Managing Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Assignment - Pharmacy2u company

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Added on 2020-10-23

Managing Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Assignment - Pharmacy2u company

Added on 2020-10-23

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Managing Small and MediumSized Enterprises

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThe study is based on interview of Entrepreneur of SME which is Pharmacy2u offers onlinemail order pharmacy and also provide online doctor services to its customers. The company andthe management is headquartered in Leeds (UK) and was incorporated in 1999. The company isowned by partners Daniel lee and Julian Harrison. Pharmacy2u has an experience of 20 years inthe field of pharmacy. Currently it consists of 100 employees, working for its customers 24*7.The study outlinedservices provided by pharmacy2u are repeat prescriptions by NHS and onlineservices of doctors for their easy access. Its competitive advantage is, it was the first company tostart this services in UK and also the prescriptions provided by the company are certified byNHS.The revenue generated by the company in year 2017 was €25.8 million and net incomewas -£20.3 million in 2017.For start up's financing requirements Daniel lee invested £100,000by selling his apartment to meet working capital requirements.TABLE OF CONTENTSEXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3FINDINGS.......................................................................................................................................3Nature of the entrepreneur behind the venture............................................................................3SME start - up process.................................................................................................................4Business concept and any sources of competitive advantage......................................................5Current level of demand and the competitive environment.........................................................5Growth and development of the business to date........................................................................6Challenges of managing and running the business......................................................................7SMEs current growth and development strategy.........................................................................7Government support measures that are available to help the business overcome the challenges.....................................................................................................................................................8CONCLUSIONS...........................................................................................................................10RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................10REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

Managing Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Assignment - Pharmacy2u company_2

INTRODUCTIONSmall and medium enterprises as per United Kingdom concept can be defined as Small andMedium Enterprise, if it fulfils 2 out of 3 conditions viz. a turnover of less than £25 million hasemploys less than 250 employees has gross assets of less than £12.5 million. It contains theinterview of the owner Daniel lee about his small firm turning into a medium firm pharmacy2uwhich provides online mail order prescriptions to its customers. The background of pharmacy2uis that Daniel used to work for his father in his pharmacy business and that is when the plan ofonline mail order prescriptions popped in the mind of the entrepreneur and he started his o0wncompany in 1999. It was started as a small medium enterprise and is continuing to grow towardsbeing a large company by expanding its operations and services.Aim“To outline growth of SME with reference to nature, start up, challenges and governmentalsupport: A case study on Pharmacy2u”. Objectives· To derive nature, concept and start-up process of Pharmacy2u.· To assess challenges faced by firm in managing successful business operations· To outline competitive environment and current level of demand of services of Pharmacy2u.· To ascertain development strategies and governable support of Pharmacy2u.FINDINGSNature of the entrepreneur behind the ventureThe nature of entrepreneur was to increase the sales of pharmaceutical prescriptions to itscustomers by online mail order services and to grow from SME to one of the largepharmaceutical company of UK, Daniel lee who founded pharmacy2u in 1997 was to create anew idea with innovation and full of creativity and to have his own venture by perceiving theidea that was both possible and desirable to the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur started with aninternet mail – order pharmacy. The entrepreneur's initiative was to deliver online prescriptionsand services to its customers more efficiently and conveniently with low rates. The vision wasalways clear to the founder and therefore entrepreneur started business with seeking propercertification from National Health Service (NHS) (Qurashi, 2017).

Managing Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Assignment - Pharmacy2u company_3

The idea of new venture formation is derived from culture, subculture, family, friendsand from family business which was dealt in pharmacy business and owned a chain of chemistshops in Leeds. After perceiving the idea, it was for individual to have a budget to start a ventureand founder of Pharmacy2U sold his apartment for creation of money to create a website ofpharmacy2u.co.uk for selling online mail order prescriptions to its customers. With all hard workand efforts pharmacy2u became the first online pharmacy in UK in SME (Verbano, 2015).Company faces many challenges from National Pharmaceutical Association as well asBritish Medical Association to check its business practices and structure, but at last the feedbackreceived was positive from both the association and the establishment of internet basedpharmacies hyped. The nature and motive of entrepreneur defined creativity, innovation, hardwork, patience and a long vision not just to grow but to be stable in the market and to start a newera in pharmacy industry. It turns into a customer oriented company which allow them to haveeasy accessibility to avail medical services along with positive response of inspection andrecommendation to stay open. The nature of entrepreneur drawn out to be confident, hard-working and focused. SME start - up processAt an initial stage the entrepreneur Daniel lee worked for his family's pharmacy businesswhich was owned by his father and he had a chain of chemist shops in Leeds. While managingwork at father's shops, the entrepreneur came up with an idea to found an internet mail – orderpharmacy company named pharmacy2u for customers. For the setup of the online website theentrepreneur sold his apartment in order to create the website. After the set of website, thecompany used courier service as well to supply medicines to its customers (Gessner, 2015). The company became the first online pharmacy company in UK which started its set upin 1999. The two association of UK expressed their concern over the innovation inpharmaceuticals and filling prescriptions online which were British Medical Association andNational Pharmaceutical Association and they emerged as a challenge for the new start up butfew days after they opened an inspection team was hired in order to inspect their businesspractices and structure (Schutte,2018). The result of inspection was positive and pharmacy2u got recommendation to stay openwhich lead to a new amendment of the 1968 Medicines act for the establishment of Internetbased pharmacies which gave rise to internet based pharmacy company providing prescriptions.

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