Bruce D. Leidal is the Chief Information Officer at Carestream Health, Inc. Since being hired by Carestream’s CEO, Kevin Hobert, in August 2008, Leidal has transformed the company’s IT organisation into a global operation. His leadership has generated greater process efficiency and reduced costs, which ultimately benefit not only Carestream Health’s business profile but its valued customers.
Carestream was a young company when Leidal joined the management team. It formed when Onex Corporation bought Kodak’s Health Imaging Division in 2007. The IT function in place at the time was thus designed to support a much larger and more complex organisation than Carestream, with 300 IT staff at 44 sites. Leidal’s challenge was to create a leaner IT structure that was optimised for efficiency and cost effectiveness.
“The biggest piece that was missing when I walked in was the lack of a portfolio management process. There was no farm for having a conversation with executive leadership,” Leidal said.
He had three main strategies when he began: 1) an integrated vision for IT, 2) the implementation of more effective processes, and 3) hands-on leadership. Indeed, he identified IT strategy and relationship management as the most challenging and also the most important areas of focus. Fortunately, Hobert gave Leidal the license to transform things, and then allowed him to lead the way.
To address prioritisation of Carestream’s many projects, Leidal worked with the executive management team. Strategic value and return on investment factor prominently into IT funding decisions. As such, the projects which would certainly be funded and those that would certainly not be funded were not the subject of lengthy discussions. Instead, the company focused on those plans which were just above or just below the budgetary cutoff line.
Carestream’s IT and financial managers worked together to put a single global financial system in place, part of a wider initiative to emphasise the use of common processes throughout the company. Another of Leidal’s contributions to Carestream’s success is the extension of the company’s IT capabilities into customer organisations. Cloud computing permits customers to access some services.
Leidal has also served as CIO for Hayes Lemmerz, International (HLI). There, he successfully improved the large automotive supplier’s operations by focusing on information accuracy and streamlining the decision making process. Prior to his contributions, HLI had a decentralised IT operation in North America. His recommendations resulted in centralised applications which are supported by a global infrastructure.
Other organisation which have benefited from Leidal’s leadership include AT Kearney/EDS Management Consulting, Federal-Mogul Corporation, General Motors, Systems Thinking, LLC and Texas Instruments.
Leidal earned a BS degree in Information Systems from Madonna University (Livonia, MI, USA). He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and also holds a certificate in IT Management from Learning Tree International.
