- Overview of the Organization
- Global Supply Chain Management Concept: Customer Orientation
- Global Supply Chain Management Concept: Robust Strategy
- Global Supply Chain Management Concept: Promoting Partnerships
- Global Supply Chain Management Challenge: Increased Costs
- Global Supply Chain Management Challenge: Decreased Demand
- References
Overview of the Organization
Aegis Living is a company that aims to help older adults and provide housing, care, and good nutrition to people who are partially or completely disabled. The organization has been operating for over 20 years, and during this time, on the west coast, several new boarding houses have opened. Elderly people with dementia and memory problems are the target audience of Aegis Living since caring for them requires skilled training
. As a result, the company has managed to expand its network of boarding houses and earn credibility as a sustainable organization with clear and essential goals. Today, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization has to overcome some challenges, for instance, increased costs and decreased demand. At the same time, its approaches to promoting the global supply chain management concepts are sustainable and contribute to making the business global.
Global Supply Chain Management Concept: Customer Orientation
One of the GSCM strategies that Aegis Living adheres to is customer orientation as an approach that allows popularizing the company’s services and addressing the problems and needs of the target audience carefully. The services the organization provides are specific, and stable funding helps Aegis Living remain one of the leaders in its market segment. This strategy is characterized by loyalty to customers’ interests, a focus on creating the closest possible interaction, and promoting the ideas of the social significance of the activities performed. At the same time, to keep its leading position, the company focuses on a robust mechanism as an approach to strengthening the business capabilities.
Global Supply Chain Management Concept: Robust Strategy
Aegis Living provides services that are based on comprehensive care for older adults. Thus, maintaining productive supply chain management requires control over demand. A robust strategy, as one of the organization’s practices, involves analyzing demand indicators and allows the company to coordinate its activities so that fluctuations in the number of customers could not affect the business. This approach means that Aegis Living copes with any disruptions and can work both with a large flow of older adults and with low customer activity. Nevertheless, as the profit indicators of recent years show, stable capital gains confirm the sustainability of the company and the constant expansion of its client base. However, acting as a single company may be challenging for Aegis Living, and to support the business, recently, the organization’s managers have paid attention to the strategy of establishing partnerships.
Global Supply Chain Management Concept: Promoting Partnerships
As another GSCM concept, Aegis Living has started to focus on partnerships in recent years. As an example, one can pay attention to Blue Moon Capital Partners, an investment company focused on real estate in the senior housing sphere. This interaction is a valuable practice that allows Aegis Living to expand its business opportunities and attract more customers due to enhanced marketing activities. Moreover, the resources of the partner organization can help Aegis Living increase profit potential by implementing effective risk management mechanisms that are essential in the face of fluctuating demand. Nonetheless, despite its efforts, the organization still has some challenges to overcome, and the COVID-19 pandemic has become a crucial brake on their successful overcoming.
Global Supply Chain Management Challenge: Increased Costs
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Aegis Living, like most other non-governmental organizations, has faced difficulties. In particular, increased costs are a GSCM issue since the need to improve customer safety is imperative. As older adults are the organization’s target audience, the risks of the spread of the coronavirus infection increase. Therefore, the company has to spend much money to maintain stable relationships with suppliers and be accountable to the authorities and health centers. Increased costs complicated by the current business limitations are the challenge that should be overcome to continue providing high-quality services to the population. However, there is more to come: due to the policy of quarantine and social isolation, the demand for Aegis Living’s services has decreased, which is a severe business constraint.
Global Supply Chain Management Challenge: Decreased Demand
In addition to increased costs, the pandemic has resulted in lower demand for Aegis Living’s services. The target audience of the company is the elderly population, including those who need proper care. The coronavirus infection poses a particular threat to older adults due to their less strong immunity to such diseases. As a result, the organization incurs losses caused by the lack of a sufficient number of clients. To fulfill its mission successfully, Aegis Living leaders need to implement risk management practices achieved through effective planning. However, the current quarantine measures, social isolation, and other consequences of the pandemic cannot be assessed in the context of duration, which creates additional difficulties. As a result, the company’s management can only count on a decrease in the total number of infections and the relaxation of quarantine measures to regain demand and strengthen its business. Thus, today, the pandemic’s role is one of the defining ones, and the attendant challenges are the outcomes of an unstable situation not only in Aegis Living but also in the global market of services to the population.
References
Aegis CEO: Lessons learned from ground zero of Covid-19. (2020). Senior Housing News. Web.
History. (n.d.). Aegis Living. Web.
Ivanov, D., & Das, A. (2020). Coronavirus (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2) and supply chain resilience: A research note. International Journal of Integrated Supply Management, 13(1), 90-102. Web.
Mangan, J., & Lalwani, C. C. (2016). Global logistics and supply chain management (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
Our COVID-19 response. (n.d.). Aegis Living. Web.