In the first podcast from In Reality: Lessons from Leaders and Entrepreneurs, John Rebecchi (M.B.A. ‘83) interviews James P. Breslawski, the current president of Henry Schein. Henry Schein “is a solutions company for health care professionals powered by a network of people and technology” (“About Henry Schein” Henry Schein Solutions for Health Care Professionals). Breslawski has worked for the company since the summer of 1980, and during the podcast, he discusses how Henry Schein expanded to become a multinational corporation, and how they were able to achieve and maintain their success. He attributes their success to preserving the company’s core values and mission. Henry Schein’s mission is “to provide innovative, integrated health care products and services; and to be trusted advisors and consultants to our customers – enabling them to deliver the best quality patient care and enhance their practice management efficiency and profitability” (“About Henry Schein” Henry Schein Solutions for Health Care Professionals). By following this mission, the company has been able to grow and expand, while retaining their core beliefs. Additionally, Breslawksi discusses the importance of respect and trust in a business. He explains that everyone is entitled to respect because “each person is as important as the rest.”

Another key to success according to Breslawksi is trust. A company must have trust in every aspect of the business in order to be able to work with others and get things done adequately and efficiently. These core values enabled Henry Schein to grow and prosper because they aligned with people and businesses that understood and actively took part in helping achieve the company’s overall mission. As a result, Henry Schein was able to grow into a company that currently has over 300,000 products, more than 1 million customers, and as of 2018, sales from continuing operations reached 9.4 billion (“About Henry Schein” Henry Schein Solutions for Health Care Professionals).

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By Konstance Teleisha