Aflac Inc. overview and business operations

¶ … Aflac, Inc.:

Aflac Incorporated is a general business holding firm that serves as a management company in providing supplemental health and life insurance in the United States and Japan, the two largest insurance markets across the globe. The company supervises the operations of its two major subsidiaries in America and Japan that provide management services. As one of the leading firms in this industry, Aflac Inc. has insured more than 40 million people across the world. In addition, the company has an estimated workforce of more than 69,000 licensed agents who contribute to the huge revenues that the firm generates. Through its focus on specific disease health insurance policies including disability, accident, and long-term care; Aflac Inc. has continued to grow steadily in both the United States and Japan.

Adherence to the Stated Vision and Mission:

The mission and/or vision of Aflac Incorporated is to integrate creative strategic marketing with quality products and services at competitive prices to offer its consumers with the best insurance value. The company seeks to accomplish this through supplying quality for its agents, inspiring and rewarding working environments to employees, developing better quality to its shareholders, and using new technology for improved service to its policyholders.

The success and profitability of Aflac Incorporated in the insurance market can largely be attributed to its adherence of the stated vision statement, mission statement, and philosophies. Through its two business segments, the company provides insurance products that are specifically designed to assist customers in paying for their medical and non-medical costs. Aflac, Inc. offers its products in ways that allow its policyholders to change part of their life insurance to care sectors like nursing care ("Profile: Aflac Inc.," n.d.). In order to provide better value insurance policies, the firm has several insurance segments like cancer insurance, life insurance, and accident and health insurance.

External Assessment through Porter's Model for Competitive Analysis:

Aflac Inc. has continued to prevail in different geographic locations through the competitive advantage of hedging against market risk. The firm is also renowned as a company with competitive advantage for conducting its business operations in ways that enable it to generate profit from issuance of insurance unlike other firms in the industry. The health and life insurance industry that the firm operates in is characterized by constant changes in order to adapt to current events. This is largely because any major events and occurrences can cause the life and health insurance industry to re-examine coverage strategies and policies.

The competition in the health and insurance industry can be further understood through the use of Porter's five forces of competitive analysis model. The industry does not consist of a lot of supplier power since there are a huge number of companies competing for market share. Consequently, firms in the industry cannot make irrational and unreasonable demands when adopting pricing strategies for their products. As people are unlikely to trust firms they don't recognize to cover them, the main barrier to entry in the industry is name recognition. In order to lessen the risks involved with insurance, firms in the industry need the economies of scale. Aflac Incorporated experiences low threat of substitutes because of its unique workplace system that permits it to be a low-cost provider. The buyer power in this industry is high due to the presence of many insurance firms with expected price sensitivity because of existing economic conditions. Moreover, competition is relatively high in the industry as companies are competing for price sensitive consumers (Heim, Kaiser & Hammon, n.d.).

SWOT Analysis:

The operations of Aflac Incorporated is influenced by internal factors i.e. strengths and weaknesses and external factors i.e. weaknesses and opportunities. The strengths of this company are strong financials through its conservative investment approach with no exposure to subprime holdings and the increase in premiums in both the United States and Japan. The other strengths are its status as one of the most recognized insurance brands, strong market position in America and Japan, and growth through increasing its dividends for more than 30 years.

In contrast, the other internal factors of the firm are its weaknesses that include its reliance on Japan for revenue, medical insurance that could lower profit margins, and lack of available credit. However, Aflac Incorporated also has numerous opportunities in the insurance market such as the aging demographics in America and Japan with the potential of increasing demands in the industry and rising health care costs that increase the need for supplemental insurance. Other opportunities are the decline in government spending that force people to buy supplemental insurance to cater for unexpected diseases or death and the collapse of one of its major competitors. The main threat to the operations of Aflac Incorporated is insurance fraud as the Japanese government has been investigating payout practices in the insurance industry.

Aflac's Intensive Strategy:

Aflac's market penetration in the insurance to stimulate the firm's growth occurs in three dimensions including earned premiums, which is the basic driver of total revenues. Moreover, market penetration is achieved through total revenue growth of the company and increases in the revenue. Product and market development at Aflac Incorporated mainly occurs through the existing conditions in the market and customers' demands. Throughout its history the company has expanded its insurance products range based on customers' needs and demands for certain types of insurance coverage. Consequently, the firm develops products that meet the specific demands and uses them to penetrate into and develop in the insurance market.