Case | HBS Case Collection | 2000

Lifeline Systems, Inc. (A)

by H. Kent Bowen and Marilyn Matis
 

Abstract

Lifeline Systems provides emergency response equipment to the elderly who live at home. The company uses local hospitals to market, sell, and install these units in homes, while the hospital monitors and calls for aid to respond to emergency calls from the elderly subscribers. After serious performance problems due to ill-advised diversification strategies, the new CEO, Ron Feinstein, turns the company around by focusing on both hardware and service. Lifeline focuses on supporting the channel and takes over the monitoring service, which becomes the growth business. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Product Marketing; Sales; Problems and Challenges; Growth and Development Strategy; Managerial Roles; Service Operations; Hardware; Age Characteristics; Service Delivery; Restructuring; Crisis Management; Health Industry; Service Industry;

Format: Print 28 pages Purchase

Citation:

Bowen, H. Kent, and Marilyn Matis. "Lifeline Systems, Inc. (A)." Harvard Business School Case 600-099, June 2000.

Related Work

  1. Case | HBS Case Collection | 1999

    Lifeline Systems, Inc. (B)

    H. Kent Bowen and Marilyn Matis

    In 1997, Lifeline Systems continues to grow its service business to $32 million, 56% of the company's total revenues. More local hospital Lifeline programs turn over their monitoring service to Lifeline Central, expanding the company's subscriber base by 30%. The company decides to invest over $11 million in a new subscriber monitoring system to maintain its market leadership. At the end of 1998, Lifeline moves its corporate headquarters from Cambridge, MA to suburban Boston to lower real estate costs. Changes in the eldercare industry also spell growth: employers become interested in providing eldercare referral as an employee benefit, cuts in Medicare result in less home health care by nurses, and Lifeline forms strategic partnerships with the American Red Cross and an assisted-living community developer.

    Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Expansion; Cost Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Change; Customer Relationship Management; Service Operations; Age Characteristics; Investment; Health Industry; Technology Industry; Cambridge; Boston;

    Citation:

    Bowen, H. Kent, and Marilyn Matis. "Lifeline Systems, Inc. (B)." Harvard Business School Case 699-038, February 1999.
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H. Kent Bowen
Bruce Rauner Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus

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