Strategy 101 for your pharmacy practice

If you’ve been waiting for a time, or a sign, to rethink your pharmacy practice, well here it is. This past year, you’ve likely become acutely aware of whether you’re engaged in the work you’re doing or whether you wish your days looked different. A good question to ask is: Does my pharmacy practice align with my personal passions? If not, it’s time to rethink your practice strategy. Look, healthcare practices everywhere are crying out for strategic thinking—both from a delivery perspective, and also to reengage a deeply burned out and increasingly disengaged workforce. Read: 5 tips for helping patients make informed decisions about menopause hormone therapy I encourage every pharmacist to think about their career and practice strategy. Remember that status quo is not actually a strategy, and that there is a cost to doing "business as usual." Once you are ready to stop going around and around in circles, it’s time to think strategy. Here is the most critical question you need to be able to answer if you’re a pharmacy owner looking to pivot your business, or a staff pharmacist looking to get re-engaged in your profession: Why should someone choose you as their pharmacy/pharmacist? It’s important to note that differentiation does not always involve finding a clinical niche. While it certainly can mean being best-in-class at travel health, cardiac care or mental health, or focusing on prevention or acute care, there are also many non-clinical ways you can differentiate yourself from others and design a strategy for your practice. For example, you can compete by differentiating your market by demographics such as age, gender, sexuality or ethnicity. You can also compete on non-demographic traits such as lifestyles, attitudes, financial sophistication and behavioural characteristics. Traits aside, your core strategy may even fall into other areas of excellence such as patient engagement, convenience, or patient experience. Read: Dream team: Makers of the Rx Billing Genie app Are your barriers actually excuses? Next, remember to check your assumptions. Are the barriers that have held you back in the past actually barriers, or are they simply excuses? For example, a lack of public funding needn’t hold you back from offering services; there are other ways to fund your practice. Blaming restrictive regulations? There are a LOT of innovative ways to practise within the regulatory frameworks that exist. Don’t know where to start? Embark on strategic networking and/or surround yourself with advisors or friends who have skills that are different than your own to fill in the gaps. Adopting a new strategy means getting over entrenched mindsets. As you look ahead to five years from now, reflect on the following questions to get off on the right foot by thinking strategically about the following: Why should someone choose you as their pharmacy or pharmacist? (And how does this differ from their other options?) What stories do you want people to tell about your practice? What would your practice look like if it was aligned with your personal passions? Are you excellent at what you do, or just good enough? What are your distinctive areas of excellence? What should your pharmacy practice look like? What should it feel like to work there? Lastly, strategy is made of trade-offs. Strategic choice means growing in some areas while making distinct and explicit decisions to exit others. With that in mind, what strategic decisions can you make this year that your future self will thank you for? Amy Oliver is an experienced pharmacy and healthcare executive and the Founder and CEO of Amy Oliver + Co (amyoliver.ca), a firm that offers advisory services and certified professional coaching to health leaders and practice owners looking to master their strategy, management and leadership on their journey to excellence.