Managing Small and Medium Enterprises: Pharmacy2U Case Study Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Pharmacy2U, a prominent UK-based Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) operating as an online pharmacy. The study explores the company's business model, operational strategies, and the challenges it faces within the competitive market. The report delves into the application of entrepreneurial theories, including Schumpeter's theory of innovation and Knight's Uncertainty-Bearing Theory, to understand the driving forces behind Pharmacy2U's success and the risks it encounters. The analysis covers various aspects, such as the company's innovative approach to online prescription services, the impact of technology on its operations, and the issues related to IT resources and funding. The findings are based on an interview with the founder, Daniel Lee, and supported by academic research, offering insights into the dynamic nature of SMEs and the importance of adaptability and risk management in the entrepreneurial landscape. The report also discusses the company's efforts to overcome challenges like poor IT resources, lack of funds, and the need for continuous improvement to meet patient needs and maintain a competitive edge. The report concludes with recommendations for Pharmacy2U, aiming to improve its operational efficiency and mitigate potential risks.

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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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.

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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

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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
of fund. This report has dealt with one such SME of UK called Pharmacy2U
(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 with Daniel Lee, the founder of Pharmacy2U was 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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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 of Gamage (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

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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 the stationary 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

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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 of Schumpeter’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 the Care 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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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 of Bylund 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.
However White, 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.

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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
to have the proper training to all their employees. This will ensure free-flowing and
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

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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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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
services to the customers. They are trying to utilize all the upgraded modern scientific
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.

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 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