PHARMACY BUSINESS INSIGHT

EDITION 5 | JUNE 2015

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL

APPROACH

JUSTIN BERNHAUT

CASE STUDY: JACK N’ JILL KIDSHOW TO BUILD AN

ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTUREALEX BONGERS

ADAM FERRIER

PBIEDITION 5 | JUNE 2015

PHARMACY BUSINESS INSIGHT

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

Pharmacy Business Insight is a bi-monthly publication that features commentary from

key opinion leaders from pharmacy and beyond. The views expressed in Pharmacy

Business Insight belong to the authors who contribute them. The information in

this publication is of a general nature only and is not intended to be a substitute for

professional advice.

Sponsored by Pfizer Australia Pty Ltd. (ABN 5008422348) of 38–42 Wharf Road,

WEST RYDE NSW 2114.

PFIZER FOREWORDWelcome to Edition 5 of Pfizer’s Pharmacy

Business Insight (PBI), which has changed noticeably since our February edition.

This slimmed-down, eight-page version will be published every two months in response to the fast-paced flow of information that pharmacists need to process amid ever-increasing time pressures.

While PBI’s format has changed, its focus will not. It will continue to provide useful information on the current and future challenges impacting the long-term sustainability of pharmacy.

From the first four editions’ theme of ‘The Cycle of Change’, we move to explore ‘The Entrepreneurial Approach’ and how your pharmacy can continue to adapt and innovate within an evolving and challenging landscape. We will share learnings, tools and examples of best practice that may assist pharmacists in supporting their patients:

• Leading consumer behaviour commentator and psychologist Adam Ferrier delves into the psychology of success on page 4 and how you can drive behavioural change – within yourself, your team, and your customers.

• Pharmacy of The Year 2015 category winner Alex Bongers shares his thoughts on page 6 about how pharmacy can adopt this entrepreneurial approach to better meet customers’ needs and support improved community health outcomes.

• A case study from Jack N’ Jill Kids brings an entrepreneurial approach to life. Co-Founder and Director Justin Bernhaut draws on the lessons both he and his father learnt in pharmacy, which helped him develop an innovative offering.

Roy Morgan’s Image of Profession

Survey 2014 in April showed that pharmacists continue to be among the most trusted professions in Australia – at 92%, the highest level of public trust since 2003. This presents a significant opportunity for you to find where you can deliver the most value and patient care, and so structure a more sustainable pharmacy model.

Why does this matter to your pharmacy?

Consider how up-to-date the training of your pharmacists on these specialised areas may be.

• Are you providing the best clinical care you can to these patients, to ensure they return to your pharmacy for ongoing support?

• Are you providing services to these patients or running early-detection or counselling programs to assist pre-diagnosed or just-diagnosed patients?

Maintaining up-to-date training and services in pharmacy will help you improve community health outcomes and strengthen pharmacy’s role as an important hub of patient care.

THE TOP5 Therapeutic category growth areas (dispensary)

in community pharmacy*

1 IMMUNOSUPPRESSANTS

2 ANTI-NEOPLASTIC AGENTS

3 ANALGESICS

4 ANTITHROMBOTIC AGENTS

5 ANTI-ANAEMIC PREPARATIONS

* Data and analysis provided by NostraData®.

| 32 | FOREWORD PBI JUNE

EXPERT CONTRIBUTORS

ADAM FERRIERCSO/Partner at

cummins&partners. Adam is Australia’s leading consumer

psychologist and author of The Advertising Effect: How To

Change Behaviour.

ALEX BONGERS Team Leader Pharmacist,

Priceline Pharmacy Bourke Street Mall. Alex is also a

Teaching Associate at Monash University, Consultant at The

Med Man, and is currently completing a Diploma of

Business (Entrepreneurship) at BSchool.

JUSTIN BERNHAUTCo-Founder and Director of

Jack N’ Jill Kids, which he manages with partner Rachel.

The business was founded from Justin’s background in pharmacy and the lack

of options in children’s oral hygiene, which led to the

development of an innovative product range that filled

an unmet need.

ANENTREPRENEURIAL

APPROACH

As a psychologist, there is one genre of book I really dislike – and that’s ‘self-help’. It’s kind of like those ‘get rich quick’ spruikers – if you’re the kind of person who’s going to be rich, the last thing you’ll attend is a get-rich-quick program. The same with self-help, and with businesses I see a similar thing.

Many business coaches write books or give seminars that say to their flock, “Just do this, just do that, and you’ll develop an entrepreneurial attitude”. However, they have no real understanding of how hard it is to change the habits of a lifetime.

For those of you who were at APP and saw my talk (wow, I had no idea how loudly a pharmacist audience can heckle!), you would have seen that behavioural change is a function of two primary variables: motivation and ease. The more motivated you are to do something and the easier it is to do it, then the more likelihood that behaviour change will occur.

So let’s say you wanted to develop a more entrepreneurial approach to your pharmacy business. How would you do that? Well I’m going to leave the motivation side of this equation alone – who doesn’t want to be more motivated?

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUCCESSSome of you may be aware of the Big Five Personality Factors – the main variables psychologists use to understand someone’s personality. They are:

• Introversion–Extroversion• Neuroticism–Stability• Agreeableness• Openness to change• Conscientiousness.

Guess which of these five personality variables are most often associated closely with success? The first is easy, it’s conscientiousness. That is, if you don’t work hard and stay dedicated to the task, you won’t succeed. The second, however, is a little more interesting – it’s openness to change.

Successful people are not only open to new ideas and new concepts, but they get a bit of a thrill each time they learn something new.

Adopting successful behaviours depends on their ease and your own motivation, says Adam Ferrier, but specific personality factors and actions can assure success.

THREE ACTIONS OF SUCCESSSo what actions can we take that are ‘easy’ and trigger our desire to learn new ways of doing business, and get great health outcomes for our customers? Here are three that I’d love you to consider implementing:

TALK TO THE PERSON NEXT DOOR: go next door to whichever businesses surround your pharmacy – a Pancake Parlour, a Foot Locker, or a dentist – it doesn’t matter. Just strike up a conversation with them about their business. Ask them what they do to improve things in their business; which are the good days, and the bad? What tricks have they used to engage their customers – which have worked and which haven’t? Years can go by without residential neighbours talking to each other and I’m sure it’s the same with small businesses – yet they could end up being your greatest ally.

BUILD AN ALLY: think about all the support services at your doorstep, to which you could refer people for better health outcomes. For example, if a customer needs to lose weight, let them know of a 10% discount rate you can give him for the Foot Locker next door. You’ll be helping your customers.

PEOPLE WATCH: if actions 1 and 2 were too much, here’s something even easier. Just watch your customers. Mystery shop. Take off your white coat and step out from behind the counter and walk around your shop with them. Imagine what they are buying and why? What was the last night’s sleep like for the parents coming in for children’s cough medicine – it must have been hell, up all night? What else can you offer them or their child to help with their predicament? Filling the script is the most mechanical part of the job – understanding the person who needs the script and why is where you can further assist your patients.

STILL READING?If you’re still reading, you’re interested enough to do this, can I make one final suggestion? Do it right now.

Go next door and have a chat, or follow your customers and try and understand their motivations. Behaviour change is also like trying to solve a murder – if investigations happen straight away, the

more chances the murder will get solved; the longer you leave it, the less likelihood that you’ll find the culprit. Do it now.

I would never suggest what I don’t practise myself. The building in which my business is located is a brilliant source of referrals, and we refer others to them too. Proximity is a wonderful motivator to make things happen.

“BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE IS A FUNCTION OF TWO PRIMARY VARIABLES – MOTIVATION AND EASE.”

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| 54 | THE ENTREPRENEURIAL APPROACH PBI JUNE

THE GOOD OLD DAYSI grew up with pharmacies in the 1980s when there was a strong sense of dynamism in the industry. It was undergoing massive changes that saw the introduction of computerised dispensing and the beginning of the refined marketing group.

Individual pharmacies had different personalities and provided unique healthcare and retail experiences, even if they were paid-up banner group members. This personality was underpinned by the head pharmacist/owner.

There was a clear understanding that you were engaging with a human being, whether that be the pharmacist or one of the family-like staff members who were also fixtures of ‘the shop’. There was a time when we didn’t think of turnover in terms of square footage or retail-savvy shop fittings. The real asset was the pharmacist.

Pharmacies were a reliable source for advice, medicines and an eclectic mix of retail offerings.

THINGS MY FATHER TAUGHT METhroughout his career in pharmacy, my father was known to his customers as ‘Adam’. Whether Mrs Goldberg was enquiring about mixing her blood pressure medication with a Bloody Mary, or seeking help with inserting film into her late husband’s Hasselblad, only Adam had the answer.

Very early on, it struck me just how dependent a community can become on their local pharmacist. The cold reality set in after graduating from pharmacy college myself – with all the latest knowledge and an eagerness to disseminate it, I was often overlooked in favour of ‘Adam’s’ wisdom. Fair enough, too – he’d been a fixture in that community for decades already.

My father had all the standard pharmacy offerings and, probably because he took a personal interest, chose to stock a variety of commodities ranging from professional cameras and electronic games to French fragrances. He even took to importing

some of these goods himself. His personal interests helped define his business.

Price is important, but for many people it’s down the list. If price is the only incentive you have for your customers, you will struggle to be sustainable. Offer something unique – yourself.

DO AS YOU WANT DONEDeveloping Jack N’ Jill Toothpaste has been guided by the many ideas touched on here. I spent many years becoming highly accomplished at things that others were also good at. Often I could perform these tasks in a superior way – but this didn’t guarantee any more success than others.

Jack N’ Jill was born out viewing the world through a different lens. Instead of only looking at the marketplace and trying to out-perform someone, my wife and I created the product and brand that we wanted to buy for our own children. We had a simple approach that assumed that if we wanted to buy it, other parents would too.

To satisfy our criteria, Jack N’ Jill needed to address some issues:

1. Complete safety for a toddler/child to ingest. The product needed to be efficacious and have components with a known safety profile.

2. Taste – we put the formulation rulebook aside and re-engineered the idea of what toothpaste should comprise. Understanding the challenges that parents face when brushing a young child’s teeth dictated the need for a product that would taste ‘yum’.

Many years will pass before a child will truly understand the value of good oral hygiene – if it tastes good, they won’t care what the purpose of brushing is. We felt that by making it fun, children are likely to develop a positive association with brushing from an early age, which will last a lifetime.

3. Branding – teeth cleaning is such a fundamental part of our daily routine that we wanted to align it with a traditional theme. The Jack and Jill nursery rhyme creates this in an ideal way. There is also a warm familiarity without requiring another Marvel™ or Nickelodeon™ licensed image/character.

4. Packaging – it needed to be serious yet playful, environmentally friendly and appealing to adults as well as children. It also needed to stand out in a retail environment – we wanted it to bear little or no resemblance to other products in this category. We have applied these design principles throughout our range.

FROM NURSERY RHYME TO GLOBAL BUSINESSAfter four years, our products are available in more than 30 countries and business is growing rapidly. Our approach has allowed the brand to capture the zeitgeist of modern parenting.

Doing business was never easy and in many ways it has become increasingly more difficult. But opportunity is not directly proportional to this – I believe it is independent for the most part. Don’t strive to be as good as the ‘best’ out there. Strive to let your personality define the fabric of your business, and the way you engage with your community. It’s all you’ve got.

EMBRACINGENTREPRENEURIALISM New entrepreneurial ideas for innovating business can be a dime a dozen – how do you know what will work in your community pharmacy? Asking your community is the logical place to start, says Alex Bongers.

The main thing I have learnt from working across different pharmacy settings is not to take anything for granted. A pharmacist plays a different role in a hospital compared to a community pharmacy, and both are completely different to a pharmacist’s experience in the South Pacific, or probably anywhere else. Why? Because our practice depends on the needs of our community and our willingness to meet them.

Since managing pharmacies and working at university, I have been exposed to countless entrepreneurial ideas for innovating in health and pharmacy practice from other young pharmacists and pharmacy students. I love this creativity but there is little doubt about our limited success in bringing these innovations to reality.

We should continue sharing these ideas, but we should also consider an extra layer to ensure implementation.

LISTEN TO YOUR MARKETThe first question to ask of every idea is about its relevance to your market. How many customers want a particular service offering in their local pharmacy? Please make sure this question isn’t about what we can (or want to) do – implementing a successful service is not about us, it’s about our customers.

I recently spoke to some young community pharmacists who wanted to introduce HIV rapid tests. Great service, great idea, professionally rewarding – fantastic, right? Not necessarily. If someone needs this service, would they feel comfortable coming in to a pharmacy for it? What about services relating to eczema, hay fever and travel health? These conditions are our bread and butter, customers expect our expertise in this area and there are no innovative pharmacy services to address the shortfall in their management.

ALEX BONGERS

2013 - 2015Team Leader Pharmacist, Priceline Pharmacy Bourke Street Mall, Australia’s largest pharmacy

2015 Winner of ‘Excellence in Business Management’, QCPP Pharmacy of the Year

2012Pharmacy Advisor, Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development, Fiji

2011Intern Pharmacist, Royal Melbourne Hospital

In my last pharmacy we had a three-hour flu vaccination clinic. It sold out the same morning it was announced in an email to our loyalty card members. Its success had little to do with what we did or wanted to do, it was the market telling us they wanted this service. So we had picked the right service, but we had also identified the demand – that is, we needed more clinic sessions so people with different schedules could attend.

The next year we employed our own nurse practitioner and had three five-hour clinics a week for eight weeks. We also vaccinated hundreds of local workers in their workplaces, responding to our customers’ needs.

FOUR STEPS TO ENTREPRENEURSHIPFor a new service in your pharmacy� Ask 10 customers, 10 local health

professionals, a local government member and their staff about the largest health problems in your location.

� Take the top three, support them with any available data, then find a solution to the problem within your professional scope of practice.

� Pitch these three ideas to a friend who doesn’t work in health and ask if they would value these services. If they would, you might be onto an unmet patient need.

For existing pharmacy services:� Evaluate the services you

provide – how frequently they are marketed/accessed, if they address a community problem, and if they make your pharmacy sustainable. If you have services that are not needed, reconsider continuing them.

A mentor once asked of one of my ideas, “What do you win? How much do you win by? And does anyone care?” In pharmacy, ‘anyone’ is our customers and when they win, we win. Considering this and your market will ensure success in implementing change in your pharmacy.

| 76 | POTY/QCPP WINNER CASE STUDY: AN ENTREPRENEURIAL BUSINESS APPROACH

JACK N’ JILL KIDS

A children’s toothpaste range may sound like a nursery rhyme but developing it wasn’t just child’s play for second-generation pharmacist Justin Bernhaut and his wife. Lessons from his father and children helped to create a global business that is no fairy tale.

“LET YOUR PERSONALITY DEFINE THE FABRIC OF YOUR BUSINESS, AND THE WAY YOU

ENGAGE WITH YOUR COMMUNITY.”

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY

PBIPHARMACY BUSINESS INSIGHT