Billion Dollar Businesses: F&P Healthcare

In our latest feature on Billion Dollar Businesses, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare's VP Corporate Marcus Driller talks about the advantages of being based in New Zealand and how it's instilled in them a need to do things differently in order to successfully compete on the global stage.

How much does your current success feedback to your company's founding principles? Did you think big from the start?

A substantial proportion of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare’s success stems from the culture of innovation that was created by founders Sir Woolf Fisher & Maurice Paykel. Since 1934, Fisher & Paykel has challenged conventional design to deliver world-first technologies. The Healthcare and Appliances businesses were separated in 2001, but we retain the “Fisher & Paykel” name and the F&P culture of innovation and continuous improvement continues to be a major contributor to our success. From our early beginnings, F&P Healthcare committed itself to an export future. In the early days the market in New Zealand for respiratory humidification was very small, necessitating a need to think globally.

What have been the three key elements of your success to date?

How did you first approach international expansion?

How have you been able to manage globalisation from NZ?

While our global headquarters and executive team are located in New Zealand, we have excellent management teams running our European, North American and Asia Pacific sales operations who are all located in-market. Similarly, we have an experienced management team that look after our Mexico manufacturing operations. For us, our success in these overseas countries has come about from having the right people in country making decisions on a day-to-day basis that are in line with the F&P Healthcare culture and values.

What are the advantages of being based in New Zealand?

What have you got your sights set on next?