JUNE,Edition # 27, 2001

 

In a report released in early may, various countries were ranked in terms of their "e-readiness" by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
Not surprisingly the US ranks first among a group of 60 world economies surveyed, but the bigger surprise was that Australia ranks as second.
For a country which was ranked as "old economy" twelve months ago, this must be welcome news as we are perceived for what we really are- a country that has one of the greatest take-up rates of new technology in the world.
It was said that our currency devaluation was based on this "old world" economy perception. Will the Australian dollar rebound to a healthier level now?

The EIU is part of the group that publishes The Economist, a highly respected business magazine. In establishing its ranking system it noted that some of the world's largest countries scored very low in "e-readiness" and the conclusion drawn is that "agility trumps size".
In the top ten, the UK ranks three, Canada four, Norway five, Sweden six, Singapore seven, Finland eight, Denmark nine and the Netherlands ten.

Two major surprises were India (ranked 45) despite a rapidly developing outsourcing industry involving such activities as call centres to medical transcription, plus an enterprising group of software programmers.
China was the second surprise, with one of the world's greatest take-ups of Internet usage, it only ranks 49.
Poverty, illiteracy and infrastructure inadequacies prevent e-business from gaining a proper momentum in these countries.

Australia's ranking is not due to good leadership or investment by its government, and this is a cause of concern. In the next phase of e-business expansion, it will require government to provide a seamless environment across all phases of activity, local,state and federal.
This has to be coupled with proper government funding and investment, which is seriously lagging. For example, Singapore has announced a A$1.5 billion budget to transform its e-government over the next three years. If Australia were to match this, a factor of 6 would have to be multiplied in to match a size equivalence. This amounts to A$9 billion, which you will not find in current budget figures.
Singapore is also investing a further A$1 billion to encourage high-tech industries to establish themselves in that country.

Because of the three layers of political structure within Australia, it is not likely that a "single face" government will easily develop, so Australia could quickly lose ground over the coming years.
Perhaps in recognition of this fact, the federal government has announced a $2.9 billion Innovation Action Plan to assist in invigorating research and capitalise on innovative new technologies. A further development has also been recently announced, to build on the above plan, known as the Electronics Industry Action Agenda. Recognising that Australia's electronics industry is known as a smart, value-adding industry, Senator Richard Alston has announced that government will work alongside The Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association (AEEMA) to build on Australian advantages in areas of design, prototyping, testing and microelectronics.

The above developments have probably stimulated LG Electronics to announce that it has commenced its new future direction i.e. digitally networked homes run over the Internet. It plans to link all electrical appliances and white goods to a digital TV, which would be the hub of the home network.
This means that household chores such as starting to cook dinner, turning on the heater, or washing the clothes could be activated with a single mobile telephone call.
LG have already developed an Internet washing machine (which downloads new washing cycles off the Internet), an Internet fridge, an Internet microwave ( which downloads recipes off the Internet) and an Internet air conditioner.
This newsletter has previously written about the Internet refrigerator, and how it capitalises on the refrigerator as a family's central communication point.
Most of the above products will be ready for release early in 2002 and Australia is one of the first countries to benefit from LG technology.

So we are about to become a nation of savvy Internet users in a variety of innovative ways, using furniture and appliances to host purpose built computers.
This will, of course, include shopping to fill refrigerators, medicine chests etc. and the point of this article is "are you e-ready" both mentally and structurally, within your business, to adapt quickly and take advantage of these new technologies.
Your competitors in the supermarket world are light years ahead in their e-businesses, which, this year, will begin to turn in good profits.
One factor is becoming very clear.
To become e-ready you have to be ready to teach yourself and form strategic alliances with educators, business coaches, software developers and a whole host of specialist service providers.
We are not talking about a copy of a Pharmacy Direct operation, but a totally integrated business built on Internet technology, which automates as many systems and processes as possible.
Pharmacy has been very slow to adopt Internet technology and has been playing around the edges. While the Pharmacy Guild claims "It is up to its neck in e-commerce", it is yet to share or develop its vision through members, and has shown appalling leadership in this vital area.
Little wonder that Graeme Kelly, a former director of Coles Supermarkets is able to describe pharmacy as "a highly regulated profession, somewhat underpowered in terms of human resources-that is, people with drive and capital."
These comments appeared in a recent edition of Retail Pharmacy, which further elaborated: "It says that you are dependent on capital from wholesalers, and in corporate terms this is an underpowered situation of debt finance-you are carrying too much debt. You cannot be competitive and efficient if you are operating on a cottage industry structure-your own system has constrained your growth, and you haven't allowed for a better tomorrow."

We couldn't agree more.
Our own system has given us an uncreative and inefficient infrastructure which we insist on shackling with restrictions such as location and number of outlets.
We cannot accrue capital in the same way as our corporate competitors, because we are not structured the same way.
We are definitely not "e-ready".
Unless some of the shackles outlined in the Wilkinson Report (allow corporate pharmacy for one) are not acted upon quickly, we will be left defenceless as the National Competition Council eventually throws us to the wolves.
We haven't allowed for a "better tomorrow", and the frustrating situation is that if we took control and showed some initiative, there is no doubt that a "better tomorrow" would evolve and a lot of pharmacy problems would dissipate or disappear.
Time is literally running out.

Ends

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