Analyze the impact of the leadership changes that occurred during this period.
What will be an ideal response?
One of the big problems that Aetna faced was their outspoken and aggressive CEO Richard Huber whose controversial remarks made for bad publicity, and his bad strategies led the company into decline. His strategy to increase Aetna's market share was to buy up other insurers. To change the direction of the company, Aetna's Board of Directors named William H. Donaldson as President, Chairman, and CEO. He wanted to change the company strategy and review operations to allow the company to realize its full potential. Although he was only CEO for one year, under his leadership Aetna sold its financial and international divisions to ING and focused on its healthcare and group insurance products. These strategic initiatives only came about as a result of his leadership. He improved relations with doctors and hospitals, reduced expenses, and improved customer service.
After Donaldson stepped down, Aetna placed Dr. John W. Rowe as the next CEO to improve the company's stock returns and its public image. He realized that Aetna needed to invest large amounts of capital into programs and initiatives that would improve physician and public relations. Patients and healthcare providers had become fed up with the restrictions and demands placed on them by Aetna. Dr. Rowe reduced the workforce by 12.5%, dropped unprofitable businesses, revamped Aetna's referral system, took out the hassles out of health care insurance and tried to establish respect between Aetna and physicians and hospitals. He created a high-profile office dedicated to improving physician relations and placed a competent person, Dr. John Kelly, at its head. Aetna finally began to improve and reported good first-quarter earnings in April 2002, emerging from an operating loss the previous year. The leadership of Dr. Rowe had led to the turnaround of Aetna as shown by the recent operating results. He claimed that this was only the first milestone and Aetna must continue to move along this path to continue to produce good results
You might also like to view...
Reliable Car Parts, a manufacturer of spare parts, has two production departments—Assembling and Packaging. The Assembling Department is mechanized, while the Packaging Department is labor oriented. Estimated manufacturing overhead costs for the year were $15,100,000 for Assembling and $10,500,000 for Packaging. Calculate the department predetermined overhead allocation rates for the Assembling and Packaging Departments, respectively, if the total estimated machine hours were 45,000 and labor hours were 22,000 for the year. (Round your answer to the nearest cent.)
A) $686.36, $233.33 B) $335.56, $477.27 C) $233.33, $686.36 D) $335.56, $686.36
A company operating in the business market may find it useful to segment possible customers based on their level of risk aversion
Indicate whether the statement is true or false
In which of the following categories would a dry cleaning business be placed?
A. specialty store B. category killer C. superstore D. services retailer E. discount store
Which of the following is the correct definition for a partnership?
a. An association of two or more persons with one or more general partners and one or more limited partners. b. A legal entity ordinarily consisting of an association of numerous individuals. c. An association of two or more persons to carry on as co-tenants in business. d. An association of two or more persons to carry on as co-owners a business for profit.