Stanley Bergman grew up in a rustic that didn’t make sense to him. Born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to Jewish mother and father who’d fled Nazi Germany in 1936, he was raised in a family the place racism was explicitly condemned—after which walked every morning to a faculty segregated due to apartheid. He’d come dwelling to the working-class suburb of South Finish, which Bergman describes as a “totally functional multicultural environment”—till 1963, when the federal government declared it a “whites-only” space, compelled out pals and neighbors by race, and finally bulldozed it. Quickly after Bergman received his accounting diploma, he and his spouse, Marion, a doctor who’d been working within the Black township of Soweto, left for London, and got here to New York a yr later.
He was 26. He introduced with him a philosophy of management that may form his profession and his tenure as CEO of Henry Schein, which ended earlier this month after 36 years on the helm. (Fred Lowery grew to become CEO on March 2, with Bergman staying on as chairman.) Bergman took it from a regional dental provider with $225 million in income to a $13.2 billion-a-year world distributor of dental and medical provides that’s No. 333 on the Fortune 500 checklist. He credit that progress not solely to acquisitions and innovation but in addition to the values of social impression and philanthropy.
What drew him to hitch the Lengthy Island, N.Y., firm as CFO in 1980 was seeing how the founders handled their employees.
“They had a belief in aligning business with social values,” he says of the Schein household, who’d launched the corporate in 1932. “It started with Henry. He’d gone to Florida and brought back Smucker’s jelly for everyone in the company. There were about 150 people. At Christmas, everybody would get a case of wine, and at Thanksgiving, they’d get a turkey. His wife, Esther, did the books. They’d work shoulder to shoulder with their people, and they did a lot in philanthropy.”
Henry’s son Jay Schein, who took over as CEO in 1980, constructed on that ethos in seen and typically expensive methods. When the HIV/AIDS disaster was taking maintain within the Eighties, Jay directed the corporate to publish an an infection management handbook for dentists. Employees arrived on the 1986 American Dental Affiliation conference with the message “Sterilize as if your life depends on it” and had been requested to depart. “They accused us of hype,” says Bergman. Just a few years later, dentist David Acer was accused of infecting a number of sufferers by disregarding security protocols as he developed AIDS. Henry Schein was proper. And gross sales went up.
The corporate Henry Schein joined the Fortune 500 in 2004, debuting at No. 487. It has appeared on Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Firms for 21 consecutive years. As Bergman steps away from the CEO function, he mirrored on some classes:
Select character qualities over credentials. As a rookie CEO, Bergman received recommendation from a mentor at Abbott whereas placing collectively a crew. “He said, ‘Who’s your best people person?’ I said, ‘Jimmy the accountant, but he knows nothing about the dental business.’ His response: ‘He’ll learn. He’ll put a team together,’” says Bergman. His deal lawyer grew to become head of technique; a warehouse supervisor grew to become head of HR. Bergman employed for values and smooth expertise, figuring out they may construct area information on the job. “It’s all about the teamwork.” In instances of fast change, area experience can develop into outdated in a manner that character and a capability to be taught doesn’t.
Diversify and delegate. “I 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,” he mentioned. “The 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.’”
Guess on winners and companion to develop. Together with decentralizing distribution facilities, Bergman knew he needed to go world to develop. He began by simplifying his choices: “There were about 900 dental software systems out there, so we decided to pick one and make that the leader,” he mentioned. Then he expanded by joint ventures, doing dozens of offers with individuals who knew native markets. “We acquired expertise through joint ventures, kept those entrepreneurs involved, and then built platforms around it.”
Outline what you are promoting round these whom you serve. “The 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?” mentioned Bergman. The sorts of merchandise Schein manufactures and providers they promote—how that’s delivered—will change as buyer wants change. Notes Bergman: “Henry Schein is not going to be in the [same] business we’re in today.”
Contribute to society. “We 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—it’s not easy to get them all aligned all the time—I think it’s a recipe for success,” he says. The final is essential for serving the opposite 4. One instance: Henry Schein’s Give Children a Smile initiative with the ADA Basis, began in 2003, brings collectively 6,500 dentists to supply free oral well being screenings to greater than 300,000 kids yearly.
Henry Schein’s gross sales crew units up the rooms, spends time with dentists, visits dental colleges, and builds relationships. They companion with greater than 100 NGO companions globally round entry, coverage, innovation, sustainability, and empowering Henry Schein’s 25,000+ workers. It helps reply a query Bergman asks his leaders to consider for his or her groups: “Can they live out their professional dreams in an environment where they feel they’re contributing to society?”
Make a clear exit. About 18 months earlier than saying his retirement, Bergman determined to cease increasing and give attention to integrating what existed. “We could have gone on to other legs of the story,” he says. “At one point I said, ‘Now let’s stop adding new, and let’s take what we’ve got and consolidate it.’” He needed his successor to have the liberty to convey his personal imaginative and prescient to a enterprise that was working easily as a substitute of getting to combine acquisitions he won’t need or end issues he didn’t begin. And Bergman knew higher than to select a successor himself. “The board conducted an independent process, and we were very fortunate to find Fred, who I’ve referred to as a needle in a haystack,” he mentioned referring to Lowery’s background overseeing Thermo Fisher Scientific’s huge well being care distribution enterprise. “We’re both in the ice cream business, with different flavors of ice cream.”
And judging from Lowery’s family basis and posts through the years, he’s in all probability aligned with regards to the philosophy of management, too. As Lowery mentioned in a 2020 graduation speech at his alma mater, Tennessee Tech College: “Whoever helps the most people wins.”
