Dawa'y Medical Company' Strategic Response on Covid-19's Impact on Sales, Operations, and Communication
Author
Author Affiliation
Introduction
Dawa'y Medical Company (DMC) is a leading retail pharmacy chain with key operations in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and United Kingdom. The company operates a chain of brick-and-mortar stores globally, with operations relying on various digital solutions that have seen it emerge as a global retail pharmacy leader. Since the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic onset, its operations, communications, and sales have suffered significantly. Despite having a robust risk management strategy in place, the pandemic's prolonged effect and the implemented mitigation measures by the World Health Organization and respective countries have provided new challenges to the company's sustainability.
As a result, there is an urgent need for a strategic response to seeing the company remain in business as it serves its global markets. Among the key changes expected is the shift to virtual communications and management to prevent the company from potential deterioration of the sales department, which is the global firm's backbone in terms of revenue.
The success of the current strategy is enhanced by reliable and effective management and communication. GMC's current strategy consists of two core aspects. The first aspect is heavy reliance on retail sales. In this aspect, GMC acts as the link between manufacturers and consumers: buying products and services directly from pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributing the products to consumers, through our brick-and-motor stores distributed worldwide and through the internet.
As a measure of serving a diversified base of needs, the company is involved in both retail and specialty product and service delivery. The retail function focuses on storage, compounding, and dispensing of prescriptions to the general public and forms the largest part (55%) of the sales department in terms of income. The function also serves other retailers where our stores act as wholesale points. The sub-section forms 30% of the company's sales department regarding revenue. Specialty services and products involve chronic and complex medical conditions, including arthritis, HIV, organ transplantation, Crohn's, cardiovascular complications, multiple sclerosis, and ulcerative colitis. The sub-section is responsible for 15% of the company's revenue.
The second aspect of the current strategy is the intensive application of digital solutions. The adoption of digital solutions resulted from a diversified market in which there are three main types of customers: brick-and-mortar, click & collect, and home delivery clients (Braun, Tiralongo, & Wilkinson, 2020). For each segment of the market, the DMC provides a variety of digital solutions. Some of the digital solutions within our stores include LIFT at Pharmacy (LIFT-P), Fast Find at Pharmacy (FFP), and Engage at Pharmacy (EAP). LIFT-P is a promotional service that creates new sales opportunities at the checkout point (Demaj & Hysa, 2020).
When employees scan items at the checkout, promotion for related services or offers is triggered, and the customer is informed through the customer-facing touchscreen. FFP allows customers to find relevant products quickly by simply clicking on their symptoms on the touchscreens. The digital solution is efficient in helping customers find OTC medications (Demaj & Hysa, 2020). On the other hand, EAP is an informative digital service that provides meaningful wellness content through store screens and messaging promotion.
Recent trends suggest that customers' brick-and-motor section is increasingly intertwined with the click & collect segment because they search for information online before visiting our stores. Essentially, our pharmacies have heavy online traffic with relatively lower online purchases. Click & collect customers prefer to order and pay online but pick their prescriptions at the stores. The section of customers also benefits from our in-store digital solutions. Through DMC's website or application, home delivery customers order online and wait for deliveries at the doorstep. Within the current strategy, the group is the smallest of the three.
Since Covid-19 restriction measures have reduced the number of customers visiting our stores, it implies a reduction in brick-and-motor customers and an increase in click & picks and home delivery customers, except Rx drugs. In essence, the current in-store digital solutions are no longer serving their intended purpose. To this end, the company can only rely on its telehealth services through online platforms, including the website and company application. Fewer customers, especially those whose descriptions cannot be home-delivered, are visiting the store. Therefore, the new strategy seeks to address the shift in customer preferences. More importantly, however, the restrictions have also impacted the company's operations in terms of communications and management. The new strategy will also ensure that new digital solutions solve these problems.
Strategic Response
Therefore, the new strategic responses will focus on reviving the discussed aspects of the business operations and communications. The purpose is to sustain sales through effective virtual communication among team members and between employees and clients to enhance service and product delivery. Since the customer base's biggest chunk is heavily affected, DMC is currently limited in delivering services.
Explain what the limited options that Dawa'y currently has regarding dealing with the pandemic are.
In the current strategy, the limited options include delivery of door-to-door services, handling of increased online traffic and online orders, and touchpoints for customer engagement and promotional services. Delivery of door-to-door services is mainly done by company riders which imply that their number should be increased to retain the reliable delivery that our customers depend on. With a decrease in the number of customers visiting our stores, there is a need to increase how DMC interacts and delivers promotional and informative services, which are only done through the website, DMC application, and social media platforms.
Lastly, since most of our employees are restricted from working from home, the company faces difficulties in terms of reliable digital management and communication tools to enhance teamwork and productivity (Karia & Asaari, 2016). Technology promises to be the only reliable solution to these limitations.
What is the level of technology urgency Dawa'y needs to sustain its performance?
Therefore, for DMC to sustain its current performance, there is an urgent need to invest in various digital solutions ranging from hardware, software, human resource, and human resource development. Software is required to support management, communication, coordination among teams, and home delivery and customer engagement services. The software's efficiency will rely on hardware with efficient processing speeds, information and data storage, and service delivery solutions.
The implications are that DMC will need to acquire new personnel in the IT department and train or re-train current employees in handling technological solutions. There is also a need to assist current employees due to the sudden change to teleworking to ensure a smooth transition that will not affect service delivery.
Required Digital Capabilities
Supporting the services above require technologies that have enhanced digital capabilities (Demaj & Hysa, 2020). Some of the digital capabilities include big-data analysis, audio- and video conferencing, and team or task management capabilities.
As a global manager, leading from home involves the leverage of digital capabilities. What are these capabilities? List and explain at least 3.
Since the company will rely almost entirely on virtual services, data and statistics will significantly inform decisions. Big-Data Analytics is a solution to the systematic analysis and extraction of relevant information from extensive and complex data sets that include client EHRs, customer behavior, social media trends, financial records, supplier and vendor trends, and sales data. DMC will rely on big-data analytics for risk management, innovation, product development, the efficiency of informed decisions, and enhancement of customer experience in the new settings due to Covid-19.
Some of the tools DMC will require Haoop (storage and analysis of data), MongoDB (to monitor frequently changing data), Talend (for integration and management), Spark (for real-time processing), and STORM (as a computational system) (Stokes, Rogers, Hertig, & Weber, 2016).
Audio and Video Conferencing Capabilities
With reduced face-to-face interactions between team members, DMC will also require digital solutions capable of handling telecommunications. These are important in holding virtual meetings and enhancing communications among employees and between employees and clients.
Team or Task Management Capabilities
The management will also need digital solutions that can help monitor and coordinate tasks and projects. These capabilities are vital in allocating and scheduling responsibilities among managers, teams, and team members. Therefore, managers can virtually tell what needs to be done and by which team (or team member) and, therefore, pass on the necessary information while receiving real-time feedback.
Explain what type of virtual management will be implemented and why?
There are several types of virtual teams from which DMC can choose to implement the new strategy. Management virtual team is ideal for the company because it connects managers of the same organization located in different geographical areas. The managers' role in the discussion and implementation of corporate-level strategies. Even with the production of vaccines for the pandemic, it remains uncertain when governments will ease the mitigation measures. Furthermore, globalization trends suggest that teleworking is increasingly the business trend (Contreras, Baykal, & Abid, 2020). Therefore, the virtual team is formed with both short- and long-term goals in mind.
How will the virtual teams work together?
As part of the solution to the door-to-door delivery system, the company will implement a drone deliver...