Walgreens

Walgreen’s previous strategy

• “Seven by 10” – their goal was 7,000 stores by 2010. They beat the goal with 7,000 by 2009. At their peak, they opened a store every 17 hours. They were good at managing real estate and construction

• Command and control approach to leadership – clear processes that employees followed

• One-size-fits-all policies didn’t work for all locations

• Efficiency over customer service and value

Environmental Changes

• New rivals entering the market including 3rd party pharmacy management that delivers prescriptions in the mail

• Most grocery stores included pharmacies – one stop shop for parents

• Significant change in healthcare

• Worst economy since the Great Depression

New Strategy

• Changing the norm and building a high performance culture at every level of operation. Leadership support, engaging employees with incentives and accountability, Bonus structure no longer completely focused on financial performance, but also team member engagement , customer service, and community engagement and events

• Empowering employees to come up with solutions and ideas on their own. Daily 5 minutes meetings are for employees to reach out and suggest new ideas

• Created an emotional connection between stores and community and strive to be an experience provider

• No longer simply feeling prescriptions. They transitioned to a one stop shop for patient care and for daily living which makes them competitive to grocery stores

Key Course Concepts and Take-Aways

• Customer focused strategy apparent within all levels of the organization directly correlates with sales

• Importance of timely and accurate insights into customer desires, environmental trends, and competitors actions to formulate strategies

Sources

www.strategy-business.com

www.drugstorenews.com