Reference no: EM133102048

CASE STUDY 1 SEDINA ATTIONU, CEO and Managing Director of The Pillbox, a chain of pharmacies in Accra, has not always been an entrepreneur. After her degree in pharmacy at the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, she worked in the UK for a while. Upon her return to Ghana she did her compulsory national service at the Pharmacy Council of Ghana. The regulatory experience she gained at the Council, put her in a good position to work with SGS (Societe General de Surveillance) the Swiss inspection, verification, testing and certification company. While there, she helped set up Medlab, a medical laboratory based in Accra. She subsequently worked in various capacities at Phyto-Riker, a US pharmaceutical company, and at Intravenous Infusions, a Ghanaian pharmaceutical manufacturing company based in Koforidua, where she was in charge of marketing for francophone West Africa.

Although she did not intend using her licence to work as a pharmacist, a lack of job opportunities after relocating to Accra made her open her first pharmacy in 1999. Her strategy was to set up a chain of retail pharmacies to ensure economies of scale in bulk purchasing, which would make her products relatively cheaper. Her vision was for The Pillbox to become a household name, synonymous with world-class dispensary service, known for reliable supply and the ability to provide whatever drug a customer wants when no one else could. Within five years of her launch, she had opened five additional shops.

Sedina encountered her fair share of challenges, the major one being availability of finance for her expansion projects. Her Bankers advised that she was new in the business and therefore needed to move slowly. Working in a male-dominated industry did not make matters any easier. Most suppliers and industry gurus thought she was 'too-known' for trying to make such a big impact in their industry in so little time; they threw as many stumbling blocks as they could in her way.

Sedina agrees that it has not been an easy task running her business. Asked if there was anything she wishes to have done differently, she pauses, thinks about it a bit... But it is clear from the satisfied smile on her face that she had found entrepreneurship as rewarding as she has found it challenging.

1) What prompted Sedina to start the Pillbox and what type of entrepreneur was she?

2) Describe the gap that Sedina was seeking to exploit.

3) Identify and explain a major constraint that threatened to derail Sedina's expansion drive.