Identifying customers' unmet needs
An exclusive interview with a technical leader
Barbara B. Hulit, President, Fluke, Everett, WA -- Test & Measurement World, 3/1/2006
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| Barbara B. Hulit President Fluke Everett, WA On becoming president of Fluke in September 2005, Barbara B. Hulit assumed responsibility for the Fluke Industrial and Fluke Precision Measurement businesses. Hulit came to Fluke from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where she was a VP and director with responsibility for the firm’s packaged-goods sector. Over the past seven years, Hulit has worked extensively with Fluke and was instrumental in the identification of the company’s new indoor-air-quality and thermography businesses. Her background also includes senior positions in sales and marketing for Noxell, Frito-Lay, and Marketing Corporation of America. She holds an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University and a BA in marketing from the University of Texas at Austin. Chief editor Rick Nelson interviewed her by e-mail. Barbara B. Hulit elaborates on Fluke’s competitiveness and on its entry into the thermal-imaging market in the continuation of this interview. |
Q. Could you describe the role of Fluke within Danaher, the parent company?
A. Fluke is the anchor of Danaher's Electronic Test platform. Driven by new-product development and entry into new markets such as temperature measurement and calibration, Fluke has experienced tremendous growth. Fluke has been a major part of a shift in the Danaher portfolio to higher-tech, higher-growth markets, including product identification, motion, environmental systems, and medical technologies.
Q. What product lines are you responsible for as head of the Fluke Industrial and Fluke Precision Measurement businesses?
A. In my role as president of Fluke, I have responsibility for the design, manufacture, sales, and service of all industrial test and calibration product lines. This encompasses any tool we manufacture that metrologists or design and test engineers are likely to use. Within our precision-instrument business, our product lines include calibrators, reference multimeters, signal generators, bench meters, and calibration software. I also have responsibility for all handheld test tools, including our ScopeMeter test tools, portable calibrators, power-quality recorders and analyzers, thermal imagers, and indoor-air-quality tools, as well as multimeters, thermometers, and general electrical testers.
Q. Do you anticipate growth in the markets Fluke serves, or are they relatively mature?
A. Thermal imaging is a high-growth market, particularly in the industrial segment. As we continue to break the compromises associated with thermography, the market will grow. We are truly defining a new market. Likewise, we continue to experience healthy growth in the calibration, multimeter, and handheld-portable-oscilloscope markets as we explore and uncover our customers' unmet needs and dissatisfactions.
Q. What core competencies does Fluke have that contribute to the success of all these product lines?
A. There are three characteristics that combine to make Fluke the successful company it has been since our beginning in 1948. Not surprisingly, these are areas that mattered a great deal to John Fluke, Sr., our founder: an intimate understanding of our customers, the discipline and drive to identify trends that are shaping the design and test market, and a strong focus on quality.
Q. How does your experience with consumer products apply to Fluke?
A. The consumer-products sector does a great job of thoroughly understanding its customers' unmet needs, wants, and dissatisfactions. Knowing how to commercialize these insights is well practiced in most consumer packaged-goods companies. Fluke has the same quest for customer insight as most consumer-products companies.
We spend considerable time "toe-to-toe" with our customers to understand how they spend their day, what frustrations they have, and how their needs are changing. This is what allows Fluke to introduce products that the market is excited about. My experience in the consumer sector should help reinforce what Fluke already does well while bringing new tools and perspectives.
Q. What are Fluke's key strengths?
A. We have a tremendous team of intelligent, driven people who are passionate about what they do. We leverage that strength with an organizational culture that is focused on listening to the needs of customers and on operational excellence. That, coupled with an incredibly strong brand, really defines our strengths.
