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Make the Right Turn at the Next Crossroads
In the latest edition of Drug Topics, senior pharmacist Truman Lastinger describes a scenario for what he describes as Retail Pharmacy in the US. Because US pharmacy is a bit ahead in evolution than Australian pharmacy his comments are very relevant for today’s Australian pharmacy, the practice of which has split into three components- Retail…
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Disruptive Technology for Patient Engagement
New technologies pave the way for innovation to drive business practices in pharmacy. Unfortunately, innovation appears to be a slow process in Australian pharmacies and as a result there is a pent-up frustration among young pharmacists that nothing is happening. On the other side of the coin there seems to be a majority of pharmacy…
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Creativity and Innovation – In Pharmacy, both may need an injection
Creativity and innovation are terms constantly used in the world of business, but what do they really mean in that context? The dictionary defines creativity as: “the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination” For an actual example of creativity I turned to Seth Godin, and he did not fail me. “One of my favorite triumphs of all time happened…
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Patient Engagement – Start With The Salutation
Health is a very personal business and trust is a very important element in the “engagement” mix as far as delivering information about conditions or medications, and the mentoring required when transferring knowledge and understanding. Engagement is a two-way process and involves system and style. For example, I have often used my knowledge of family…
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Blue Ocean Strategy – It Fits a New Pharmacy Model
Pharmacists have described the community pharmacy environment for as long as I can remember, as being restrictive and confined, no matter the physical size of the pharmacy. They call it the “four-wall syndrome” and it is, in fact, a form of depression. The one thing that characterises the profession overall is that there is little…
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Blackmore’s New Flagship Store – Now There’s a Model for Pharmacy!
Blackmores have designed and opened an innovative flagship store that offers the complete wellbeing experience, with rooms for private consultations with qualified naturopaths, a modern ‘Mindful Ocean’ system to assess mindfulness, the Wellbeing Bar for food and drink tasting as well as offering the comprehensive Blackmores’ product range. Located on Level 5 of Westfield, Bondi Junction, the…
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Shopping
In this ever-changing world we have constant disruption. Beliefs that we once held for marketing concepts are forever changing as consumers react to the environment around them. And the online environment, while having many presentations and converts, is an environment that community pharmacists have yet to fully embrace and conquer. Particularly in the portrayal of…
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Phoctors and Docpharms
In these days of constant change or business disruption we often find ourselves in a constant state of anxiety. This is not good for mental health and is probably the underlying reason why mental health issues have shown such a massive increase across the spectrum of entire populations, over the past five years As a…
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Increase Your Employability – Build a Personal Brand Through IT & Social Media
Increasingly, it is becoming more difficult for pharmacies to employ a range of pharmacists. It is simply because of the diminishing money supply in the system. This comes about because of the commoditisation of the PBS and the lack of courage by all pharmacy leaders to develop systems and services that are not government funded…
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Create Infinite Growth Through Appropriate Brand Building
Recently, I came across a paper published on the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) website and it was titled “Eight Lessons to Secure Infinite Growth”. It was a paper that involved simple processes to create strong brand images. As I read into the detail I found that if I changed some of the nomenclature it was…