This assignment discusses the struggles faced by Pharmacy 2U, a well-known SME in the UK. It explores the challenges of lack of funds, poor IT resources, and lack of support during emergencies. The assignment also delves into theories of entrepreneurship and the innovative strategies adopted by Pharmacy 2U.
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Running head:MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE. Managing Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Name of the Student: Name of the University: Author’s Note:
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2 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE Executive Summary SMEs form a major source of employment generation in any economy. They are also very easy in handling as their areas of operation in small and limited. Thus, they usually do not have any problems that are usually faced by the other bigger companies. There is no risk of losing any company data; they usually handle a very manageable and compact amount of work. As far as UK is concerned SMEs form a major source of income for the UK economy. They often face some of the other kinds of issues like lack of fund, lack of sufficient training to the workforce and many other such problems. Pharmacy 2U is one such well known SME of the UK. They are the first online or internet pharmacy of the UK that was established by Daniel Lee in the year 1999. This assignment has dealt with the services being rendered by this company and the different struggles that they are facing.
3 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE Table of Contents Introduction......................................................................................................................................4 Findings...........................................................................................................................................4 Theories of entrepreneurship.......................................................................................................6 Poor IT resource...........................................................................................................................6 Lack of funds...............................................................................................................................7 Lack of support during emergency..............................................................................................7 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7 Recommendation.............................................................................................................................9 References......................................................................................................................................10 Bibliography..................................................................................................................................11
4 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE Introduction SME or small scale industries play a major role in developing the overall economic status of a country. They are much easier to handle and can be carried on in an optimized manner. They are the micro enterprises that account for major growth and development in the total GDP or the national income of the organized manner. SMEs are one of the most important forms of generating employment. They account for about 50 % of the total employment generation. SMEs form a major portion of the total income of U.K. “According to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, there were an estimated 4.8 million businesses in the UK at the start of 2012, employing approx. 23.9 million people and having a combined turnover of £3,100 billion. (Grant, Laney and Pickett 2015) However, SMEs often suffer from a lack of a sufficient amount offund.ThisreporthasdealtwithonesuchSMEofUKcalledPharmacy2U (www.pharmacy2u.co.uk. 2019).They try following the continuous improvement strategy in order to make the lives of their patients easier by using the upgraded technological means. An interview withDaniel Lee,the founder ofPharmacy2Uwas undertaken in order to know about the operations and the current status of this organization. The following sections have been done based on the evidence obtained from the interview. Findings Pharmacy2U is one of the well known SME of the UK that is trying their level best to take care of their best by following the best updated and upgraded scientific technologies. They have realized that it is not always possible for them to cater to the individual needs and demands of each of their patients. The founder of the company is Daniel Lee, who is the current Chief
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5 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE Pharmacy Officer of the company. It was founded in the year 1999 with the motif of providing the best possible service to the patients living in different parts of the country. They are the first online Pharmacy of UK that is trying to reach out to all the patients who are living even in the farthest and the most remote regions both in local and the Global level. This same was launched in the year 1999, and since then they have been trying their level best to deliver the best services to all their customers. One of the best and most unique services that are rendered by them is the online prescription and the online medication service that is given to the patients’. This is a very flexible service that helps the patients to get the prescriptions and the reminders very easily just by using a simple touch on their SMART phone devices or any other such subjects. Using a digitalized platform is very helpful in this modern day scenario where science d technology is playing a very big role. All the professionals including the doctors, the customer care executives, pharmacists and all the other members stay online on a 24*7 hour basis. This helps the patients in going through all their previous prescriptions just by logging into their profiles and getting the online assistance of the professionals. Patients can easily get the assistance of the doctors, the order for their medicines and the medicines also get delivered at the doorstep of the patients in a very short period of time. As per the opinion ofGamage (2015), this is the first online or internet pharmacy of the UK who is trying their level best to utilize all the highly advanced technological and scientific means. They are making the lives of so many patients easier by saying their time, energy and money. However,Mitchell (2015) has argued that online pharmacy companies often get involved in illegal online activities or black marketing activities. This is because the companies sailing drugs online are often those medicines that the doctors refuse to prescribe to the patients. Thus there is always a very big risk of these SME getting involved in the illegal activities. The online
6 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE pharmacy companies often collaborate with the doctors in order to provide medical assistance to their patients online. However, it is the responsibility of the company, to make sure that they are verifying all the past details and qualification of the doctors that they are employing. As they are not meeting these doctors face to face, there is a chance of some fraud activities taking place. The company employing the doctors must be registered under the Care Quality Commission. Online clinics only prescribe a limited number of medicines and do not replace regular doctors working from surgeries. This might be creating a bad impact on the patients as the patients often look for a second or third opinion on their medical conditions. Thus this is one of the major issues with this SME because they operate within a wide range and lack of variation. Schumpeter’s Theory of Innovation holds well in this aspect.As per the opinion of Schumpeter (2017), the theory of Schumpeter stresses on the innovation of new products and methods of production. Pharmacy 2U is one such company that has innovated their products to a great extent. As per this theory, the entrepreneurs disrupt thestationary circular flow of the economy as they are capable of introducing many new innovative and dynamic products for their business. Pharmacy 2U has come into force in the year 1999, and since then they have been venturing into all the new of products and services that they can bring in order to fulfill the changing needs and demand of their consumers. Pharmacy 2U has brought the new and innovative GP service for their patens. This service helps the patients in forwarding their problems and their issues to their doctors via the online mediums. This is a secured platform that helps the doctors to get access to the personal information of their patients and go through them. Following this, the doctors go to the respective houses of the patients in order to carry on their patients in their desired locations. Thus the patient gets the assurance that they will get the medical treatment right at their houses without taking up the pains of leaving their houses. Apart
7 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE from this they have designed their online website in such way that the patients can go through an entire list of the products like weight loss products, herbal products to deal with the skin products and many other such objects. Patients get the option of going through all these medicated and doctor prescribed products in the web portal along with the price of each. This helps the patients to know all the details of the products and place the order, thus this portal acts as a one-stop platform for the patient so that they can get a wide range of product right at one single platform. Thus it is evident that the entrepreneurs who started this business have really ventured a lot in the ongoing trends in the market and about the needs and demands of the customers. It must be noted that there are many criticisms ofSchumpeter’s Theory of Innovation. Burlamaqui and Kattel (2018)have argued that one of the major risk that the entrepreneur has to face huge risks whenever they try to create or introduce any new innovative products on the market. This is because Pharmacy 2U has created a wide range of products and services for their customers. They are always at the brink of facing several challenges or many risks. One of the major risks is the dissatisfaction caused by the patients who moth sue them by changing any lawsuits against them. As they mainly operate in the online platform, there is a chance that no one is checking the expiry dates of the medicines that are being delivered. This is one of the major errors that might disrupt the goodwill that the company is enjoying in the market. Often the officials of the company might fail to see if the doctors are all registered under theCare Quality Commission. In order to attract the attention of the customers and to render the uninterrupted services, the online Pharmacy 2U has to collaborate with many doctors from different parts of the world which are experts in different fields of diseases. This
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8 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE will help them in catering to the needs of all the patients in a very time optimizing manner. However, if they fail to make sure about the registration or the legalization of the doctors there is a big threat of the patients getting wrong or early treatment. This might make the patients enraged, and they can take the help of the law to fight against these harmful legal practices. Theories of entrepreneurship The Uncertainty-Bearing Theory of Knight also holds well in this aspect. As per the opinion ofBylund and Manish (2016.),the theory of Uncertainty-Bearing talks about the most essential qualities of an ideal entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is one who has to bear the risk- bearing capability. He has to keep his mindset that they will be facing many different kinds of hurdles in their path. Thus they have to carry on their business by following the continuous improvement strategy(Meyer and Meyer 2017). They have to make a huge expenditure on the R&D department so that they get to know about all the ongoing trends that are prevalent in the industry. HoweverWhite, Sarpong and Ndrecaj (2015) have argued in this context that this theory of entrepreneurship stresses only on the risk-bearing capability of the entrepreneurs. There are many other qualities or traits that must be present within an entrepreneur. Abiding by this theory might make the modern entrepreneurs overlook the other important qualities that are of utmost importance. The entrepreneurs of Pharmacy 2U have to make sure that they are not only looking after battling the impending risks of the market. However, they have to carry on a proper feedback session so that they get the opinion of all their customers in order to know about their experiences.
9 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE There are many problems that are faced by the SMEs in UK Same s the case with Pharmacy 2U. Some of the issues that are faced by them are as follows Poor IT resource One of the major issues that are faced by the SMEs is lack of funds for among any kinds of changes in the ongoing system.Lisanti, Luhukay and Mariani (2017) have suggested that the SMEs serve as a major source of employment. They also form one of the building blocks of the UK economy. However, they have to make sure that after employing the workforce they are able tohavethepropertrainingtoalltheiremployees.Thiswillensurefree-flowingand advantageous. A poor IT resource is responsible for the malfunctioning of the system(Rakićević, Omerbegović-Bijelović and Lečić-Cvetković 2016). As a result of this, the system might crash, and this wills greatly often the customers. The customers look for not only the quality of the products but also the timely delivery of the same. Particularly as Pharmacy 2U is an online or internet pharmacy they have to work over the proper functioning of the IT system so that the customers can get an uninterrupted service. As per the news covered by the Telegraph, there are times the, company is unable to stay active for catering to the needs of the patients. This is one of the major differences that the patients will face between the online pharmacies and the physical pharmacy stores(Ward 2015). The patients know that the physical pharmacies will be open on 24*7 hour basis except for public holidays(Harel and Kaufmann 2016). However, there are some medical pharmacies like Apollo which stays open for the entire day in order to cater to the needs of the patients. Some patients were frustrated while they complained about the inefficient and irresponsible attitude of the company during the week of Christmas. It was said the Pharmacy 2U that some of the
10 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE essential drugs would not be available before January 11. This greatly angered the patients as they did not know where else to look for these medicines. Moreover, these patients were suggested by NHS to order their drugs and medicines from this company. This was a very serious issue that must have been taken care of by Pharmacy 2U. Many of the patients left the company as they had to suffer a lot. There were patients who took the membership with this company as they had a very long term medical condition and believed upon the services rendered by the Pharmacy 2U. However, as they denied the services, these patients thought that they have been cheated and wanted to leave their subscription with the Pharmacy 2U. Lack of funds SMEs suffer from one of the major issues that are lack of sufficient amount of fund. It is due to the lack of money that they are often not able to work over their services. As many of the SMEs are venturing into the online medium or the digitalized platforms they often have to suffer from the problems of facing a huge website crow or jamming of the traffic. This will often obstruct the customers from reaching it to the company as per their need. In other words, Pharmacy 2U suffers from lack of sufficient amount of money for appointing a talented and trained workforce who will be able to take better care of their customers. Lack of support during emergency The SMEs often do not get sufficient about of support from the Government when they are in some kinds of trouble. Often customers stay online in order to get some response from the professionals, but they are unable to get the same(Wang 2016). Either they run short of funds to
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11 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE appoint new employees to enrich their workforce, or the existing employees lack a sufficient amount of knowledge to cater to the needs and demands of the customers Conclusion Thus it can be concluded that Pharmacy 2U is trying level best to give the best possible servicestothecustomers.Theyaretryingtoutilizealltheupgradedmodernscientific technologies so that they can help all their customers. They have also made their entry through the online or the digitalized platforms which is one of the highly demanded aspects of the modern day scenario. The entrepreneurs like Mark Livingstone, the founder Daniel Lee and others are putting forward a huge time and effort for helping their clients. However, at the same time, they have to look out for the impending risks that lie ahead of them. Apart from receiving a competition, they have to focus on the loopholes of their services and make sure that they are taking into account all the complaints that are forwarded by their customers. They have to focus on the proper allocation of the resources including the capital funds and manpower so that they can divide the workload and make sure that one of their clients are getting any chances of complaints. Recommendation They must focus on the proper allocation of resources and advance planning of budget. This will ensure that they are not running short of funds. Pharmacy 2U has to make sure that they are having a sufficient amount of money to appoint a number of employees.
12 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE Venturing into the digital or the online platform has been a very useful and wise decision. However, they have to make sure that they are able to channelize their digital services in a more efficient manner. Constant training has to be conducted for all their employees so that they can cater to all the doubts and queries of their customers on a 24*7 hour basis. Partnering with large business enterprises can be a good strategy used by them. They will be able to get help from a large number of sponsors in order to get a good amount of money for carrying on with all their future emergencies.There is also a lack of responsibility and awareness on the part of the Government to help the SMEs. Two years back the UK Government did not give a sufficient amount of support for the development of the SMEs. However, now the Government is trying their level best for the up gradation of the SMEs. Thus Pharmacy 2U must make sure that they are adapting themselves to the changing conditions of the country. They have to spend a huge amount of money over the R&D department so that they get to know about all the prevailing trends in the online pharmacy market. They have to switch over the more upgraded and modern communication systems so that the customers do not get unnoticed when they are actually in need. By moving to a VoIP system, you will be saving at least 30% on call charges and gaining a much more efficient and feature-rich system(Rojas et al. 2018). Pharmacy 2U has to expand their areas of research so that they can get to know about the efficient technological and scientific up gradations. One of the major problems is lack of fund. Thus they have to find out new ways of getting money from different sources(Wang and Yang 2016). They have to take loans from credible resources or enter into some partnership business with already existing
13 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE online pharmacies. This will enable them to get good business tips and capital for taking care of their problems.
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14 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE References Burlamaqui, L. and Kattel, R. eds., 2018.Schumpeter’s Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy: A Twenty-First Century Agenda. Routledge. Bylund, P.L. and Manish, G.P., 2016. The Mises-Knight Theoryof UncertaintyandIts Implications for Entrepreneurship, Equilibrium, and the Theory of the Firm. InResearch in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology(pp. 305-336). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Gamage, P., 2015. Bank finance for small and medium-sized enterprises in Sri Lanka: issues and policy reforms.Studies in Business and Economics,10(2), pp.32-43. Grant, K., Laney, R. and Pickett, W., 2015. SME Marketing Networks: Handover Issues Faced by Australian Entrepreneurs: A Pilot Study. InProceedings of the 2000 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference(pp. 436-440). Springer, Cham. Harel, R. and Kaufmann, D., 2016. Financing innovative SMEs of traditional sectors: the supply side.EuroMed Journal of Business,11(1), pp.84-100. Lisanti, Y., Luhukay, D. and Mariani, V., 2017, November. IT service and risk management implementation for online startup SME: Case study: Online startup SME in Jakarta. In2017 International Conference on Information Management and Technology (ICIMTech)(pp. 300- 303). IEEE. Meyer, D.F. and Meyer, N., 2017. Management of small and medium enterprise (SME) development: An analysis of stumbling blocks in a developing region.Polish Journal of Management Studies,16.
15 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE Mitchell, R., Hutchinson, K., Quinn, B. and Gilmore, A., 2015. A framework for SME retail branding.Journal of Marketing Management,31(17-18), pp.1818-1850. Rakićević, Z., Omerbegović-Bijelović, J. and Lečić-Cvetković, D., 2016. A model for effective planning of SME support services.Evaluation and program planning,54, pp.30-40. Rojas, H., Renteria, R., Luque, E.N., Peralta, M. and Merma, J.L., 2018. Proposal to Implement Low Cost Digital Communication Using VoIP Technology, a Case Study.International Journal of Future Computer and Communication,7(3). Schumpeter, J.A., 2017.Theory of economic development. Routledge. Wang, J.G. and Yang, J., 2016. Inclusive Enough for “Neglected 80 Percent”?—Small Business Loans by Large State-Owned Commercial Banks. InFinancing without Bank Loans(pp. 163- 174). Springer, Singapore. Wang, Y., 2016. What are the biggest obstacles to growth of SMEs in developing countries?–An empirical evidence from an enterprise survey.Borsa Istanbul Review,16(3), pp.167-176. Ward, V. (2015). Hundreds of patients left without medicines over Christmas due to technical problemsatonlinepharmacy.TheTelegraph.[online]Availableat: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/12075810/Hundreds-of-patients-left-without- medicines-over-Christmas-due-to-technical-problems-at-online-pharmacy.html [Accessed 7 May 2019]. White, G.R., Sarpong, D. and Ndrecaj, V., 2015. Sustainable packaging: Regulations and operational challenges in a manufacturing SME.International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development (IJSESD),6(3), pp.31-40.
16 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE www.pharmacy2u.co.uk.(2019).www.pharmacy2u.co.uk.[online]Availableat: https://www.pharmacy2u.co.uk/ourteam.html [Accessed 7 May 2019].
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17 MANAGING SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISE Bibliography Baden, D., 2017. CSR: An opportunity for SMEs. InInnovative CSR(pp. 84-101). Routledge. Baporikar, N., Nambira, G. and Gomxos, G., 2016. Exploring factors hindering SMEs’ growth: evidence from Nambia.Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management,7(2), pp.190- 211. Fernandez, R. and Ali, S., 2015. SME contributions for diversification and stability in emerging economies-anempiricalstudyoftheSMEsegmentintheQatareconomy.Journalof Contemporary Issues in Business and Government, The,21(1), p.23. Gandhi, S., Sachdeva, A. and Gupta, A., 2018. Distributor service quality in Indian SMEs: A bi- directional customer perspective.Uncertain Supply Chain Management,6(4), pp.335-356. Loader, K., 2015. SME suppliers and the challenge of public procurement: Evidence revealed by a UK government online feedback facility.Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 21(2), pp.103-112. Manuere, F.A.I.T.I.R.A. and Majoni, T.A.S.A.R.A., 2016. The concept of corporate social responsibilityamongSMEsinZimbabwe.InternationalJournalofLatestResearchin Engineering and Technology (IJLRET),2(2), pp.63-71. Seethamraju, R., 2015. Adoption of software as a service (SaaS) enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).Information systems frontiers, 17(3), pp.475-492. Singh, F. and Kaur, M., 2015. Why exporting SMEs switch banks?.Global Business Review, 16(4), pp.652-664.