Pharmaniaga is also proud that four of its six manufacturing plants in Malaysia are certified halal by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM). The remaining two are in the process of obtaining the certification. The company’s product portfolio stands at 430, including 62 products that are certified halal. By end of 2018, it is expected to have more than 200 products that are certified halal.
“Pharmaniaga offers seamless end-to-end pharmaceutical services. Our mission statement is to provide quality products and superior services by professional, committed and caring employees. We are guided by our philosophy of ‘doing business with conscience’ and empowered by the motto ‘Passion for Patients’.
It is important for us to ensure our clients are satisfied with our products and services, and so we have established a Customer Care Call centre which operates daily. In addition, we are highly engaged with our clients through regular dialogues to address their issues and needs. We have also consistently achieved Good and Highly Satisfactory scores during our biannual Customer Feedback Survey,” shares Dato’ Farshila, who is very hands-on in the running of the company.
“I always hold on to the saying ‘if you want to go fast, go alone but if you want to go far, go together,’ I apply both concepts in order to go fast and far. There are times, as entrepreneurs, we must have the guts to take chances by simply doing it. However, I always believe more heads are better than one, thus I seek opinions from my trusted team before I make any critical decisions,” says the people-centric leader who is a strong believer in work-life balance. “Success is meaningless if we are all alone and unable to share it with our loved ones, whom we could have neglected on our way to the top. Equal attention must be given to this part of our life, as it also reflects our success,” she says firmly.
When asked about her leadership style, Dato’ Farshila reveals that even though she has capable managers who run the day-to-day operations, she believes in meeting and talking to employees in order to understand them better and mitigate any issues that would affect business operations. “Many times, this employee engagement process would churn up new ideas from the staff to enhance business operations, which, at the same time would boost their morale and commitment towards the company. I hold dearly to the belief that the secret of success in any organisation lies in strong teamwork.”
Pharmaniaga employs almost 2,000 staff in Malaysia, and 1,000 in Indonesia. The company has been rated highly in Employee Engagement Surveys (EES) conducted by Aon in 2016, scoring 18 percent higher than the National norms/average engagement score.
When asked about the characteristics of a good entrepreneur, Dato’ Farshila shared that a good entrepreneur must have a strong vision of what he or she plans to achieve, and be able to work hard towards it. “Next, he or she must be able to translate the vision into a mission statement and business objectives, and have them embraced by the whole organisation so that everyone moves together in one direction.”
