Danaher’s Evolutionary Story 

Danaher today is a leading global life sciences and diagnostics innovator, helping to solve many of the most important health challenges around the world. With more than 65,000 dedicated associates and leading brands in science and technology, Danaher’s culture is the product of its nearly 40-year commitment to innovation, listening to its customers, and continuous improvement.

Danaher was established by Steven and Mitchell Rales in 1984 as a group of discrete manufacturing businesses. Starting in the mid-1990s, Danaher organized its businesses around strategic platforms with sustainable competitive advantages in sizeable global markets. Over the subsequent decades, Danaher established leadership positions in the science and technology sectors that define it today.

From the beginning, the Rales had envisioned a new kind of company—one dedicated to continuous improvement and customer satisfaction. Danaher became one of the first companies in North America to adopt kaizen—the Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement. 

This practice led to the development of the Danaher Business System (DBS) and continues to guide the company’s culture today. With its early origins in manufacturing, DBS then evolved to support all the company’s work—from how Danaher acquires and improves businesses to how it attracts and develops talent, partners with customers and develops new technologies. 

For Danaher, DBS is the driving force behind the company’s industry-leading innovations—from delivering the first CDC-approved primer and probe test kits during the COVID-19 pandemic, to providing advanced imaging technology that helped doctors complete the world’s first bilateral hand transplant on a child.  

As a global science and technology innovator, Danaher leverages its companies to transform the fields of life sciences, diagnostics and biotechnology, and helping customers solve complex challenges to improve quality of life around the world.

• In Life Sciences, Danaher helps reduce the time and cost needed for customers to discover and develop innovative, life-changing therapies for patients.
• In Diagnostics, Danaher empowers healthcare professionals to get the right therapy to the right patients at the right time, improving response rates and outcomes.
• In Biotechnology, Danaher helps customers manufacture high-quality, innovative therapies rapidly, securely, and sustainably, bringing the latest treatment options to patients.