Be your own area manager: Presentation matters

In the first of a series looking at how taking an ‘area manager’ view of your business can drive performance, Liam Stapleton, director of Metaphor Development, considers the impact layout and presentation have on first impressions

In pharmacy chains, the role of an area manager is important to promote consistency, ensure standards are met and support business growth. They supervise the operation of a group of pharmacies and provide a new perspective, one that can be sharper and clearer.

Supervision is not just about being a line manager and being further up the hierarchy in an organisation. If we look at the etymology of the word, supervision can be broken down into ‘super’ (meaning ‘above’) and ‘vision’ (meaning ‘view’). Supervision can also therefore be described as viewing from above. This is often described as being able to take a helicopter view, rising above the day-to-day detail to see things more clearly.

When we are living in the detail on a day-to-day basis, it is often hard to see the bigger picture; we can be blinded by familiarity. There is a metaphorical story about dropping a frog into a beaker of hot water; the frog will immediately jump out. But, if we put the frog in a beaker

of water at room temperature and slowly heat the water, the frog will not leave the beaker and will eventually die. Little changes go unnoticed, and these build up to produce larger changes. Over time, the standards in our pharmacy might fall but we don’t notice.

We can all act as our own area manager. This is especially important for independent owners but will be of benefit to pharmacists working in chains as well. Being able to look at the pharmacy you work in with a fresh pair of eyes will allow you to notice what you normally take for granted and make changes that will lead to improvements.