Laird’s strategy is one driven by the overarching objective of creating and growing shareholder value. Our growth strategy encompasses four key elements:
- Focus on specialist high growth markets
- Increase content and value-add in each electronic device/unit
- Exploit innovation and technology and product convergence
- Maintain a culture of operational excellence allied to corporate responsibility
Focus on specialist high growth markets
Our choice of markets is key to our growth strategy. In recent years we have focused on those showing high growth or potential, extending our presence via capital investment in technological and operational excellence and via strategic acquisitions.
The diagram below simply demonstrates how we have successfully established market leading positions in specialist, high growth segments of the electronics industry.
Increase our content and value-add in each electronic device/unit
Higher speed, power and performance of electronic devices, as well as the increasing trend to wireless connectivity, drives an increasing need for our products and solutions. By broadening our technology capabilities over recent years we are now able to offer a unique range of components and systems, which in turn gives us access to new, high growth market segments, and ensures we are well-equipped to develop and deliver the solutions required by our customers in the future.
Over half our R&D spend is on new development programmes, including redesigns for product extensions, targeted at near term customer development platforms. Nearly one quarter of the spend is in product innovation for future platforms which result in completely new product families; the remaining spend is on advanced technology research offering the greatest potential future.
Exploit innovation and technology and product convergence
A valuable source of technology-based competitive advantage is our ability to combine products and solutions and exploit convergence, both technological and physical, and also in the form of bundling of components and in the supply of modules and sub-assemblies, allowing us to deliver multi-functional value to our customers, whilst simplifying their supply chain.
Promote a culture of operational excellence and corporate responsibility
Our focus on operational excellence is a key differentiator, from supplying our customers ‘just in time’ to being the lowest cost supplier. As part of our commitment to this philosophy we are, amongst other areas, making strategic investments in upgrading production capabilities, targeting supply chain efficiencies, allied to compliance with the Electronics Industry Code of Conduct and continuous improvement through our Six Sigma programme.
As a forward-thinking business we also recognise that responsible manufacturing practices are essential for sustainable, long term growth and therefore pursue environmentally-conscious design and manufacturing practices, via various strategies including maximising resource productivity and minimising energy intensity.
