Wasson’s tenure one of positive transformation
The announcement that Walgreens' Greg Wasson is retiring marks the end of an era, one in which Walgreens, and Wasson in particular, has left an indelible mark on the industry. It's an era during which Walgreens has transformed into a progressive, global, multi-faceted healthcare company that pushes the envelope both in terms of the healthcare services provided and in terms of the front-end-slash-omnichannel shopping experience enjoyed by Walgreens' customers.
Wasson served as a "chief roadblock remover" at Walgreens, as he described at the Shop.org summit in 2013, enabling his leadership team to redefine what it means to be a retail pharmacy from the front of the store to the back bench and beyond with the company's focus on omnichannel retailing and virtual patient care.
“When I became CEO six years ago, I had three goals – to transform the front end of Walgreens drugstores, to advance the role that community pharmacy plays in health care and to find the right partner to take Walgreens global,” Wasson stated in announcing his retirement.
He can place a checkmark against each of those goals.
Walgreens' Well Experience store formats now total 750 with another 1,000 to come in fiscal 2015. And Walgreens now fields 14 flagship locations across nine major markets. Walgreens' flagship locations help capture the company's front-end aspirations as the Chicago retailer reshapes the drug store shopping experience. "These flagships, along with our Well Experience stores, bring a real vibrancy to our markets and build awareness of our brand," Wasson said during Walgreens' year-end conference call.
Walgreens became the leading retailer in terms of immunizations under Wasson's watch - flu shots most recently administered at pharmacies and clinics year-to-date through November were nearly 7 million versus more than 6.1 million last year. And Wasson had a vision for retail pharmacy that went beyond immunizations and enhanced patient consultations. “It means expanding the scope of services that community pharmacy can provide — and I want to be clear, I mean community pharmacy — not just community pharmacists,” Wasson explained in an exclusive 2012 interview with Drug Store News. “Because community pharmacy encompasses not only the role of pharmacists within the store, but for many of us that are co-locating nurse practitioners and physician assistants, and in some cases, physicians in their stores, it means expanding the scope of services a community pharmacy can provide, and expanding that even further.”?
That's evident in Walgreens' most recent announcement — its partnership with MDLive — in which users of Walgreens' app can consult with a physician. “Offering mobile and virtual access to board-certified doctors is a natural extension of the robust range of health services that Walgreens already offers,” stated Harry Leider, chief medical officer, Walgreens, in making that announcement.
And with Walgreens' successful acquisition of Alliance Boots, the last piece of which is expected to fall into place Dec. 29 when the transaction is approved by Walgreens shareholders, Wasson has identified the right partner to create a retail pharmacy with a global reach.
The retirement of Wasson also marks a new era for Walgreens going forward. There is some speculation that with Pessina at the helm that there will be more of a focus on core drug store businesses and driving greater efficiency through distribution and supply chain. And in Alliance Boots tradition, Pessina will continue to buy companies and products that enable that strategic vision. Some say that a lot of the experimentation in the store - particularly with food - will dissipate over time. However, at the same time driving more profitability from the non-pharmacy side of the business will also be a major priority, and with that, Walgreens will continue to be a disruptive innovator in core drug store businesses like health and wellness, but especially in beauty.
According to analyst Mark Miller of William Blair, Walgreens is already well on its way to implementing the best of Alliance Boots in the U.S. market. "The Boots playbook is providing guidance, although management is mindful that the Walgreens store experience must evolve differently in the U.S. consumer environment," he wrote. "Still, the company wants to replicate many elements of the Boots model, including the high-touch service and enhanced beauty offering." One of the goals is to match the 38% beauty marketshare Walgreens' U.K. counterpart Boots enjoys in Europe. Walgreens is also focusing on localization and personalization driven by learnings from the Balance Rewards loyalty card program, Miller noted.