From the Author

The pharmaceutical market is one big family

The pharmaceutical market is a close-knit environment: manufacturers, distributors, pharmacy chains, and technology companies work side by side for years, negotiate, and compete. Everyone depends on everyone else, yet each seeks a stronger position. Over time, not only company size changes, but functions do as well. A chain builds a warehouse, begins purchasing directly, manages assortment and data—and as those functions move to the chain, so do money, dependencies, and influence.

Why do companies operating in the same market end up in completely different positions after a few years?

How positions within the family change

One company grows and becomes stronger. Another grows—and merely scales its own problems. The difference starts with a new capability: a company removes a constraint better than others and gains an advantage. But the market learns, and yesterday’s advantage becomes the norm. Then the competition moves on—to capital, purchasing, assortment, data, decision speed, and scaling. I have worked with inventory and flow management systems since 2004 and with the pharmaceutical market since 2012. Projects I have participated in have covered 10,000+ pharmacies, including chains of up to 4,500 locations, from Mongolia to Argentina. In this book, I distinguish among project data, field observations, practical estimates, and teaching models. The goal is not to predict the market, but to show the mechanism of its evolution and a company’s next step.

This book does not offer one right answer. It helps you see where to look for it.