Many people struggle to establish a clear direction for their pharmacy and outline this in a set of firm objectives and targets. The good news is that you can create a vision for your business by identifying just three to four solid goals.

Business objectives need to align with the overall direction of the business and can’t be set in isolation – they require some strategic thinking to be carried out first.

A failure to achieve business objectives is generally due to:

• Poor planning and absence of a solid strategy
• Deficient analysis of the business environment
• No overall picture of the future
• Inadequate resource capacity
• Poorly defined and/or unrealistic objectives
• Inability to be flexible and adapt to changing circumstances
• Lack of monitoring and control.

Inappropriate objective setting will result in blurred communication and issues with employee engagement. This will ultimately impact on profitability.

Understand your environment

To move your practice forward and plan for the future, you must understand the environment in which you operate. There are many tools available to examine this; we will use the SWOT analysis.

Identify the strengths and weaknesses as they relate to your internal environment and external opportunities, as well as any threats to the business. Strengths and opportunities are regarded as enablers to the business, and weaknesses and threats are challenges.

Once the analysis is complete, a business should then look to:

• Capitalise on its strengths
• Address its weaknesses
• Maximise its opportunities
• Minimise its threats.
• Understanding the environment will allow you to make decisions around business goals and objectives.

Is a mission statement necessary?

Most people find difficulty in creating mission and vision statements – the below table describes the difference between the two. They play an important role in creating a consistent message about why your practice exists, what it is trying to accomplish and how it intends to get there.

The most important thing to remember when creating these statements is to keep it realistic. There is little point in creating an impressive-sounding future if it is in no way achievable. The statements should be compelling and motivational for you and your employees.