Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel The Leopard, which traces the impact of the unification of Italy on an aristocratic Sicilian family, includes the memorable line, “If we want everything to stay as it is, everything must change.”
The leaders of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores are embracing that paradox with a new strategic framework, one designed to make the organization more responsive to the evolving needs of members and ensure that it remains the premier trade association in the community pharmacy sector. Still a work in progress, the broad outlines of the plan, which promises to build on NACDS’ record of achievement — even as it breaks new ground — were unveiled at the association’s Total Store Expo in Boston last month.
“As I look back over the past 20 years, I am proud of what NACDS has built together — strength, influence, credibility and trust,” said Steve Anderson, the association’s president and chief executive officer, who will retire at the end of this year. “We have used that strength to deliver for members, advance pharmacy and serve the American people. Today, NACDS enters its next chapter from a position of strength.”
Dave Warner, the association’s chairman and president and CEO of KPH Healthcare Services, noted that the framework includes two immediate imperatives. The first — shaping the future of pharmacy — marks an intensification and acceleration of NACDS’ ongoing work. At a moment when countervailing forces could either expand the scope of practice and elevate the profession’s standing in the nation’s health care system, or turn pharmacy into a commodity business, NACDS is determined to see that the former path is taken.
In summarizing the framework’s five pillars, Warner said: “That means evolving the role of pharmacy beyond dispensing toward care delivery, health and wellness initiatives, and sustainable economics. The profession has been working towards this for as long as I’ve been in pharmacy, but this framework is about taking that work even further. Moving faster, investing differently, supporting members more directly and building new capabilities for what comes next.”
Project Frontier, a key part of the framework, is the most radical departure. Modeled on NACDS’ role in the creation of electronic prescribing network Surescripts a quarter century ago, it will involve the search for, and development of, technology and infrastructure that facilitates the evolution of pharmacies into actual neighborhood healthcare hubs.
The new framework’s second imperative calls for increasing members’ return on investment in the association. Warner said that the goal will be achieved by better communication, more involvement with NACDS by both retailers and suppliers, and value creation that members “can see, use and feel.”
The changes afoot at the association are the result of a process initiated by the board of directors under Warner’s predecessor, Rick Gates, chief pharmacy officer at Walgreens. Heightened interaction with members was the catalyst for the strategic plan currently taking shape.
“This framework is one of the clearest examples of what ‘All In’ means,” said Warner, referring to the theme of this year’s Total Store Expo. “It was built with members who are all in — all in with their ideas, concerns and expectations, all in with their belief that NACDS has an important role to play in helping pharmacy lead what comes next.”
The association and its leadership deserve credit for recognizing that recent transformational developments in healthcare and retailing require a forceful response. The framework that’s now taking shape will equip NACDS and its members to deliver it.
