•Justify the assembly of a balanced product portfolio by marketing managers as a means of ensuring extended success in the health care market industry. Provide two (2) real-life examples to support your rationale. •Assess the importance of portfolio planning in the health care industry, and determine at least one (1) approach to portfolio planning that can help marketing managers to ensure productive marketing operations. Provide at least two (2) specific examples of portfolio planning in a health care organization with which you are familiar.

Hello Class,

I want to be clear on what is expected for the discussion questions. There are two questions each week.

First, let us discuss the requirement of posting:

1.You have to post your initial response to each question. Therefore, that is a response to Question #1 and a response to Question #2, for two (2) responses. 2.You then have to respond to one (1) classmate for both Discussion Questions #1 and #2. This means there will be one (1) response for Question #1 and one (1) response for Question #2. That gives you a total of two (2) posts. 3.When you have completed both of the above areas that gives you a total of two (2) responses to each Discussion Question for a grand total of four (4) responses for both Discussion Questions. Second, I want to discuss the quality of your posts. If another student makes a good point and you have an example to illustrate that point, share it. Also, if you have a question about another student’s response, ask it. Perhaps you do not agree with a student’s response; if so, go ahead and share your objective. The purpose is for the class to take on the feel of a “live” conversation, one where we have back-and-forth dialogue with one another about the week’s concepts. Here are a few strategies you might employ when participating:

•Share a related experience. •Comment on others’ experiences. •Ask other students questions about their ideas/experiences. •Consider an idea being discussed, and offer a different perspective on it. •Describe an interesting idea from the week’s reading, and explain what insights you gained from it. •Ask the group a question about the week’s reading. •Disagree (respectfully, of course) with a point that someone else has made. •Discuss a related issue on which you would like some feedback. •Describe how you have applied the recent course concepts to your personal/professional life. IMPORTANT

1.Your initial posts to the Discussion Questions need to be a minimum of 250 + words. 2.Your responses to your classmates need to be a minimum of 150+ words. 3.When I make comments and it specifies that you did not meet FREQUENCY, which means you did not post the required minimum posts for the discussion questions. 4.If I place under your comments that you did not meet QUALITY, which means you did not meet a quality post as described above, it was not 150+ words or did not provide substantive information to the discussion. 5.Review that you have posted correctly, such as a blank post or the same information posted multiple times, which does not count toward meeting the posting requirements. BEST PRACTICES

1.Do not wait until the last day of the week to post to the discussion questions, this does not give the other classmates time to reply to your information nor does it give you additional thoughts from your fellow classmates. 2.It is a good practice to possibly post more than four times if possible to give you opportunity for any possible errors as described above. REMINDER RULES

1.Do not start NEW THREADS; respond directly under each of the Discussion Questions #1 and #2 that I have already posted. When you post in the wrong areas the system may not acknowledge you have posted to the discussion questions, as well as your classmates are unable to respond to your thoughts. 2.If you have personal issues or concerns, these are to be discussed with me through personal email, not in the discussion threads or the QUESTIONS thread. 3.The Questions Thread is for questions or concerns directly related to course issues not a personal area concerning your personal grades or grading issues. I like to discuss those issues with you in person. I look forward to great discussions; these are just a few minor areas that we can enhance for a better learning environment. If there are further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Dr. Becky Foster, Ph.D.

Strayer University Instructor

Students taking this course online are required to post their discussions to a weekly thread in the online course shell. Respond to at least one (1) other students posts to earn full credit for each discussion. As it is always possible that you could lose your work due to unforeseen circumstances, you should routinely save your work in a separate file before posting in the course discussion area.

Professors hold discussions during class time for on-ground students. Check with your professor if any additional discussion participation is required in the online course shell outside of class hours.