Fluke Corporation

Fluke Corporation is a leading designer, developer, manufacturer, and seller of commercial electronic test and measurement instruments for scientific, service, educational, industrial, and government applications. Its products include oscilloscopes, voltmeters, ammeters, LANmeters, and other devices. With operations in the United States and the Netherlands, Fluke sells its products in more than 100 different countries. Fluke Corporation was founded in 1948 by John Fluke to manufacture electronics testing equipment like power meters and Ohmmeters. Even in the late 1940s the electronics testing and measuring industry was relatively young, as measurement standards and truly reliable tube-type and electromechanical instruments had been introduced around the turn of the century. A highly accurate Ohmmeter (used to measure electrical resistance in a circuit), for example, was among the first of the new generation of testing equipment developed in the early 1900s. It was followed by more accurate power meters (for measuring voltage), ammeters (used to measure current), and other apparatus. But the industry was entering an entirely new era when Fluke started his company, because Bell Laboratories had just introduced the transistor in 1947. The transistor was very important to the electronics field because it made it possible for scientists to develop testing and measuring devices that were accurate to within one-millionth of a unit of measurement, or less. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, therefore, demand growth for testing and measuring equipment tracked the surge in the production of solid-state electronics products and equipment. The testing and measuring devices were used to help in the design, manufacture, testing, and servicing of electrical and electronic products. Fluke, with its technological expertise, benefited from market growth and was able to parlay engineering excellence into steady sales and profit growth. The external changes started in the late 1970s and intensified during the 1980s. That's when the complexion of Fluke's customer base began to change. Buyers of Fluke's equipment in the 1980s were less likely to be design engineers in labs, but were more likely to be one of the new breed of service technicians out in the field, working on fax machines, computerized cars, and computers. At the same time, Fluke and its U.S. competitors were facing a new threat from foreign companies vying for a share of a global market that the U.S. had traditionally dominated along with a few European manufacturers. Furthermore, as more electronics products were developed and manufactured overseas, Fluke would have to broaden its distribution and marketing channels to remain competitive. The evolution of the testing and measuring device industry underscored the need for changes in the Fluke organization. Fluke managed to increase sales steadily during the early 1980s, to more than $200 million annually by the mid-1980s. And it continued to dominate key niches, even leading industry giants like Hewlett-Packard and Tektronix. In fact, Fluke Manufacturing was known as one of the three top players in the testing and measuring device industry. But the company had achieved that growth mostly by tweaking its existing line of about 150 products. Thus, by the mid-1980s Fluke's offerings had becoming staid and risked obsolescence in the rapidly changing technological environment of the 1980s. John Fluke, still at the helm going into the 1980s, had started making changes in his company in the early 1980s. Importantly, he stepped aside and let other managers assume more responsibility. In 1982 he named George Winn president of Fluke. Winn had started with Fluke in 1968 and worked his way through the ranks. Then in 1983, just one year before his death, Fluke made his son, John Fluke Jr., chief executive. Under new management, Fluke began to whip its operations into shape, improve its products, and generally get its financial house in order. W