Depending on one’s role at Magellan Health, different skills and behaviors are required to thrive in the organization. However, there are a handful of skills necessary regardless of position, such as communication, teamwork, responsibility, and compassion. As evidenced by the company’s core values, a recurring theme was that working and collaborating with others and leaning on each other’s areas of expertise is essential to succeed at Magellan Health. Responsibility, by taking ownership of opportunities to improve, making ethical decisions, and helping others was likewise of critical importance. Lastly, compassion is of paramount importance at Magellan, or any healthcare organization for that matter, in order to serve your customers, empathize with them, and keep their best interests at heart. Other skills required specifically for those in Magellan’s leadership include strategic thinking and analytical skills. Many of the senior executives have years, if not decades, of experience in situations that required the development of complex strategies and business plans, with a good number of them also involved in highly analytical roles that involve breaking down and interpreting information in order to make decisions.
Overall, I think my skills would be an adequate fit for Magellan Health. While certainly there are roles within the organization that I would not be well suited to, there are others in which I would be well placed. My strong analytical skills, deliberative thinking, and responsible nature would all make for a good fit at the company, especially as the company is involved in managed care, which requires substantial analytical capabilities. Other areas that may not be so strong include communication and teamwork. My communication skills I believe are somewhat below average, particularly in oral communication, which I fare poorly in, as far as my own self-assessment is concerned. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I am not a team player or that teamwork is a weakness of mine, but I do prefer to work alone or one on one with another person. I generally do not thrive in group collaborations but can and will work in a team setting as required.
When Magellan first started out, they were exclusively a behavioral health company. In the years from 2006 to 2012, they focused their efforts on diversifying their business beyond behavioral health and expand their revenue sources. From 2013 to 2016, Magellan again shifted strategies and adopted a focus on repositioning the company through Magellan Complete Care and Pharmacy expansion. 2017 marked yet another change in Magellan’s corporate strategy. Having diversified their business lines and repositioned the company, it was now time to direct efforts towards growing Magellan’s two primary platforms, Healthcare and Pharmacy.
Since the company went public in 2004, the shares have more than doubled, from $28.26 to $62.56. However, this does represent a significant decline of nearly 50% since the $110.20 high in April. The decline is primarily due to Magellan Health repeatedly lowering guidance and reporting disappointing earnings over the last few quarters. In light of these recent events, Starboard Value, an activist hedge fund, has purchased a 9.8% ownership stake in the company, in a move that signals potential changes to management or even the sale of a business line in order to maximize shareholder value.
The primary strengths of Magellan health are their value-based model of care, their current size, and their strong market position in the niche market of behavioral health. The primary weaknesses are deteriorating liquidity from taking on increasing current liabilities in relation to current assets, and rapidly rising cost of goods sold. Opportunities available to Magellan include expansion of their operations to new regions or expanding their business to include different types of operations. The primary weaknesses are economic conditions, adverse changes in healthcare law, and potential hostile takeover from activist hedge funds.
