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A Dynamo Called Danaher

The Rales brothers' sprawling conglomerate makes everything--especially money

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February 19, 2007 at 5:00 AM UTC

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Danaher Corp. (DHR ) is not nearly as big, famous, or influential as conglomerates such as General Electric (GE ), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK ), or 3M (MMM ). It owns such a mundane and sprawling portfolio of sleepy, underloved industrial businesses--companies that make dental surgery implements, multimeters, drill chucks, servomotors, and wrenches, just to name a few--that it seems deliberately assembled to be as unsexy as possible.

But despite its low profile, Danaher is probably the best-run conglomerate in America. It's clearly the best performing: Over 20 years, it has returned a remarkable 25% to shareholders annually, far better than GE (16%), Berkshire Hathaway (21%), or the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index (12%).