South Texas progresses in leaps and bounds

Drug Store News, March 2, 1998 by Melissa C. Popolillo

LaVoice Howard started her career in retail pharmacy working in the coffee shop at an independent pharmacy. After awhile, that pharmacist asked her to count pills, then continued to teach her the ropes and helped her get started in pharmacy school.

After she'd practiced pharmacy for seven years and held several different positions at Eckerd, Howard found herself an area pharmacy manager. When a regional vice president began to mentor her, asking her to take on some responsibilities in the front-end, her career shot forward.

Today, as the regional vice president of the South Texas region, Howard practices with her direct reports the same philosophy her mentors taught her: "After you develop your strategies, you allow the people working for you to develop their own plans and provide leadership on how they're going to reach their targets," Howard explained. "I tell them that if they have an idea about something they'd like to try in one of their stores, tell me about it. That way, I act as their partner."

Howard so strongly believes that the district managers in her region should try, try and try again new ideas that she encourages each one of them to maintain a test store, of sorts, where an idea they envision can be carried out. At the conclusion of a test period, Howard reviews successes with her managers. "If it's good for their store, then it's probably good for the company, and we share it with them," she related.

The South Texas region is known for its resiliency. "In the last year and a half, we have turned sales around in the region and improved our profitability," Howard said, keeping close to her vest just how they made that happen. "We've made that progress because we have focused on what we need to do and our great associates."

The talent in her region came in handy when other Eckerd areas were going through the transition of changing the Thrift, Fay's, Treasury and Kerr banners to Eckerd. Not only did her people head up north to lend a hand in managing, training and store operating, they brought back ideas and initiatives that could benefit their home base region. "One of the great things I have learned with our new family is a greater openness," said Howard. "The great associates from the other different companies and their ideas help us go forward to being the best of the best."

This outlook applies to her management philosophy, as well. "Growing people to the maximum potential they may not even know they have" is the way Howard looks at making the most of the people in her region. "If we could unleash the abilities of all the people in every one of our drug stores, nobody else in the industry could touch us," she said. "Our greatest asset is our people."

In the coming year, Howard has ambitious goals for her region: to continue "to improve our region, and we will develop all of our associates to their maximum potential at whatever they do with our company, realizing that the cashier and the drug associate and the pharmacy technician is just as important or more important to the success of our organization than other levels of management. Our associates are our heartbeat"