Preserving Our Unique American DNA in a Time of Rapid Change

The following remarks were delivered by Stanley M. Bergman, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Henry Schein, Inc., at the New York Stock Exchange on July 18, 2017, where Mr. Bergman was honored as the 2017 CEO of the Year by Chief Executive Magazine. Mr. Bergman was introduced by the 2016 honoree, AT&T Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President Randall Stephenson.

Mark Twain used to say that it made him feel extremely uncomfortable when people said nice things about him. He was always afraid they would leave something out.

But I don’t think Mark Twain would have any complaints tonight. Thank you, Randall, for that kind introduction.

Following in your footsteps as both a speaker and award winner will be a very big task indeed. Thank you so much to Chief Executive Magazine and the judging committee of peer CEOs for this wonderful recognition. Thank you to my colleagues, our business partners and suppliers, our investors, NGO partners and my friends and family for all of your support, as we have built our success together.

And, my biggest thanks of all goes to the members of Team Schein, who have made this recognition possible through their steadfast commitment and tireless work over the years.

Nothing of great consequence happens individually. Every great success requires a team, and at Henry Schein we have an exceptional team. There are just too many to thank individually, but this recognition is a reflection of our team’s success.

Let me quickly share a story with you about a team of Americans, a great people where immigrants have been welcomed over the centuries and have played such a central role in building our country. As with countless immigrants over the years, this country welcomed my wife, Marion, and me with open arms from our first day here in May of 1976. We arrived with an excitement and abiding optimism to now be a part of this great country. Marion and I were immigrants from South Africa. Marion was born to a fourth generation South African mother. I am the son of refugees who fled Nazi Germany, and my parents found sanctuary in South Africa.

Four months after arriving in America, I met Jim Breslawski, now Henry Schein’s president, who has been my business partner for 41 years. Jimmy is the son of an Irish immigrant mother and a father whose parents were Ukrainian immigrants.

As everyone here knows, no business leader succeeds on their own. It takes teamwork to make a dream work.

The old African proverb is so true:

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

That is the essence of a real team – they go far together. So Jim and I looked for partners for our team. Gerry Benjamin, Henry Schein’s Chief Administrative Officer, the son of parents who were immigrants from the British West Indies. Steven Paladino, Henry Schein’s Chief Financial Officer, the son of an Italian immigrant father. Mark Mlotek, Henry Schein’s Chief Strategic Officer, the son of a refugee from Poland who escaped the Nazis by receiving a visa from the famous Japanese consul, Sugihara. Michael Zack, who speaks six languages and founded Henry Schein’s most successful International group from scratch in 1989. Michael is an immigrant from Europe, where his late parents were Holocaust survivors. Len David, who played a key role in establishing our company’s Legal and Human Resources departments. Len’s parents were also immigrants from Germany.

Though we all came from diverse backgrounds, what we all shared was an immigrant’s drive to succeed and the willingness to come together and share our respective strengths.

Our American story is echoed time and time again throughout this great country. When Jim and I joined Henry and Esther Schein’s company in the summer of 1980, it was being led at that time by their younger son, Marvin. There were 140 employees in the business, and Jay Schein, their older son, was about to become our CEO. Jay’s philosophy, which he drummed into every Team Schein member, was:

“This is what we are all about: a concern for people and a concern for results.” 

Using this philosophy and working with colleagues, many of whom also are the sons, daughters or grandchildren of immigrants, we built a business that now includes more than 21,000 Team Schein members around the world, more than half of whom work here in the United States. As a team, we have gone far together!

In 2011, my remarks on Ellis Island included the notion that: No dream is too big for Americans. We are here to bear witness to the irrefutable fact that the United States of America provides that rare environment that allows people to dream big, and to turn those dreams into reality. Our unique American culture provides the oxygen that enables our dreams to become reality. It creates the special energy and DNA that gives birth to so many American stories, like the Henry Schein story. These stories have stitched the quilt of this great American society, economy and quality of living. America provides unsurpassed opportunity to those who have been here for many generations, and to those who land on its shores. Americans dream of making this a better world for our families and for all citizens of this country.

We are idealistic, and dream of exporting our participatory culture and democratic values around the world. We may get things wrong from time to time, but our unique values-based culture invariably brings us back to the right way.

Since this audience tonight is comprised of so many influential business leaders, I would like to use this occasion to reflect on something that has been on my mind in recent months. My concern is that the environment of what many call the 4th Industrial Revolution is threatening this unique American DNA. Right now, the 4th Industrial Revolution is reshaping our world by accelerating the pervasiveness of technology. We as business leaders have a responsibility to be engaged in the shaping of society.

So here is my appeal to all business leaders:

We cannot leave people behind. Too many in business have been too focused on going fast and not focused enough on going together. The result is a minority of huge beneficiaries and an increasingly vocal majority of those left behind. If we focus too much on the speed of change rather than ensuring that all benefit from change, then we risk greater disenfranchisement and civil dissent, which jeopardizes global stability and all democratic societies.

We and our companies are beneficiaries of the 4th Industrial Revolution, and we have an obligation to civil society to do a better job expanding these benefits to others. Everyone should benefit from the huge bounty emerging from the 4th Industrial Revolution. Everyone should have a stake in the emerging technologies.

We need a creative commitment by business leaders to impart the benefits of the 4th Industrial Revolution more broadly. This is not about taking positions regarding taxes, where there is room for genuine disagreement, but about bringing more people into the digital economy.

That is my appeal to you today.

As business leaders, we should be societal leaders during this time when civility is severely challenged, and when trust in business, government, international institutions, the media, and civil society leaders are at historic lows. As business leaders, we should work with all, including our elected officials, to instill a spirit of bipartisanship and civil discourse. We should demand that our elected officials, regardless of political belief, put aside their political differences to work together for the greater good of all Americans. Americans thrive on the diversity of thought that is freely expressed by people from all walks of life and diversities.

As business leaders, we should work to foster greater tolerance and respect for our differences. My good friend Farooq Kathwari, the CEO of Ethan Allen who is here tonight, has joined with me in this effort. Together, we co-chair the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, which was co-founded by the American Jewish Committee and the Islamic Society of North America, with strong encouragement of Christian leaders across the country and leaders of other faiths, as well as strong support by elected leaders in both parties and the Department of Justice.

The council’s mission is to combat hate crimes against people of faith. 

We have been joined by Steve Collis, Chairman, President and CEO of AmerisourceBergen, who is with us tonight, and by 40 other national leaders.

Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel’s counsel still holds true:

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Business leaders must work together to bridge our political, religious, and cultural differences, which is more important now than ever before. Our democracy is too precious to be torn apart by our differences. Something greater than ourselves is at stake, and that is exactly what a hero of mine once said.

The late South African President Nelson Mandela said:

“You mustn't compromise your principles, but you mustn't humiliate the opposition. No one is more dangerous than one who is humiliated.”

As business leaders, we have the platforms and the duty to gather people together to foster and promote a civil dialogue among people of every political, religious, economic and cultural background. We should start with our own teams and communities, which we should bring together to advance a dialogue rooted in civility and focused on finding common ground. I ask you to bridge the divide that rapid technological and societal change has wrought, so that we may fulfill the African proverb of “going far together,” so that no dream remains “too big for Americans.”

It is a big task ahead, but we can take encouragement from President Mandela, who famously said:

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

I have total confidence and trust that we can extend the benefits of tomorrow’s world to more people today. There can be no doubt that our best years lie ahead of us, and we are deeply grateful to be a part of it.

Thank you again for this wonderful honor.