For the first visit of “Field Experience In A Business,” our class traveled to a local, yet prominent and nationally well-known testing facility called The Laboratory Corporation of America, or as we all know it, “LabCorp.” We were able to tour it’s corporate headquarters, which are conveniently located in North Carolina on the homelands of the man who created the company. LabCorp employs about 35,000 employees across the United States, as well as 4500 in Alamance County alone. The facility we visited is located in the Atlantic division, however, the corporation has 5 other divisions throughout the United States (6 divisions in total). LabCorp is an extremely successful laboratory testing facility and is vital to citizens of America as it helps millions of people become aware of their accurate test results for diseases such as cancer.
The mission of LabCorp is “to provide leading-edge medical laboratory tests and services through a national network of primary clinical laboratories and specialty testing laboratories” or in other words, to offer the highest quality laboratory testing, while analyzing samples and provide helpful feedback to their customers about whether they have obtained a disease. Along with their mission and to help ensure quality lab testing, they follow a five pillar strategy which is to deploy cash to enhance their footprint, enhance IT capabilities, continue to improve efficiency, scientific innovation at appropriate pricing, and alternative delivery models. Throughout the presentation, Mike Roberts stressed how important it was to him and the rest of the company to continue to follow the five pillars strategy, as it is detrimental to the consistent success of the company.
LabCorp’s customers are businesses who are in the lab industry, for example, hospitals, doctor’s offices, and healthcare providers. I see these places as direct customers to LabCorp because there are also indirect customers, as Mike Roberts had stated, like the patients that go to the doctor’s offices and hospitals. These men and women act as indirect customers of the business because they are going into doctor’s offices and giving their blood (samples) for LabCorp to test. He also had said that their two largest clients are the government and managed care. Each of these two obviously have big roles in the testing of specimens, for example, the government helps administer blood tests, drug testing, etc. and managed care sends the testing results of the disease or blood work.
The customers of LabCorp value the most accurate and highest quality testing results. For example, they desire accurate testing results down to 13 negative decimal points. LabCorp has a dedication to precision and quality and with the technology that they have obtained with the steady growth of their company, they are able to be extremely precise. The customers also value the speed of their results so that they will know what health situation they are in. Because LabCorp cares about their customers needs, they have automated systems that run all night when they are unable to work, so that they can be the most efficient. Roberts told us in one of the labs that it is common to be most busy at 1 a.m. Why? Because many samples would just be getting in from the previous day from the hospital, they are expected to have the results of specimen as soon as possible, hopefully by the next day. Since they are in such demand each day, they need to be efficient and effective. It truthfully seemed that LabCorp has found a system that works.
The results of LabCorp’s work are to be the best in their field, atop all other clinical labs throughout the country, as well as being the fastest and most efficient when giving back results to their customers. With another company called Quest right behind them, they need to continue to strive higher to create distance between their competition. Because they are the leading laboratory testing corporation in the nation, it makes it harder to keep their position. Consequently, they always want to exceed customer’s expectations and continue to generate a steady income with their services each day.
The plan of LabCorp is to keep their #1 ranking clinical testing laboratory and corporation as #1 in the nation. They want to increase with their effectiveness and efficiency with their testing results, possibly by expanding their technology within the facilities or continuing to follow their 5 pillar strategy. Once you get to the top, its difficult to remain the best, however, it seems that LabCorp has a distinct plan to remain the best nationwide.
Follow
