Blog 2 The pursuit of recognizing global disruptive forces to a competitive mental health arena in Chicago

The two articles that are the most salient for me are the "The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends" and "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy". I would like to reflect on my experience as a Vice President at a community mental health center on Chicago's Westside for just under 3 years and how I came to the conclusion that strategy could be viewed as a luxury for underserved nonprofits.    

Fortunately, in the last 10 years there has been substantial growth and innovation in healthcare, and the team over at McKinsey, Richard Dobbs, James Maniyika, and Jonathan Woetzel indirectly alludes to this with recognizing the opportunity for products and services specifically for the aging population. Many within this subpopulation faced depression, loneliness and the lack of engagement, during time our Executive Director outlined a vision of the bringing access mental health services with the use of technological aids to underserved Chicago seniors his ideas included mindfulness applications, medication reminders, and "face to face" counseling via Skype or Zoom. The benefits could be varied such as eliminating the stressors associated with transportation (parking, commuting) and an extra layer of privacy because many would dear not to physically go and see a counselor for fear that they may come across someone they may know in a clinic waiting room. This vision was further supported with a grant from the Chicago Community Trust, a local prestigious foundation. 

The most challenging aspect was that our leadership team were so farsighted with looking at the top of the staircase that they stumbled upon the stairs. The midlevel management baulked at the fact that they were given "unfunded mandates" and figured that it would be another grand idea without the resources and tools necessary to operationalize the vision and "it will pass". As I was the liason, I could see that their frustration was that they agreed with the vision and wanted to support the vision but did not feel that they were provided with the tools to materialize this ambition. Unfortunately for this Executive Director, he did not even bother assembling the individuals with domain knowledge to transform the organization to being ready for the visionary endeavor.

In the "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy" Porter outlines barriers to entry with two aspects being, "New entrants. Incumbents possess substantial resources to fight back, including excess cash and unused borrowing power, available productive capacity, or clout with distribution channels and customers, however, with the lack of resources and the lack of qualified individuals in the Chicagoland area that would be open to providing intervention the elderly on Chicago's Westside was a reduction in productive capacity and the lack of resources such as donors had forced midlevel managers into focusing just on tactical day to day operations/activities and in a fragmented form as different departments focused on their own agendas. As a result the program was not funded the following year. So the question remains that how do organizations overcome this dilemma with the lack of resources? Would the focus be shifted on minor cost saving sutleties that could at least stir the organization in the strategic direction aiming further toward the vision? 

Open interactive precognizes this