Looking beyond 2008

 Steven Anderson and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) have had a busy year. He expects the next two years to be even busier.

In between lobbying and legal fights to protect the interests of his diverse members, Anderson, who became president and chief executive in February, had to restore stability and a sense of purpose to an organization with a reputation for infighting and underperformance.

{mosads}Anderson revamped the NACDS’s lobbying and communications operations, strengthened its alliance with the sometimes-rival National Community Pharmacists Association, and sought to unify his board members, who represent fierce marketplace competitors in a rapidly changing industry. Membership is now up, and the group will commemorate its 75th anniversary next year.

As Anderson tells it, all these efforts were about preparing for next year’s elections and the major healthcare reform debate that Washington expects in 2009.

“I think we did a lot of really good work in 2007, even though we had a whole bunch of stuff going on from a legislative and regulatory perspective,” Anderson said.

But Anderson says his eyes were fixed on the future. “This allowed us to tee this up to develop a plan in 2008 that will be will very proactive in promoting the industry in the election. But really, the goal in 2008 is to prepare us to be a major player in the healthcare debate after the election, and that’s really what this is all about,” he said.

Anderson believes the drugstore industry needs to take advantage of the positive public opinion of pharmacists and the central role the retailers play in the medical system.

“I could see where the potential was with this organization and, more importantly, the board of directors could see where it was,” Anderson said.

“There are ‘white hat’ industries in this town represented by associations and there are ‘black hat’ industries represented by associations. Here, we’re a ‘white hat’ and a ‘white coat’ industry,” he said.

He also believes that all the components of the healthcare sector are going to weigh in heavily on healthcare in 2009, and he wants to be a part of it.

“We’re experts in healthcare. We have a lot of healthcare associations in this town — a whole bunch of them who are experts in healthcare in their segments. I mean, if you could lock about 50 of us in a room, I think we might go a long way toward solving some of the healthcare problems we have in this country,” Anderson said.

But before Anderson and his board could start looking ahead, they had to tackle some problems in their own house.

The NACDS recruited Anderson from the National Restaurant Association, which he had headed for eight years while earning a reputation as a fixer. The association parted ways with longtime chief Craig Fuller, a veteran GOP operative, after he offered to step down in March 2006. Pharmacies had lost several significant lobbying battles, and Washington healthcare insiders were whispering for months that the NACDS was in trouble.

To replace Fuller, the NACDS’s board seems to have prized experience above political connections or healthcare expertise in choosing Anderson, a career association executive.

Prior to joining the restaurant association in 1999, Anderson spent 19 years at the American Frozen Food Institute, the last 10 as president and chief executive.

Anderson has been named association executive of the year by Association Trends and been recognized twice as a top association executive by Washingtonian. He calls himself a “radical associationist” and refers to trade groups as the Fifth Estate. “Association work, as you might guess listening to me, is the perfect nexus where government and business comes together,” he said.

In his nearly 30 years as an association executive, he has seen the role of the organizations take on ever-increasing importance, and leadership positions more prestige. “Now, people are leaving Cabinet positions, they’re leaving Congress to go work for associations,” he said.

“This is the third association that I’ve had the opportunity to be a CEO of. I have a pretty good sense of how and why associations run well and why they don’t run well. There were some structural issues here,” Anderson said.

Anderson eschewed any criticism of his predecessor but acknowledged he had to put out some fires.

“I don’t want to dwell on the past, but there were some issues that needed to be addressed by us right off the bat when we came on,” he said. “The issues that I saw at NACDS really weren’t too dissimilar to the issues that I saw when I went into the National Restaurant Association,” he said.

Personnel changes were a big part of the plan. One early challenge was to stem the flow of employees leaving the association. Anderson says they cut turnover in half. The next step was to hire new people. “We’re having people knock on the door who want to come work for us,” he said, which marks something of a turnaround for the NACDS.

Anderson has beefed up the government affairs and communications operations, which he views as the most important parts of an effective association. He hired Carol Kelly and Christina Lyon from the Department of Health and Human Services and Gary Wirth from the grocery-chain-owner Ahold USA.

Anderson also overhauled the communications shop by hiring two former employees:

Christopher Krese, who had worked with Anderson at both the restaurant and frozen food associations, and Christine Kopple (née Shott), whom Anderson knew from the restaurant group.