Speakers note importance of pharmacy, relationships

Drug Store News, June 17, 2002 by Michael Johnsen

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Business program speakers at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores' Annual Meeting here touched on a variety of topics, but two themes kept emerging: the importance of strong relationships between retailers and suppliers and the key role pharmacy will continue to ho in health care.

Speakers at the event, which concluded May 1, also covered such subjects as international affairs, significant business events of the past century and recent developments in the field of genomics.

Opening the final day's business program, Johnson & Johnson vice president of customer development Paul Nunnari addressed the importance of relationships between industry participants and consumers. "Do we really know each other and our organizations?" he asked. "Do we understand each other's potential? Do we understand each other's strategy, limitations and restrictions? [By] truly knowing and understanding each other, our potential and strategy will allow us to uncover many opportunities--and maximize relationships with consumers," he added.

Nunnari said he believes that retailers and suppliers "do what it takes" in such areas as store layout, promotion and selection to develop a relationship with consumers "that brings them back [and] keeps them loyal. We need to do the same with each other," he said. "Understanding the strength of relationships can deliver long-term dividends and allow us to dream together."

Turning the focus to health care, Mark Spiers, president of North American operations for Pharmacia, stressed the importance of pharmaceuticals within the total health care equation as he opened the meeting's second business program. Critics of escalating pharmaceutical costs, Spiers noted, are concentrating on "cheap drugs in a bottle," rather than considering the value of pharmaceuticals.

According to a Pharmacia survey, 93 percent of consumers rank drug therapy as an essential part of their health care coverage. Accordingly, 80 percent of consumers surveyed said they believe pharmaceuticals save lives, and 92 percent agree that prescription medicines improve their quality of life.

'Good to Great' author and management consultant Jim Collins also spoke at this year's meeting, and he discussed his book, "Good to Great."

"Good is the enemy of great," noted Collins in his opening challenge to retailers. He urged them to not settle for simply complacent results, but to strive for something bigger. He observed that many companies that have become the standard bearers in their respective industries did so because they concentrated on what they did best and weren't afraid to walk away from business models where they simply did well. In his book, Kroger, Philip Morris and Walgreen Co. are cited as three examples of companies that made the transition from good to great.

Juan Enriquez, director of the Harvard Business School's Life Science Project, closed the second day's program with a discussion on the future of genome science and its potential impact on society.

Looking to the future, Enriquez noted that there should be many more opportunities for new drug applications. Enriquez, who out-lined the impact of recent breakthroughs, walked conference attendees through a series of linguistic accomplishments, each of which set the stage for the next wave of technological advancements, covering the gamut from cave wall writing to binary codes.

Enriquez pictured a future where people will know which disease states they are predisposed to and can supplement with the appropriate medications, rather than treating the outbreak. Of course, such a scenario would not only alter the pharmaceutical landscape, but also greatly impact ancillary industries, such as health insurance companies. Enriquez also stressed that companies would do well to stay on top of this new technology, noting that progress does not wait for naysayers to jump on board.