Vladislav Gurin :: BioTech & Pharma consulting

The manufacture of pharmaceuticals is a complicated process, comprising numerous steps leading from raw materials to finished formulated product. That finished product is the API (active pharmaceutical ingredients), and it is this product, along with the necessary inert ingredients, packaging, and labeling, which the FDA licenses.
A drug manufacturer’s plan for producing a given medicine, which must pass muster with the FDA before the agency permits its distribution, contains a number of steps:

• Planning — A strategy for ordering the raw materials.
• Sourcing — Choosing the suppliers that will deliver the goods and services. Suppliers could be domestic or international.
• Making — This is the manufacturing step. Manufacturers schedule activities necessary for production, testing, packaging, and delivery. Manufacturing is also the most timeintensive portion of the supply chain. Manufacturing involves making the API and its conversion to the final dosage form, as mentioned above. More than one manufacturer may be involved, and manufacturing can take place in the United States or abroad. A pharmaceutical company may contract several chemical steps to foreign firms and then import the resulting intermediate compounds needed to complete the manufacture of the API domestically. The manufacturer can also outsource the manufacture of the API abroad; when it does so, the FDA closely monitors those plants. Conversion of API to the final dosage form may occur domestically or be “outsourced’’ to a foreign plant.
• Delivering — This is the “logistics’’ portion of the manufacturing and supply plan. Companies coordinate the orders from customers and choose transporters who carry the product to customers, such as wholesale distributors and pharmacies. Finally, the pharmacy dispenses the finished medicines to patients.
• Returning — This is the system for receiving defective and excess products back from customers and supporting customers who have problems with delivered products (including reimbursement).

Some businesses hold it and some don’t — a passion for customer service is one of the foundations of a really wealthy business. It’s hard to say where it originates from, or how you maintain and develop your Customer Service Passion (or simply CSP), but without passion and commitment to customer service it just doesn’t appear to work.
It’s like standing in a queue at the drugstore for 30 minutes and reading over and over the sign on the wall that says ‘We value your business and save you time’ or ‘Our customers are the heart of our business’; it just doesn’t feel true.

Customer Service Passion is about doing the little things that show that your business is entrusted.

Customer Service Passion is a commitment.

It has to begin at the top of an company and work its way through the whole team. Everyone in the customer service loop needs to be made aware of what the business wants to achieve and of the level of customer service that is expected. A company might have great products at great prices, a simple and effective ordering system, friendly staff and so on, but it can be let down by one person from staff on the warehouse floor who packs the goods poorly, or by a delivery truck driver who dresses like a slob, constantly has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and has an attitude about where he will and won’t make deliveries.

Customer Service Passion can be developed.

If you can make your team see the benefits of offering excellent customer service, you will win them over. Of course, leading by example is the best way to illustrate this point. Show your staff your customer service passion and they will pick up on it. Soon it will spread through the entire company’s business, becoming second nature to everyone. Your customers will definitely notice this positive change.

This is a great question and one that we would all answer a little differently. Balance means something different for each and every one of us, and to find out what it means for us is the first step to achieving it.

For some people it means no stress at all, having everything in perfect order, living a perfectly healthy life, feeling energised, calm and under control.
For others - it is cutting back the workday from 18 hours to 14 hours, the number of coffees from 10am to 5 pm. . . You get the picture.
This is not an article with scientific approach about spiritual enlightenment, but a practical advice (step-by-step tips) to help you find your own balance between your business and other aspects of your life. As you work through it you will form your own mental picture of how you would ideally love your life to look and feel.

The following list identifies the ten reasons for getting out of Work & Life balance. Of course, there are many more, but these are the biggest  most common culprits:

1. Overwork — simply putting in too many hours and being a slave to your business.
2. Financial problems — struggling to make ends meet in the business and worrying about how you will pay your bills.
3. Overcommitment — agreeing to do giant work for too many people and not leaving enough time or energy for yourself.
4. Poor stress management — not knowing how to manage your own stress or not being able to admit that it is a problem.
5. Relationship — with partners, family and friends, co-workers and customers.
6. Poor lifestyle — eating badly, lack of physical exercises, and alcohol and drug abuse.
7. Lack of direction — feeling trapped and isolated in the business and uncertain about your future direction or goals.
8. Lack of bounds — being too accessible to too many human-beings.
9. No space and time to rejuvenate — no holidays, time outs, hobbies or amusements to remind you why you do what you do.
10. Negative environment or negative people around you every day.