PAVLO’S PERSPECTIVE: Courier Kushesh maximises niche capability for Akacia
by Pavlo Phitidis,
2015-03-10 06:14:02.0
LITTERED with competition, the courier industry leaves its customers spoilt for choice. Or does it? Courier businesses competing with this mind-set face tight margins that are further eroded by the fuel levy and tolls. With survivalist margins, raising your game from a price proposition to a value one becomes almost impossible — it’s a vicious cycle!
Supplying medical and surgical inventory to more than 250 hospitals in SA and exporting to 53 countries is the core business of Akacia Healthcare, generating annual sales in excess of R650m. Winning means the right products at the right price, constantly in stock and delivered against the multiple inventory onboarding service level agreements at its multiple customers. A tough business in its own right, it is compounded by exchange rate volatility and constantly changing customer procurement policies that attempt to combat corruption and theft.
Fulfilling orders completely, at the right price and time, is vital to Akacia’s success. This focuses management attention on sourcing and procurement of stock and inventory. Eroding that attention is the demand for frictionless distribution and supply at the hospitals. It’s hard to be good at everything irrespective of your resources. Fleet-footed, focused competitors always angle into the gaps of the domain you attempt to dominate. At best, your ability to develop a value proposition that focuses on your core, strategic capabilities is in itself difficult to get consistently right.
...
Established as a husband-and-wife team, Kushesh Medical Express took an early decision to not "be all things to all people" in courier and freight.
It focused exclusively on medical logistics. Through this it developed the lexicon of the medical supplies businesses, and understanding the challenges of big suppliers and how to craft a proposition that hit the buttons to bring customers on board.
In Akacia’s instance, it was the difficulties that it experienced in onboarding inventory at hospitals in a province. Kushesh, of its own volition as it was hungry for the Akacia business, visited the hospitals. It learnt about the multiple procurement and onboarding policies in the region, established relationships and figured out the patterns of distribution that would minimise costs. Armed with these insights, Kushesh crafted a value proposition for Akacia to remove the friction points with the hospitals.
Needless to say, the rest is history, with Kushesh servicing Akacia on a national level.
Building a niche capability in the courier business that understands your customers results in the innovation that sets you apart from competitors. Through this, allowing your customers to focus on their core competency means that their customers win all the way. Beyond price, Kushesh offers an invaluable service to Akacia, which is customer satisfaction.
Two entrepreneurially driven businesses, each located in its core area of strength, collaborated to deliver consistent, reliable and predictable supply of medical inventory, enabling a happy, healthy customer. It is symbiotic relationships like these between big and small business that lead our economy to excellence.
• Pavlo Phitidis is CEO of Aurik Business Incubator, director of Aurik Enterprise Development, entrepreneurship commentator on Talk Radio 702 & 567 Cape Talk, and presenter of The Growth Engines.
Pavlo Phitidis, CEO of Aurik Business Accelerator. Picture: SUPPLIED
LITTERED with competition, the courier industry leaves its customers spoilt for choice. Or does it? Courier businesses competing with this mind-set face tight margins that are further eroded by the fuel levy and tolls. With survivalist margins, raising your game from a price proposition to a value one becomes almost impossible — it’s a vicious cycle!
Supplying medical and surgical inventory to more than 250 hospitals in SA and exporting to 53 countries is the core business of Akacia Healthcare, generating annual sales in excess of R650m. Winning means the right products at the right price, constantly in stock and delivered against the multiple inventory onboarding service level agreements at its multiple customers. A tough business in its own right, it is compounded by exchange rate volatility and constantly changing customer procurement policies that attempt to combat corruption and theft.
Fulfilling orders completely, at the right price and time, is vital to Akacia’s success. This focuses management attention on sourcing and procurement of stock and inventory. Eroding that attention is the demand for frictionless distribution and supply at the hospitals. It’s hard to be good at everything irrespective of your resources. Fleet-footed, focused competitors always angle into the gaps of the domain you attempt to dominate. At best, your ability to develop a value proposition that focuses on your core, strategic capabilities is in itself difficult to get consistently right.
...
Established as a husband-and-wife team, Kushesh Medical Express took an early decision to not "be all things to all people" in courier and freight.
It focused exclusively on medical logistics. Through this it developed the lexicon of the medical supplies businesses, and understanding the challenges of big suppliers and how to craft a proposition that hit the buttons to bring customers on board.
In Akacia’s instance, it was the difficulties that it experienced in onboarding inventory at hospitals in a province. Kushesh, of its own volition as it was hungry for the Akacia business, visited the hospitals. It learnt about the multiple procurement and onboarding policies in the region, established relationships and figured out the patterns of distribution that would minimise costs. Armed with these insights, Kushesh crafted a value proposition for Akacia to remove the friction points with the hospitals.
Needless to say, the rest is history, with Kushesh servicing Akacia on a national level.
Building a niche capability in the courier business that understands your customers results in the innovation that sets you apart from competitors. Through this, allowing your customers to focus on their core competency means that their customers win all the way. Beyond price, Kushesh offers an invaluable service to Akacia, which is customer satisfaction.
Two entrepreneurially driven businesses, each located in its core area of strength, collaborated to deliver consistent, reliable and predictable supply of medical inventory, enabling a happy, healthy customer. It is symbiotic relationships like these between big and small business that lead our economy to excellence.
• Pavlo Phitidis is CEO of Aurik Business Incubator, director of Aurik Enterprise Development, entrepreneurship commentator on Talk Radio 702 & 567 Cape Talk, and presenter of The Growth Engines.
Change: -0.47%
Change: -0.57%
Change: -1.76%
Change: -0.34%
Change: 0.02%
Data supplied by Profile Data
Change: -1.49%
Change: 0.08%
Change: -0.47%
Change: 0.00%
Change: -0.04%
Data supplied by Profile Data
Change: -0.34%
Change: 0.03%
Change: -0.10%
Change: -0.22%
Change: -0.69%
Data supplied by Profile Data
Change: -0.28%
Change: -1.15%
Change: -0.07%
Change: -1.21%
Change: -0.22%
Data supplied by Profile Data