Pharmacy Owner: Holy Cross Medical Store (Santacruz E)
Qualification: B Pharm, Post-Graduation in Clinical Research, MBA
Work Experience: 15 years
Insta handle: @lianjenelledsouza
1) Describe yourself in three words.
Helpful, health-conscious and update with the latest information and researches.
2) Why did you choose a career in pharmacy?
I was always interested in healthcare and pharmacy.
3) What made you choose to start a company in this industry?
I have worked with TATA Cancer Hospital, Cipla and many other health-related organizations. When I was working with them, I didn’t get a chance to work closely with people, wherein with my own pharmacy I got the opportunity to work and understand people and serve them.
4) How did you come up with the name for your company?
We are located in Santacruz and I named my pharmacy Holy Cross because Santacruz means Holy Cross in Hebrew.
5) What are the three most important values you follow at work?
Integrity, teamwork and also helping my vendors grow.
6) Which habits helped you become successful?
My sincerity and commitment to work and constantly updating myself and working living with an attitude of ‘do it now’.
7) Which qualities do you look for in new employees?
I appoint people who are committed to working, have excellent people skills and are sincere.
8) How do you handle the failures?
I learn from my failures. I prefer to learn from my mistakes and not repeat them.
9) Do you believe in destiny or do you think you can control your fate?
There are challenges and I feel we can overcome those challenges. There will be situations that can go wrong but we must learn to not dwell on them and overcome those challenges with hard work, smart work and fate.
10) How did you manage your business during the pandemic?
Pandemic was an extremely challenging time for all of us. Hospitals, healthcare workers, pharmacies, etc. We had a really hard time during the pandemic, medicines were not getting delivered and people were desperate to get the medicines on time. Lives were at stake. Since the medicines were not delivered quickly, we had to go to each and every distributor. While making the rounds to visit every distributor, I had to manage my pharmacy too. Thankfully, I had a very supportive and understanding staff so I was able to manage everything well.
11) What’s your favourite quote for describing entrepreneurship?
Jobs are created by business owners and entrepreneurs. We need to create more jobs to stimulate the growth and development of our country.