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Stanley Bergman grew up in a country that didn\u2019t make sense to him. Born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to Jewish parents who\u2019d fled Nazi Germany in 1936, he was raised in a household where racism was explicitly condemned\u2014and then walked each morning into an segregated school because of apartheid. He\u2019d come home to the working-class suburb of South End, which Bergman describes as a \u201ctotally functional multicultural environment\u201d\u2014until 1963, when the government declared it \u201cwhites-only\u201d area, forced out friends and neighbors by race and eventually bulldozed it. Soon after Bergman got his accounting degree, he and his wife Marion, a physician who\u2019d been working in the Black township of Soweto, left for London, and came to New York a year later.<\/p>\n
He was 26. He brought with him a philosophy of leadership that would shape his career and his tenure as CEO of Henry Schein, which ended earlier this month after 36 years at the helm. (Fred Lowery became CEO on March 2, with Bergman staying on as chairman.) Bergman took it from a regional dental supplier with $225 million in revenue to a $13.2 billion-a-year global distributor of dental and medical supplies that\u2019s No. 333 on the Fortune 500 list. He credits that growth not only to acquisitions and innovation but also to the values of social impact and philanthropy.<\/p>\n
What drew him to to join the Long Island company as CFO in 1980 was seeing how the founders treated their workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a belief in aligning business with social values,\u201d he says of the Schein family, who\u2019d started the business in 1932. \u201cIt started with Henry. He\u2019d gone to Florida and brought back Smuckers jelly for everyone in the company. There were about 150 people. At Christmas, everybody would get case of wine and at Thanksgiving, they\u2019d get a turkey. His wife Esther did the books. They\u2019d work shoulder-to-shoulder with their people, and they did a lot in philanthropy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henry\u2019s son Jay Schein, who took over as CEO in 1980, built on that ethos in visible and sometimes costly ways. When the HIV\/AIDS crisis was taking hold in the 1980s, Jay directed the company to publish an infection control handbook for dentists. They arrived at the 1986 American Dental Association convention with the message to \u2018Sterilize as if your life depends on it\u2019 and were asked to leave. \u201cThey accused us of hype,\u201d says Bergman. \u00a0A few years later, dentist David Acer was accused of infecting several patients by disregarding safety protocols as he developed AIDS. Henry Schein was right. And sales went up.<\/p>\n
The company Henry Schein joined the Fortune 500 in 2004, debuting at No. 487. It has appeared on Fortune\u2019s World\u2019s Most Admired Companies for 21 consecutive years. As Bergman steps away from the CEO role, Bergman reflected on some lessons:<\/p>\n
Choose character qualities over credentials. \u00a0As a rookie CEO, Bergman got advice from a mentor at Abbott\u00a0when putting together a team. \u201cHe said, \u2018Who\u2019s your best people person?\u2019 I said, \u2018Jimmy the accountant but he knows nothing about the dental business.\u2019 His response: \u2018He\u2019ll learn. He\u2019ll put a team together,\u2019\u201d says Bergman. His deal lawyer became head of strategy, a warehouse manager became head of HR. Bergman hired for values and soft skills, knowing they could build domain knowledge on the job. \u201cIt\u2019s all about the teamwork.\u201d In times of rapid change, domain expertise can become outdated in a way that character and an ability to learn does not.<\/p>\n
Diversify and delegate. \u201cI always surrounded myself with people who have different opinions. Our CFO is the most conservative person. Our head of strategy is the most liberal person. The success of Henry Schein was to get the two sides to get along,\u201d he said. \u201cThe biggest thing is getting the team to work together. I never broke a stalemate. I would encourage this one to talk to that one and resolve the issue and come to me with a plan, saying you never need to get my approval. If you both agree, you can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bet on winners and partner to grow. Along with decentralizing distribution centers, Bergman knew he had to go global to grow. He started by simplifying his offering: \u201cThere were about 900 dental software systems out there, so we decided to pick one and make that the leader,\u201d he said. \u00a0Then he expanded through joint ventures, doing dozens of deals with people who knew local markets. \u201cWe acquired expertise through joint ventures, kept those entrepreneurs involved, and then built platforms around it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Define your business around who you serve. \u201cThe only way you can succeed in this environment is not through price, but through value: How do you help a practitioner provide better oral care, and at the same time help them operate a more efficient practice?\u201d said Bergman. The kinds of products they manufacture and services they sell, how that\u2019s delivered, will change as customer needs change. \u201cHenry Schein is not going to be in the business we\u2019re in today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contribute to society. \u201cWe have five constituents: the people that give us products, our customers, our team, our investors, and our commitment to society. If you can bring all five together\u2014it\u2019s not easy to get them all aligned all the time\u2014I think it\u2019s a recipe for success,\u201d he says. The last is important for serving the other four. One example: Henry Schein\u2019s \u2018Give Kids a Smile\u2019 initiative with the ADA Foundation, started in 2003, brings together\u00a06,500 dentists and 30,000 to provide free oral health screenings to more than 300,000 children annually.<\/p>\n
Henry Schein\u2019s sales team sets up the rooms, spend time with dentists, visit dental schools, and build relationships. They partner with more than 100 NGO partners globally around access, policy, innovation, sustainability and empowering Henry Schein\u2019s 25,000+ employees. It helps answer a question Bergman asks his leaders to think about for their teams: \u201cCan they live out their professional dreams in an environment where they feel they\u2019re contributing to society?<\/p>\n
Make a clean exit. About 18 months before announcing his retirement, Bergman decided to stop expanding and focus on integrating what existed. \u201cWe could have gone on to other legs of the story,\u201d he says. \u201cAt one point I said, now let\u2019s stop adding new and let\u2019s take what we\u2019ve got and consolidate it.\u201d He wanted his successor to have the freedom to bring his vision to a business that was operating smoothly instead of integrating acquisitions he might not want or finishing things he didn\u2019t start. And Bergman knew better than to pick a successor himself. \u201cThe board conducted an independent process, and we were very fortunate to find Fred, who I\u2019ve referred to as a needle in a haystack,\u201d he said referring to Lowery\u2019s background overseeing Thermo Fisher Scientific\u2019s massive healthcare distribution business. \u201cWe\u2019re both in the ice cream business, with different flavors of ice cream.\u201d<\/p>\n
And judging from Lowery\u2019s own family foundation and posts over the years, he\u2019s probably aligned when it comes to the philosophy of leadership, too. As Lowery said in a 2020 commencement speech at his alma mater Tennessee Tech University: \u201cWhoever helps the most people wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
#fled #Apartheid #South #Africa #built #billion #Fortune #company #rules<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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