ABBOTT LABORATORIES

Abbott Laboratories



Strategic Research Project on a major organization

Company Overview

Abbott Laboratories International is a global healthcare company. It engages in the discovery, production, and sales of pharmaceutical products. It operates in more than 130 countries. The headquarters is located in Illinois. It has about 83,000 employees working at present (Wexler-Beron, 2006).

Mission

Abbott works on the mission "To improve lives by providing cost-effective health care products and services".

Vision

The vision statement of Abbott is to become the world's leading health care company. Abbott's focus is to become the best on everything, i.e. employment, health care supplier, business partner, investor and neighbor. Abbott is continuously working on its mission and vision by improving the lives of the patients, worldwide. It is providing cost-effective health care products and services. The philosophy of their mission can be seen through the quality products and services.

Porter's model for a competitive analysis

The health care equipment & supplies market analyzes taking manufacturers of health care equipment as players. The main buyers are as hospitals, clinics, outpatient facilities and medical offices, and raw-material producers as the key suppliers. The US health care equipment and supplies market is characterized by large international incumbents which increases rivalry somewhat. There are few buyers present within the US health care equipment and supplies market which serves to increase buyer power as they are able to negotiate on price. Market players are dependent upon suppliers of raw materials for their business. Suppliers are typically large-scale companies who can also negotiate on price which strengthens their position somewhat. Entrance to this market is problematic often due to barriers to entry, often imposed by leading incumbents. Rivalry is alleviated slightly by the diversification of operations of most companies; however, extensive research capabilities and meeting stringent government regulations are proving to be problematic for new companies wishing to enter the market (Alvarado, 2008).

Buyer power

The number of buyers within the global health care equipment and supplies market is low, meaning that leading incumbents are in competition with each other to assure purchases. This means buyers hold a certain degree of power over market players. Switching costs in this market is negligible due to the undifferentiated nature of products. Furthermore, the advancement of E-procurement systems means that buyers are more knowledgeable about products and therefore, prices. This increases competition between market players and serves to increase buyer power. Buyers, however, seek high quality and the reliability which reduces their ...