“Do something a little bit out of the norm”

“It all started with an email that I almost dismissed,” says Sunil Patel CMgr FCMI, describing the moment last October that would end up ‘supercharging’ his career.

After qualifying as a pharmacist in 2004 and spending ten years at Alliance Boots, Sunil joined Hollowood Chemists and eventually became head of operations for the company’s 15 branches in North West England.

“I’m responsible for everything from recruitment and retention to the systems we use and the services we deliver to customers,” he says. “There’s a lot of people management, but you could say that I winged it all the way up to head of operations. I’d never had any formal management training.”

That was, at least, until that momentous email. It was from Manchester Metropolitan University’s Business School, inviting Sunil onto its 12-week Help to Grow: Management course. He accepted, excited to explore the wider scope of management and strengthen his skills with some theory.

A huge time saver

“The best part was that you got a mentor to help you plan a change pilot,” explains Sunil. “Usually, you launch the pilot some months after you’ve finished the course, but I already had an AI project I was due to launch at Hollowood, so my brilliant mentor Arianna Cerrito helped me through it in real time.”

Sunil’s pilot used AI to speed up the process of dispensing medication, giving pharmacists more time to offer extra clinical services, such as vaccinations and blood-pressure checks.