Dawa'y Medical Company' Strategic Response on Covid-19's Impact on Sales, Operations, and Communication
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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 ...