Sabri is the President and CEO of Pharmacy of America, a retail pharmacy operation with seven locations in the Philadelphia region. With an education from Temple University and experience at Rite Aid (where he promoted from intern to regional vice president in just nine years), Sabri set a goal to open seven pharmacies within a seven mile radius in a seven year timeframe. This seemingly improbable goal quickly became a reality as Sabri now employs hundreds of people in his beloved city of Philadelphia.
Transcript
My name is Dr. Sabri Ibrahim. I'm president, CEO, and founder of pharmacy of America, a chain of seven stores in Philadelphia. There is no particular recipe for a busy day. My problem is to support and problem solve. That's what I do every day, whether it's technical issues, it's a scheduling issue, operational issue, or just visiting the stores to say hi, and see how everybody else and building morale and ensuring customer service is being delivered. I always tell everybody to make sure that you have a vision and a mission and a business plan. Before you carry anything on ground, you have to have those things thought about, well thought about and decided on. After that if you still want to pursue opening your own pharmacy, the first thing and the most important thing you need to decide on is the location. And a lot of people when choosing a location, they look at the community or the area in general. That's good, but what is more important is the specific spot, that specific location. Sometimes it makes a world of difference if it's the right side of the street or the left side of the street. It's the beginning of the block or the end of the block. It's the right side of traffic or the opposite side of traffic. Picking the right location is the most important thing. My vision for and philosophy of how I run my business, I have pharmacy managers as there are pharmacists throughout the stores. They are equally qualified to make all decisions relative to patient care, legality matters and managing the operation and the staff. So they are fully empowered to take care of all that. My specific role on day to day basis is to provide them with the support and the tools they need in order to carry their function as smoothly as possible. So my role is not to directly manage the operation. My role is to give my staff and my team all the support and tool they need in order to do their job.
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