“You always have to reach back and draw on analytics.”

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Roz Brewer has brought an analytical bent to Walgreens Boots Alliance during her first year as chief executive officer. Trained as a chemist at Spelman College, she brings a methodical, fact-based approach to solving problems related to the businesses of health care, pharmacy and retailing.

Roz Brewers has brought a methodical, fact-based approach to solving problems related to the businesses of health care, pharmacy and retailing to Walgreens.

“You always have to reach back and draw on analytics,” says Brewer, who started her professional career as an organic chemist at Kimberly-Clark before moving into management roles at the CPG company, Walmart (where she later headed the Sam’s Club division) and Starbucks (where she served as group president and chief operating officer). “Even walking into a store, when I see something that’s not working I immediately ask, ‘How did this happen?’ and start trying to solve the problem. I find myself doing that with the simplest or even the most complex issues.

“I’m a little more process driven than most, almost like an operator. I often say to my team, ‘What’s the problem we’re trying to solve? Let’s stick to it.’ I ask for problem statements before work begins. It’s very aggravating for people, but I tell them, ‘If you’re going to lead a team, you’d better put a statement in front of them. If you don’t, you’re going to get 15 or 20 different solutions to the wrong problem.”

That approach is especially useful at an organization as multifaceted and sprawling as WBA, a global company with some 13,000 retail pharmacies in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia; a pharmaceutical wholesaling operation in Germany; a portfolio of international consumer health and beauty care brands; and health care-oriented investments in businesses located in several countries, including China. The first challenge that Brewer faced was to determine how well all those pieces fit together, which ones were central to WBA’s new purpose launched last October of “creating more joyful lives through better health,” and whether assets tangential to that mission should be divested.

“My perception coming into the company was of an organization that had a great sense of purpose,” she says, reflecting back to March 2021. “During the pandemic, WBA took a leadership position that really reflected our mission and values. They were delivering COVID vaccinations, tests and education, while also having to figure out all the things that every company had to deal with. I was very pleased, very grateful for the work that they had been doing.”

At the same time, Brewer perceived a lack of cohesion among some parts of the organization. The need to sharpen WBA’s focus and optimize the allocation of capital quickly became one of her strategic priorities.

“The company had struggled in the past, first of all, trying to define what kind of retailer it wanted to be,” she says. “Then it had retained about a $20 billion to $25 billion portfolio of equity method investments — not activated within the business, but good investments. That’s an interesting strategy. But if you look back at my career, I’ve been responsible for organic growth at a lot of companies, and on a very large scale.”

Brewer’s willingness to reexamine WBA’s holdings in that light is reflected in the decision to explore the sale of Boots, the leading pharmacy operator in the United Kingdom. If a deal does materialize, it could be the first in a series of divestitures intended to streamline the ­organization.

“We’re currently looking at where Boots will land in the future,” explains Brewer. “Quite frankly, we’re also going to look at our equity method investments through a strategic funnel, and say, ‘Is it a good fit for the future?’ Meaning, does it accelerate our growth in one or two areas. We’re going to look at it and say, ‘Does it provide us innovation that we can’t find anywhere else?’ We’re also going to look at it through the lens of its financial potential long term.

“Some of these investments are absolutely opportunities for us to activate within our strategy. Others are just good investments, but maybe are not on our strategic road map.”

As Brewer indicated, the drive to accelerate organic growth is at the heart of the plan. Work is already well under way at Walgreens Health, a new segment division charged with creating technology-enabled, consumer-centric solutions that make health care more accessible, effective and affordable.

“We’re a health care-first company, that’s our first foot forward,” Brewer says. “Every day now, when we wake up, we think about health outcomes. We think about the cost of health care. If we do our work really, really well, making sure that we’re taking costs out of our own system and passing those savings on to the customer, that is a part of the picture. If we bring transparency to the cost of care to individuals, that is consumerizing health care.

“This goes back to my earlier days in retail, when we were trying to figure out digital. How did you bring together all the data, analytics and mobile access to information, so that people could shop anywhere, anytime, anyhow? It’s the same thing with health care. If you’re a patient or caretaker, how can you best understand the resources available to you at the moment you need them?”

The evolution of Walgreens Health, which is already on course to generate between $9 billion and $10 billion in revenue by fiscal 2025, was accelerated by recent investments in VillageMD, a primary care provider; CareCentrix, which extends the continuum of care into the home; and integrated specialty pharmacy provider Shields Health Solutions. The latest round of investments give WBA a majority stake in all three companies, and augments its ability to help patients maintain their health and well-being.

VillageMD is a case in point. Brewer’s decision to invest an additional $5.2 billion in the company not only raised WBA’s ownership position from 30% to 63%, but paved the way for the debut of more than 600 Village Medical at Walgreens physician-staffed clinics by 2025, half of them in medically underserved area. Plans call for 1,000 of the clinics to be operational by 2027.

The proliferation of VillageMD at Walgreens locations, together with the opening of the first 47 Walgreens Health Corners (there will be more than 100 of the clinician-led departments within selected stores by the end of the current calendar year), reflects the company’s determination to deliver high-quality health care in the neighborhoods where people live and work. Brewer indicates that WBA’s approach differs from that of other clinic operators in terms of consistency and commitment.

“I was part of the team at Walmart when they looked at their first 20 to 25 clinics,” she says. “We went into Jackson Health in south Florida. The model was a rotating, moonlighting physician. Every time patients went in, they didn’t see the same person, so there was no relationship being built. In this instance, we’re buying physician practices and incorporating them into a VillageMD at Walgreens location, where the patients have a relationship with the physician and the pharmacist. In addition, they benefit from the digital technology underpinning the care they receive.

“I really enjoy touring the VillageMD clinics. When folks walk in, they’re hugging the doctor and their kids’ pictures are on the walls. It’s like going to my kid’s pediatrician. It’s very familiar. The whole idea of this is to localize health care. No one is better positioned to do that than we are, since 78% of our locations are within five miles of every household in the United States.”

Brewer expresses confidence that locally delivered care, backed by the robust capabilities of WBA, will go a long way toward eliminating the barriers to good health that confront many Americans.

“Therein lies the real juggernaut,” she says. “If you think about going into neighborhoods — and actually, 50% of these VillageMD units will be located in medically underserved communities — we hope to start treating patients earlier, as well as suggesting lifestyle changes that will help them build a better life for themselves.

“I also hope that when we begin to look at the cost of health care, we have pharmacists that can test and treat. Just imagine if you went to a pharmacy and had a positive COVID test. Instead of going back to the doctor to get a prescription for an antiviral, which you know you’ve only got three days to get in your system, that the pharmacist could write the script and you could start treatment right away.

“Getting to the brunt of the illness faster means more successful outcomes. It’s those kinds of examples that I hope we’ll see plastered on billboards, and embedded in people’s lives, in terms of their habits around health care.”

The innovative model that WBA is constructing, an important aspect of which is its agnostic approach to health care payers, is already gaining traction. Walgreens Health already has what Brewer characterizes as three very strong commercial relationships, including Blue Shield of California. As of today, the new segment is involved in the care of some 1.7 million patients.

Another pillar of WBA’s growth strategy is to transform and realign its core drug store business. In addition to accelerating the rollout of VillageMD and Health Corner locations, the company is currently reassessing what goes on in its nearly 9,000 U.S. stores and how they’re merchandised.

“This is the fun part,” says Brewer. “We’re doing some great design work right now, particularly in the cosmetics area. We’re also doing some work around merchandising in order to better understand what we should be offering. Should we, for example, make ‘healthy for you’ items more prevalent? Then we just need some pure renovations as well. We’re looking at that really carefully right now.”

Like all pharmacy chains, WBA is grappling with the evolution of the front-end business. The trade class’ increasing emphasis on health care and the boom in omnichannel shopping have prompted a reassessment of current strategies.

“We have a few stores that are small format, that really look like a pharmacy with a short front end. I’m not really sold on that concept yet,” Brewer comments. “We are going to find a solution for the front end. We have a new chief customer experience officer [Tracey Brown], who is also responsible for merchandising. We need to do some remerchandising to make sure that we can increase the profitability, quite honestly, in the front of our stores.

“Our loyalty program and omnichannel capabilities will help us do that. We introduced myWalgreens back in November of 2020, before I joined the company, and today we have more than 92 million members. I would have died for that in my previous life at other companies.

“We are quickly going from a one-to-many marketing position, to a one-to-one position. It also gives us a chance to bring in a new revenue stream around advertising.”

The hiring of Brown as president of retail products and chief customer officer at Walgreens is indicative of Brewer’s efforts to build a high-performance corporate culture. Other recent additions to the management team include global chief human resources officer Holly May, chief transformation and integration officer Anita Allemand and global chief legal officer Danielle Gray at WBA, and chief financial officer Jeff Gruener at Walgreens.

“All of these individuals share a growth mindset,” Brewer says. “These are individuals that are used to solving very complex problems, at scale, and really helping companies envision a future. They are very strategic, very experienced.

“We look for people with skill sets that make them what I would characterize as corporate athletes. They may look like they’re running one function like HR, for example, but they have the potential to do much more.”

The determination to build strong teams extends throughout the organization, beginning with frontline workers. The company last summer announced an increase in the starting wage to $15 an hour.

“We’re going to continue to make investments there, not only financially, but in terms of development as well. I see opportunities for our pharmacists to provide more services. I want to see our people grow. We’re looking at some pretty interesting education models for our team members, so that they can better their life. That is something that’s really important for me.”

Brewer’s ability to empathize with people — whether they’re customers, patients or WBA staffers — is a hallmark of her approach to leadership.

“My role, what I do for a living, is to put myself in the shoes of the other person. I look at the hardest job to do in the company, and figure out my role in that. It’s just where I automatically go. I don’t know how I got there, other than maybe watching my parents work in manual labor most of their lives. Maybe that’s stuck with me.

“I am excited about the stakes we’ve put in the ground. I know by being public about our vision for WBA, and putting detailed KPIs out there, it galvanizes our team and makes our path clear for all our stakeholders. It gets me going every day. Creating and executing on plans for what’s next … it feels very good right now.”