Danaher Corporation
Danaher Corporation derives its sales from the design, manufacture and marketing
of industrial and consumer products, which are typically characterized by strong
brand names, proprietary technology and major market positions, in three business
segments: Professional Instrumentation, Industrial Technologies, and Tools &
Components.
The Company strives to create shareholder value through:
delivering sales growth, excluding the impact of acquired businesses, in excess
of the overall market growth for its products and services;
upper quartile financial performance when compared against peer companies;
and
upper quartile cash flow generation from operations when compared against peer
companies.
To accomplish these goals, the Company uses a set of tools and processes, known
as the DANAHER BUSINESS SYSTEM (“DBS”), which are designed to continuously improve
business performance in critical areas of quality, delivery, cost and innovation.
The Company also acquires businesses that it believes can help it achieve the
objectives described above. The Company will acquire businesses when they strategically
fit with existing operations or when they are of such a nature and size as to
establish a new strategic line of business.
The Company’s manufacturing operations employ a wide variety of raw materials.
While certain raw materials such as steel and certain electrical components
are subject to supply constraints, Danaher believes that it will generally be
able to obtain adequate supplies of major raw material requirements or reasonable
substitutes at reasonable costs.
Competition
Our served markets are generally highly competitive and global in nature. Because
of the diversity of products the Company manufactures and the variety of markets
it serves, the Company encounters a wide variety of competitors. The Company
faces numerous regional or specialized competitors, many of which are well-established
in their markets. In addition, some of the Company’s competitors are larger
companies or divisions of larger companies that have greater sales, marketing,
research, and financial resources than the Company. Key competitive factors
typically include price, quality, delivery speed, service and support, innovation,
product features and performance, and brand name.