Andrzej Furman
By : Greg Goodale
Andrzej Furman has found the pharmaceutical industry an outlet for his creative approach to business. But despite his move from accounting to financial advice and his success in pharmaceutical wholesale and eventually manufacturing, he claims to have even more tricks up his sleeve.
Graduating as an economist from Lodz University, Furman's first link with medicine was his work at Lodz Medical Academy's economy of health department. He said that he found academic research unchallenging and decided he would be better off in business: The height of his achievement in communist Poland was at Polfa, joining as deputy chief accountant and rising to chief accountant. Keen to try his skills as an economist on the free market, Furman started his own company to provide audits and financial consultancy to the pharmaceutical industry in 1988. In the meantime private pharmacies appeared, creating a demand for medicines.
After becoming a pharmaceutical wholesaler, in 1991 Furman diversified his business into small-scale production of generic medicines and found a recipe for success. By 1997 the company appeared on the list of the 250 largest companies in Poland, with a 2% share of the country's pharmaceutical market and employing more than 250 people. To expand the production capacity of the firm, Furman sold its wholesale subsidiary, allowing its product range to grow to around 100 products. Two years ago the company won a tender to invest in the Lodz Special Economic Zone and in March this year commenced construction of a new factory to produce drugs in sachet, capsule and tablet form. He is also trying to bring together more than 2,000 pharmacies to retail mostly Polish-made medicines under a single umbrella brand.
Past notes:
1975 Graduated from Lodz University's sociology and economics department
1981 Appointed chief accountant at Polfa Pabianice
1989 Set up his own wholesale pharmaceutical business
1991 Diversified the business into production
2001 Started construction of a new production facility
A word of advice:
"I am interested in success, but I don't like to work with people just because it brings me profit. I also like to see them as people and respect what they do."
