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A Call to Arms – Your Next Fight for Survival
In our last edition our lead article COSBA Support for Pharmacists Owning Pharmacies may not have attracted your attention and the significance of a different type of threat to the survival of pharmacy. We were interested to note that at least one pharmacist was alert to these circumstances and posted to the Auspharmlist Bulletin Board who noted…
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Balanced view in professional opinions
The new-look Australian Journal of Pharmacy heralds a interesting direction in medical marketing and related advertising. The front cover and inside two pages tell us that Panadol Osteo is “Australia’s No 1 pain reliever brand for osteoarthritis”. Pharmacists insist on “evidence” when discussions emerge on other options for arthritic pain, and accordingly, may I supply…
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COSBA Support for Pharmacists Owning Pharmacies
Peter Strong is the name of the chief executive of the Council of Small Business of Australia, and he was invited to address the National Press Club recently about Australia’s economic health. Given that political parties of all flavours acknowledge small business as being the driver of employment and innovation within Australia’s economy, it was…
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More Father’s Day advice – from readers
Several weeks ago I used this column to share lessons I learned from my parents in recognition of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. My intention was to honor mothers and fathers everywhere for the wisdom they impart to their children. The column apparently struck a chord, because I had a record response from readers about…
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I’ve been thinking about how the work we do today may impact the world we live in tomorrow
This afternoon, I received an e-mail from my friend George Laurer (to my right), the inventor of the UPC bar code—the very same code scanned on the items I purchased this morning at Costco and Trader Joe’s. It arrived on the anniversary (June 26, 1974) of the first bar-coded product being scanned at a point…
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The Gap Report & Its Opportunities
Self Care has been a platform of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia for as long as I can remember. It is good that it is at last receiving government recognition, particularly as it so easily fits a platform of patients taking responsibility for their own care and that the education required for patients is a…
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The APLF – a very quiet organisation
The Australian Pharmacy Liaison Forum (APLF) is a pharmacy umbrella organisation that was born in 2008 amidst political tension between major pharmacy organisations. The fact that it was not needed until that point is testament to the goodwill and collegiality that existed between pharmacists and the various organisations that represented them. Something happened to alter…
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Life is what you give back
A son and his father are walking in the mountains. Suddenly, the boy falls, scrapes his knee and screams, “AAAhhhhhhhhh!!!” To the son’s surprise, he hears his voice repeating, somewhere in the mountains, “AAAhhhhhhhhh!!!” Curious, he yells, “Who are you?” He receives the same answer, “Who are you?” Angered at the response, he screams, “Coward!” He receives…
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Supermarket Comparisons – are they individually different?
i2P began reporting on Aldi well before they opened their first store in Australia and it has always been favourable. They are renowned for their constant attention to detail in designing their internal systems and their continual auditing of costs. They also tend to put cost savings back into their retail prices. And by putting…
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Organise online to succeed offline – the connected world
Business online architecture is driven by the culture of cloud computing adapted for use with mobile technologies. And it creates a “constantly connected” environment that we either master to serve us in three major themes, or we become slaves to our own electronic environment. Those themes are effectiveness and productivity, balance and awareness, growth and…