?

4. make a marketing plan based on the strategy you propose.