What's in a name? Plenty, if you ask Goodrich Corp, here for the
first time in its new identity-without the "BF."
BF Goodrich was first and foremost a tire company, and the old handle
was fine, which was fine in 1985, when aerospace accounted for only
7% of revenues. Now aerospace accounts for a whopping 84% or so
of the firm's $4.4 billion in annual sales. That old flat tire image
just had to go.
"The name change is part of an ongoing transformation of this
company and its people over the last decade," Marshall Larsen,
president of Goodrich Aerospace, told Show News.
Much of the growth has been through acquisitions (including Coltec
and Menasco), each of which brought different cultures and best
practices from which Goodrich picked what it considered the best.
The result? "We became one company instead of a series of disparate
entities. So the timing in changing our name is very appropriate,
not just in distancing ourselves from the old tire business but
in solidifying our employees into one company," Larsen says.
As Goodrich chairman and CEO David Burner explains: "The company's
expansion has been driven by a strategic vision of supplying an
ever-broader range of best-in-class products, systems and services.
With a heritage of innovation, entrepreneurship, and creative solutions
that continues to this day, Goodrich has developed positions of
global leadership for products that are vital to the performance
of virtually every aircraft in the world."
Larsen expects that to continue. "We are very committed to
aerospace, and plan to continue to drive the growth in that business,"
he says. Those expansion plans have already pushed it from $1 billion
a year to $4 billion in the last five years.
"In just the last two years we have done about 14 complementary
acquisitions that add close to $350 million to our revenue base
this year," says Larsen. "And we always have a few in
play."
While some companies find it hard to digest acquisitions, or they
add them as a separate business, Goodrich integrates them. Although
managers have P&L accountability, they are brought into the
mainstream of Goodrich's daily operational life. And that, Larsen
says, has added immeasurably to the company's overall success as
managers who work together find synergies they would otherwise have
completely missed.
Today, Boeing accounts for 20% of Goodrich's business, and Airbus
13%. "They are the two powerhouses in the industry, both are
key customers, and we are right at the top of the supplier list
for both of them," Larsen says.
By John Morris
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