Carestream’s Story: Creating Leaders from Within

Carestream is a worldwide provider of medical imaging systems; X-ray imaging systems for non-destructive testing; and precision contract coating services for a wide range of industrial, medical, electronic and other applications—all backed by a global service and support network. Carestream partnered with Bluepoint in a multi-year project to support both emerging and senior leaders in their organization.

Neil Bryant, Carestream’s VP of Leadership and Sales Development for the Americas, discussed his company’s evaluation of Bluepoint and why they were selected as a Leadership Development partner.

What challenges were you experiencing prior to working with Bluepoint that prompted you to pursue a leadership development solution?

The company came upon indicators that told them they needed a leadership partner. They recently restructured their global organization to create regional companies, and new leadership determined new priorities.

“[Our new president’s] early assessment of the organization affirmed that we were about to encounter a shortage of leaders from within. We have a very senior leadership population, we are transitioning from a cost-savings to a growth strategy, and we recognized the need to retain key emerging and more experienced leaders.”

Bryant said Carestream decided that announcing, creating, and executing a leadership development program would not only prepare them for forthcoming business needs, but also send a clear message to the workforce that they wanted to invest in their people.

“So, we had the vision, the passion, and some in-house expertise, but not the scale nor resources to deliver a world class experience.”

 

What about the Bluepoint approach did you find to be particularly effective?

According to Bryant, there were three immediate points of traction Carestream found when investigating whether Bluepoint would be the right partner:

One was the caliber, quality, and responsive nature of their client service team. They felt that were being treated with very personal attention as opposed to being a sales prospect, and that chemistry was very attractive to them.

The second was that Bluepoint seemed to share their perspective on leadership development at the conceptual level. Their program design supported the notion that development should come from inspiring, teaching, and coaching leaders to become the best versions of themselves.

“The Bluepoint approach focuses on the individual leader and helps them to grow and develop. It does not suggest a template for the ideal leader and make people conform to that image. This core belief separated Bluepoint from other firms we were considering.”

The final factor that energized Carestream was that Bluepoint understood how to tether together multiple development pathways to form an integrated year-long program. The blending of self awareness, professional coaching, structured learning events, a cohort project, and micro eLearning support systems provides a comprehensive developmental experience for their leaders.

“Rather than building programs that “stamp out” leaders as though there were a magical formula, Bluepoint aligned with our sense that great leaders develop from the inside out.”

 

What was the impact of your partnership with Bluepoint?

Overall, the leadership development program that Bluepoint designed was so well received that participants experienced a strong renewed energy and enthusiasm around leadership, innovation, and collaboration. This has included 57% of program participants either assuming greater responsibility or being promoted within the company within 15 months of completion. Additionally, all program participants continue to be high caliber professionals and have remained with Carestream (100% retention). Excitingly, when the program became available for the second year, interest was so strong that application far exceeded the program slots!

Measurable ROI
Carestream was thrilled to see a real, measurable result within just a few short months of implementing these programs.

During the assessment and coaching process, a Field Engineer who was a participant in the Emerging Leaders Program, identified the need to learn how to speak up and share his ideas more frequently. As a result of this development objective, he wrote up a case study for how his business could save over $250,000 for each of the next 8 years and save 2,000+ man-hours/year. He presented the case study to his manager, who shared it up the line. In the end, the idea was approved for the United States and is being reviewed for global implementation as well.

What three benefits has your organization experienced working with Bluepoint?

• Personal, flexible, co-created programming through exceptional client service and project management.
• Robust, integrated developmental design that Carestream leaders see and feel as a key strategic investment in them.
• High-caliber learning content and experts are helping to transform emerging and senior leaders.

Why would you recommend Bluepoint to someone else?

Carestream selected Bluepoint from among nine players in the leadership development space, and most of those organizations are household names within this industry.

“We selected [Bluepoint] for the same reasons that I recommend them…”

• they have a personalized approach
• they have expertise in both their personnel and content library
• their core leadership development lens begins at the individual leader level as opposed to a pre-defined output model

“What should not be overlooked is that their people are genuinely nice. They are truly enjoyable to work with.”