CEO’s REPORT 2007- 2008

Alan G. Ruth

1. Improving image and raising profile

2. New member services

3. Relationship building within the DoHC, FSAI and IMB

4. Relationship building within the IAHS, HFMA and EHPM

5. Members’ Survey and Desk Research for Industry & Market Data

6. Attendance at trade shows

7. Membership drive

8. IHTA business meetings

9. Developing the IHTA Strategic Plan for 2008-2011

Image – The perception people have of the IHTA when they hear its name.

Profile – Visibility i.e. degree of exposure to stakeholder notice

Branding –To identify and differentiate

Tagline –Part of the branding strategy to define what the Association is about

IMPROVING THE IHTA IMAGE

• New letterhead, compliments slip & business cards

• Tagline – ‘Working together towards a healthier Ireland’

• New secretariat address

• EHPM Quality Guide for Food Supplements

• Health Food Business magazine articles

RAISING THE IHTA PROFILE

• Meetings with key staff in DoHC, FSAI and IMB

• High profile speakers for AGM

• Positive publicity opportunity arises from the above

• Health Food Business magazine

• Future positive PR communications

• Attendance at HFMA and EHPM meetings, trade shows & conferences

• Regular communication and cooperation with IAHS

NEW MEMBER SERVICES

• IHTA ‘News Flashes’

• IHTA ‘Breaking News’

• IHTA News

IHTA ‘News Flashes’

• Launched early May 2007

• Purpose – to report relevant news regularly

• E-mailed to member companies on a weekly basis

• Also sent to Jill Bell & Erica Murray (IAHS) & Pegasus PR

• No rigorous vetting process

IHTA ‘Breaking News’

• First item issued 15 May 2007 (multivitamins and prostrate cancer)

• Same day – link supplied to an authorative rebuttal

• Picked up from an Australian newspaper before reaching Ireland or the UK

• Since that time – many other items of Breaking News both negative & positive

• Whenever possible a rebuttal accompanies negative stories

IHTA News

Our new bi-monthly newsletter

First issue e-mailed to members on 23 July 2007

Legislative and regulatory update

Member contributions welcome

Consumes a lot of time and effort

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING - DoHC

• Eamonn Corcoran (Head of Food Unit) et al

• Dr. Jim Kiely (Chief Medical Officer)

• Mary Harney TD, Minister for Health & Children

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING - FSAI

Dr. Mary Flynn - Chief Specialist: Public Health Nutrition

Dr. Brian Redahan – Director of Consumer Protection

Orla Walsh – Health Claims Consultant

Professor Albert Flynn, Chair, Scientific Committee

Dr. John O’Brien, Chief Executive

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING - IMB

• Pat O’Mahony, Chief Executive

• Joan Gilvarry, Director - Human Medicines

• Elaine Breslin, Medical Assessment Manager

• Muireann Lydon, Pharmaceutical Assessment Manager

• Cora Nestor, Pharmaceutical Assessor (THMPs)

• John Lynch, Director of Compliance

• Kevin O’Donnell, Market Compliance Manager

• Mike Morris, Senior Scientific Advisor

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING - IAHS

Met Jill Bell, President, IAHS on 2 May 2007

5 June 07 – presentation to IAHS Executive Council – gained commitment to mount campaign

Regular contact, IHTA financial support, WW distributed campaign materials

Jill invited me & my wife to Rude Health dinner as her guest

Joint collection of sales and market data

Jill and Erica copied on News Flashes, Breaking News and IHTA News ( 2 way information flow )

Wrote and sent a petition to the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament

Jill arranged meeting with Dr. Rob Verkerk, ANH

Invited to give statement at IAHS press conference

Assistance with membership drive

Contribution by Jill to our first Annual Report

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING - HFMA

• First met David Adams (Director, HFMA) at last year’s IHTA AGM

• Met David, Penny Viner (Vice-President, HFMA) and Chris Whitehouse (HFMA Public & Political Affairs Consultant) in London

• At EHPM meetings, Trades Shows, and HFMA conferences & meetings - met John Redman (Chairman), Peter Aldis (President), Tom Moses (Treasurer), Michael Evans (Technical Advisor), Stephanie Butt (Pegasus PR), Roger Craddock, Dominic Holmes, and Robert Taylor (Council Members)

• In March 2008 – met Graham Keen (HFMA Director Designate) in Brighton

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING - EHPM

• To date – attended 5 EHPM meetings (2 general business), 2 technical and 1 campaign & training meeting.

• Met with key EHPM staff – Simon Pettman, Patrick Coppens (Secretary General), Lorene Courrège (Director of Regulatory Affairs), Peter van Doorn (Chairman), Dr. Derek Shrimpton (Scientific Advisor) and Professor David Richardson (Scientific Advisor)

• Dr. Derek Shrimpton visited Ireland 3 times last year – Eamonn Corcoran (DoHC) X 2 and Professor Albert Flynn X 1

• Professor David Richardson due in June to present EHPM/ERNA model to key personnel from FSAI and DoHC

MEMBERS’ SURVEY & DESK RESEARCH FOR INDUSTRY DATA

Original motivation – secure industry data for meeting with Mary Harney

Phil secured data from IHTA member companies

I secured data from the IAHS and by doing desk (internet) research

An IHTA member company kindly supplied me with 2 market reports

Information gathered is summarised in the IHTA Annual Report

Collecting, analyzing and interpreting industry data must be continuous and more extensive.

It is needed to support ‘arguments’ we make to the regulators.

Every IHTA member companies’ support is essential

ATTENDANCE AT TRADE SHOWS

• Rude Health Show (Dublin), Harrogate Show and Brighton Show

• Opportunity to learn more about the industry and its products

• Opportunity to meet managers and staff from IHTA member companies

• Opportunity to meet managers from IHTA non-member companies

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

Howard Correll (MD, Seven Seas) Bernard Rooney (MD, Kelkin),

St. John Culligan (MD Munster Wholefoods) Richard Wilkins (GM, Munster Wholefoods)

John Woods (MD, Linwoods) Kiernan Mahon (MD, Simply Wild),

Jack Kinsella, (MD, Shield Health) Stuart FitzSimmons (Swiss Herbal Remedies)

Jamie Christie (MD, Lifeplan) Han van de Braak (Director, Sante Franglais (UK) Ltd

Robert Taylor (Vice President, Vitabiotics) Kim Barani (CEO, Kinetic)

Stefan Wendrich (Marketing Manager, Salus) John Raftery (Director, Bioshell)

John Sheehan (CEO, Anu Organics) Dominic Holmes (MD, Cress UK Limited)

IHTA Business Meetings

• 6 Executive Council meetings

• 6 meetings with Phil Costigan (General Secretary)

• Several meeting with Peter Noone (Chairperson)

• 2 Annual General Meetings

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• Knowledge is power

• Begin with the end in mind

• Plan and implement

• Focus on ‘value adding’ activities

• Keep close to all stakeholders (relationship building & influencing)

• Teamwork

• Communicate, communicate, communicate ……

DEVELOPING THE IHTA STRATEGIC PLAN 2008-2011

Further Guiding Principles:

“Having lost site of our objectives, we redoubled our efforts.”

“Planning without action is futile; action without planning is fatal.”

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

A RELATIONSHIP MARKETING/MANAGEMENT APPROACH

• Identify your named stakeholders

• Create relationships between the Association and these stakeholders – a relationship that stretches over many interactions and builds mutual respect and trust

• Manage these relationships to the benefit of your stakeholders and the Association

OUR STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS

STAGE (1) – Elicited our EC’s views on the important elements of our SP

STAGE (2) – Elicited the views of managers in IHTA member companies

STAGE (3) – Pulled everything together (including my own thoughts & Phil’s)

STAGE (4) – Did a ‘content analysis’ to identify main themes and key elements

STAGE (5) – Wrote a draft strategic plan

STAGE (6) – Presented draft plan to EC for review, appraisal, modification etc

STAGE (7) – Present to all members as “their plan”

STAGE (8) – Implementation and Review

ELEMENTS OF THE STRATEGIC PLAN

• INTRODUCTION• STRATEGY SUMMARY• VISION STATEMENT• MISSION STATEMENT• CORE VALUES• KEY BELIEFS• GUIDING PRINCIPLES• SWOT ANALYSIS – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats• CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS• OVERVIEW OF THE STRATEGIC PLAN – 5 sections:

IHTA itself (staff), (2) IHTA members, (3) government & regulators, (4) consumers & the media, (5) other associations with similar aims

• STRATEGIC GOALS• STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES • STRATEGIC INITIATIVES• TACTICS