A COMPANY ASSESSMENT FOR MERCURY DRUGS HEAD OFFICE Quezon City IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE SUBJECT BUSINESS OPERATIONS PRACTICUM Submitted to OJT Coordinator SUBMITTED BY: COMPANY ASSESSMENT OF MERCURY DRUGS I. Background Mercury Drugs remains the largest and leading drug store in the Philippines up to date. A total of one thousand (1000) branches have been built around the country. The head office is in 7 Mercury Ave, Bagumbayan, Quezon City, 1800 Metro Manila. The company is the most dominant pharmacy in the country. It is estimated to sell 60% of all the medicines that had been sold in the whole country. Mercury Drugs was founded by Mariano Que. He first sold pills from a pushcart in the 1940s, Mercury Drug Corporation remains a privately held company. Leadership of the company also remains in the family: The company's president is Mariano Que's daughter, Vivian Que-Ascona. In 2003, Mercury Drug's revenues amounted to nearly PHP 43 billion ($8.8 billion). Mariano Que started his career working in a Manila drugstore in prewar Philippines. There he encountered many medications, including the newly discovered class of sulfa drugs, which includes sulfathiazole. These new drugs, developed by German scientists in the early 1930s, were quickly hailed as new "miracle" drugs. Indeed, the sulfa drugs enabled the treatment of many illnesses, such as pneumonia, gonorrhea, and other bacterial infections, that previously had been difficult, if impossible, to treat. Even though the sulfa drugs later were shown to have a number of undesirable side effects (They formed deposits in the kidneys, and bacteria quickly became resistant), they were credited with saving millions of lives around the world through World War II. At first, Que bought and sold medical vials and capsules. After he had generated sufficient savings, he took PHP 100 (worth about $1.50 at the time) and bought a bottle of sulfathiazole tablets. Que brought the sulfathiazole bottle to Manila's busy Bambang market and sold the pills in single doses. The method of selling, known as "Tinggitingi," became extremely popular in the poverty-stricken Philippines, bringing life-saving medications within financial reach of many more people than before. Que invested his profits in purchasing more pills, and before long he had generated enough revenue to buy a pushcart, which he filled with an expanding assortment of pharmaceuticals. The unregulated nature of the country's drug market, especially its pharmaceutical black market, led to abuses by sellers, who sometimes peddled fake or dangerous formulations, or sold medications long out of date, often at extortionist prices. Que, however, built a reputation for the quality and freshness of his products, and for the fairness of his prices. Before too long, he had built up a steady clientele, and in March 1945, Que opened his first store. Que named the Bambang-located store Mercury Drug, after the Roman god and bearer of the caduceus, the symbol of the medical profession. Mercury drugs supported innovations not only in drugs but also in the operations and other aspects of the business. The opening of the stores for 24 hours lead its way on becoming the leading drug store in the Philippines. Mercury Drug began building out its network of drugstores, staying close to the Manila market for much of the early 1970s. The company also began branching out beyond pharmaceutical sales. A significant early purchase was that of Medical Center Drug Corporation (MCDC). Founded in 1946, MCDC focused on sales of pharmaceutical supplies, equipment, and basic surgical instruments. In the early 2000s, the government began taking action to force the Philippines' drug industry, including Mercury Drug, to lower prices on many life-saving medicines. As part of that effort, the country's Trade and Industry and Health departments began encouraging the parallel importation of pharmaceutical generics from India, which had earned worldwide recognition for the quality of its generic equivalents. II. Statement of the Problem a. What are the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic to the stakeholders of your chosen company: employees, customer, and society? Covid-19 pandemic brought threats to the safety of the society. The government must take action and implement policies for the safety of the people. Movements become limited, travelling becomes difficult. People spent more on the basic needs, vitamins, medicines, foods, and others. For us employees, fear of acquiring the virus is also with us. But we need to be brave enough as we are considered as the frontliners. Our firm’s products are necessities of people. We must endure the hardship of going to our duties because of the lack of transportation vehicle. Some of us had to do the paper works at home. Our customers fear the threat of the virus. Many of them panicked and bought many alcohols, and vitamins. Some customers hoard them and sell them to others in higher prices. They always want to be the first one to be serviced by us. They fear of buying nothing on going to our selling store. The pandemic brought uneasiness to most people and to our customers b. Based on your research, what courses of action did your chosen company implement to mitigate the effects of the pandemic? Are these actions enough? To protect the people of the country, the government sets rules and policies to be followed. The health and safety of everyone was at risk during this pandemic. Mercury drugs make an action to ensure that every stakeholder is protected. Employees are the direct stakeholders that move around to continue the processes and operations of the organization. Since the organization works on the one of the most important necessities during the pandemic, employees became part of the front-liners. The company provides certain documents for employees to continue their services and do their jobs. The company strictly follow the policies of the government and reduce the working time of the employees on the working station. Shifting schedule of days was given to every employee. Employees went to work every other day. Even in the headquarters office, company have shifting schedule and for some cases, other employees do paper works at home. They have a work from home arrangement. They also provide necessary protection equipment for the employees that deliver medicine to various region of the country. They provide mask, face shield, alcohol and other safety stuff as needed for their protection. For customers, the company continue to serve large number of them around the country, since they offer the most necessary needs during this period. In order be safe, customers allowed inside the premises are limited depending on the maximum capacity that each store can hold. Customers filled up necessary form, to get they contact trace in case of having positive cases on the store. They are also check with their temperature and provided sanitation using alcohol before they enter the premise. The organization also continued with their gamot padala, so the customers from other areas can send medicine to another area where their family can pick them up. Other branches also offer medicine delivery so the customers do not need to make risk going outside to buy their medicines, specialty those who are already abovesixty (60) years old. Mercury Drug engages in corporate social responsibility programs, through Mercury Drug Foundation, as a way of giving back to the community for their loyal support through the years. The company conducted outreach programs against the spread of the Covid19 virus. Not only that, but the company also made outreach programs during the eruption of Taal Volcano. Among other programs are Polio Immunization campaign and others with regards to health and safety. I think the company’s effort is enough. Being in the drugs industry, the company knows the health and safety needs of the stakeholders. The company made enough actions and follows the policies and regulations set by the government. The company also made programs for the benefits of the community. Not only will the community benefit in this program, but the company itself. The good actions will recoil good effects on the name and brand of the company and will make a good mark on the market and the customers. c. How do you think your chosen company can rise above the challenges brought by COVID-19 Outbreak? Mercury Drug did not fall short in terms of income. If the company must rise above the challenges brought by the pandemic, it is through returning to the normal operation without the fear of acquiring the virus. When the vaccine become available to selling, the firm can use that as an opportunity to distribute drugs to cure the sickness and gain income from that product. REFERENCES MDFI. (n.d.). MDFI Programs. Mercury Drug Foundation Inc. https://www.mercurydrugfoundation.org/programs.html Mercury Drug - The Leading Drugstore in the Philippines. (n.d.-a). Wikipedia. https://www.mercurydrug.com/corporate-information.html Mercury Drug - The Leading Drugstore in the Philippines. (n.d.-b). Mercury Drugs. https://www.mercurydrug.com/ Mercury Drug Corporation Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Mercury Drug Corporation. (n.d.). Reference for Business. https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history/Lo-Me/Mercury-DrugCorporation.html