My thoughts on the changing business landscape…

Over 25 years ago, I teamed up with another pharmacist, John Kardis, to go into business together and we bought our first pharmacy in Moe, Victoria.

Since that first purchase, we’ve built a pharmacy Group which now services over 240 members. We have not been afraid to take things to the next step, take calculated risks and learn from our mistakes along the way.

As we hurtle towards 2020, I see the business landscape changing rapidly, with technology enabling breakthrough transformations in automation; improving efficiencies and cost-effectiveness.

Management and leadership are key to ensuring our organisation is heading in the right direction for sustainable pharmacy operations. That’s why it was great to head to the Australian Pharmacy Professional Conference (APP 2019) earlier this year, where a group of us took time out from being in the business to look at it from the outside.

Janine Garner of LBD Group ran a great session on ‘Collaboration – The Power of the Collective’, which led me to reflect on my personal role in the business.

In her words, needing to ideate and innovate, manage and lead, think and deliver, is becoming increasingly complex. To succeed long-term as a business, we need to engage, evolve and work together to make things happen.

Be trustworthy

Trust in the government has declined from 73% in 1958 to 24% in 2014 according to the Pew Research Center. And only 40% of people trust the media a “good deal or fair amount” according to a 2015 Gallup Poll which is an all-time low. 

Businesses are also in the firing line when it comes to not being trusted by the general public.

The more authentic you can be one-to-one and one-to-many via marketing and sales the better. I’m not saying we have this right, but we’ve really ramped up our external communications to help show our members and all of our stakeholders what’s happening behind the scenes a little more. 

And when it comes to our business development teams, the feedback from our member pharmacies on our team’s personable and can-do approaches, got me thinking that trust, respect, professionalism, availability and authenticity really go a long way.

Be agile

More agile businesses can eat away at the market share of established organisations. One of the reasons I believe that Advantage Group has had longevity and growth is that we’re working to integrate new technology into how we work all the time. We’ve created a bespoke inventory management system called Buy-IT-RightTM for pharmacies to help them improve efficiencies, so they can spend more time doing what they’re good at – interacting with patients.

Some of Janine’s points around not blaming others and not adopting a ‘blame-itis’ mindset also highly resonated as it reflects some of our company values which include trust, teamwork, and taking accountability for your actions in a supportive environment.

Getting out of your comfort zone, whether you’re in customer service, finance, exec-level or a pharmacist working in our extensive network of pharmacies, it is so important to explore new ways of doing things and learning via best practice.

Surround yourself with the right people

I think, as any business owner knows, and often learns the hard way, surrounding yourself with the right people is critical for business success.

I particularly liked Janine’s analogy around surrounding yourself with four types of people:

·      Promoters - people that support you no matter what

·      Pick crew - people that will pick you up when it's not all rainbows

·      Teachers - people that will challenge you, but you can learn from

·      Butt-kickers - your mentors who keep you accountable for your actions

Be open-minded

After 25+ years even the best of us can get a little stuck in our ways! Sometimes, the more experience you have, can lead to closing yourself off to new ideas.  

This is where the value of collaboration helps us to stay agile. Diverse teams with varying expertise and common goals can lead to a mutual value exchange and help keep moving the needle forward. Sharing information with peers and giving more than taking are all tenets used to build the Advantage Group.

When it comes to our member pharmacies, I’m honoured to work with open-minded, intelligent, trusting and collaborative leaders. The same goes to our staff who share these values too.

This financial year has been highly successful for the Group, but it is always important to set aside some time to reflect, receive feedback, and strategize with the team for 2020 and beyond. More importantly, it is imperative that we acknowledge those that have taken the Advantage Group to where it is now – our very own Advantage crew! So recently, we set aside a full day for our employee engagement day with team building activities, plenty of food, and an abundance of ‘congratulations’ to those that have been long serving members of the Advantage family.

I look forward to exciting times ahead for the Advantage Group!