We are very excited to have Fortive Corporation with us today. We have Olumide Soroye, who is the president and CEO of Fortive, and we have Mark Åkerström, who is SVP and CFO of Fortive. And guys, you've been through, you know, a lot over the last couple quarters, and now a public company that's more focused. And so Olumide, maybe to start off with, I think you've highlighted sort of three pillars to the new Fortive story: accelerate profitable organic growth, allocate capital with discipline, build and maintain investor trust. So I think you've reported two quarters as the new Fortive. Maybe kick off with how do you ensure these pillars are sort of in the DNA of your employees, and that your team is ready to execute on the new strategy?
And then, you know the Fortive business as well, but as a relatively new CEO, maybe talk about the learnings or challenges as you've gone through the portfolio changes and the new Fortive strategy?
Great. Thank you, and thanks for having us. So I mean, I think for us at Fortive, we have a really straightforward value creation plan that we believe is gonna deliver benchmark we can show the returns the next several years. And because we started with a terrific foundation, and we have this company that has industry-leading gross margins, always consistently delivers strong EBITDA performance, and very strong free cash flow generation. So we knew we needed to keep those fundamentals in place and just added three things. Very surgically determined there were three things that would unlock value. One is a company that grows its top line a little bit faster organically. Second is to be beyond reproach in how disciplined we are with capital allocation.
And third is to build and maintain investor trust by simplifying our story and making sure we do what we say we'd do. So we went about the business of really getting the company focused on these three pillars that were going to unlock value. And I'll tell you, for our teams, they just 100% dialed in, because the case is really clear on why this is a path for us building on our foundation. We had our top 250 leaders together last week, and the level of excitement and energy and alignment around the strategy is just incredible. So it really hasn't taken very much to get our team focused on this and the DNA of the company focused on execution.
We're pleased to see the momentum in our first two quarters, based on our results, and showed progress on all three of the pillars, so it's been a great start. You know, from your question about the CEO experience, in many ways, it doesn't feel that new anymore. I think partly because I had the good fortune of having been around the company for a few years before stepping into the role. First leading our IOS segment for about three, four years before the spin, and even the EHS segment for nine months or so before we created new Fortive. So that really gave me the benefit of coming in with really good clarity about what's amazing about Fortive that we needed to keep-
Mm-hmm.
And then the few things that we needed to dial in to unlock the full value of the place. And now we've gone about the business of doing just that, fine-tuning the team in a few areas that we needed to enable that strategy, including getting Mark on board as a partner for me on this journey. And so it's been terrific, and we're excited about what's ahead.
Olumide, so maybe we can dig into your Fortive Accelerated Strategy. I think on your earnings call, you mentioned new product intros. You know, it's aimed at your high-growth vehicles. You're increasing your focus on higher growth end markets in general. I think it looks like it's starting to get some traction. So, you've gotten a 2%-3% organic growth in 2026. That's slightly below your 3%-4% growth, but, maybe why shouldn't we be more, more bullish on the top-line growth in 2026, given your ramping growth initiatives?
Yeah, no, we like that question a lot 'cause-
Mm
... it shows that you, you believe in what we're doing, and we, we do as well. And I, I would say we were certainly pleased with the momentum we saw in our first two quarters, from a top-line growth point of view. And the Fortive Accelerated Strategy, as you laid out, is designed to, to make the company grow faster. So we have the pace of new product innovation faster than it's ever been. We're making bets in the right commercial capacity spots with sales and marketing capacity to drive more growth and, and expanding the lifetime value of our customers by making sure we deliver great experiences. So we're certainly doing all the right things.
Mm-hmm.
The financial framework we laid out and the 3%-4% core growth in 2026 and 2027, we deliberately designed knowing that that was going to ramp.
Mm.
That's why we made it a two-year period, that 3%-4% . So 2026 will be faster than 2025, and 2027 will be faster than 2026. And that's exactly where we are. And, you know, the 2%-3% that we laid out for 2026 as our guide for the year, and so the considerations behind our, I just said, EPS guide for the year, that was very intentional in the sense that it reflected what we saw this early in the year. And a big pillar in our strategy is building and maintaining trust. So we really want to make sure whatever we say we're gonna do, we deliver it or we do better.
And so we, we feel good about that 2%-3% number as a place to start, this early in the year, and, and we'll see how the year goes.
Say-do ratio will be very high. We like that. And so maybe just talk about... Like, I know we're gonna talk about software a little bit, but you're infusing AI with Fortive Business System, and you've talked about AI being a meaningful accelerator to your software businesses. So I think it'd be helpful just to sort of talk about that. You know, what level of investment does that entail? How receptive customers have been to your advanced offerings, and how meaningful can AI-enabled offerings be to top and bottom line for Fortive?
... Yeah, that's certainly a hot topic these days.
Yeah.
And, the interesting thing is we maybe not very common for a lot of our peers, we came into this journey with some advantages, in the sense that we actually created our AI center of excellence in 2017.
Mm.
At the time, it was more machine learning and data and analytics. But we started building a team that really could be the center to drive AI potency across the business. And what we've done since then is that team is now an incredibly talented team, both based in the U.S. and then extensions in India. And what that's meant for us is, as exciting as Gen AI and Agentic AI has been, especially the last several months here, it wasn't a new initiative for us.
Mm.
We're already on that journey. We are seeing AI really as an accelerant for us, both in terms of our internal operations, but also the innovation that we're delivering to our customers. Maybe just a few examples on that. From an internal point of view, we really just took that AI center of excellence we had, and we infused it into our Fortive Business System. We combined the teams. What that's meant for us is all of these AI capabilities are now democratized across all of our operations. Our customer operations team, from our customer sales to customer support, are using all of these agentic AI tools to deliver better experience for customers and drive productivity. Our product development teams, they're all using this set of tools, and we're seeing significant increase in the output-
Mm
... with the same resource base in product development. All of our G&A functions are using this capability. And so it's just been tremendous to see the benefit of that proliferate across our operations. And from a customer-facing innovation point of view, I think about our company really as there's two fronts on this question. A majority of what we do are differentiated hardware technology products and solutions with brands like Fluke and Industrial Scientific and ASP that are quite spectacular. And we've been able to deploy AI-enabled use cases to improve experience of those products.
Mm.
From just simple—you know—copilots that can help an early-in-career technician to better use a product, to things that are more advanced, that can actually be guidance system for unique applications like data center certification, as an example. So we're deploying AI in our hardware solutions to improve experience and extend the advantage we already have with brands like Fluke and Industrial Scientific. And then, for our software solutions, it's even more exciting, because it turns out that the handful of software brands we have have a number of incredible moats around them.
Mm.
Either really deeply differentiated proprietary data across the industry that enable us to provide benchmark for each customer on our network, or really deeply, powerful two-sided networks, where you have hundreds of thousands of participants in a transaction on one side, certified on our platform, and then equivalent number on the other side of a transaction. So it's a meeting place more than it is a workflow software platform.
Mm.
Or deep kind of entanglement with customer operations that make it really more a system of action. It's where they get the job done, more than the workflow that tells them what to do. And in some cases, regulatory and legal requirements that make our product what the customer needs to use, because there's some OSHA regulation, or in the case of Gordian, it's written into the law in some state and local jurisdictions that you have to use the data.
So we have this set of advantages, and what that's meant is customers coming to us and say, "You are the best partner for us to actually deploy AI use cases at scale." And so every single one of our software companies right now has launched something and has a roadmap of additional AI use cases to come, that are actually making a real difference, for customers at scale. So we feel good about that. It's a big part of why all the metrics, leading and lagging, in our, in our software businesses are really strong, and, and they're getting better. And again, you know, the, the law of averages is very dangerous with software. You really have to kind of dissect what it is.
And a big part of why we're where we are is we didn't go into software as kind of an end in itself. We went into software as a way to strengthen our domain expertise, in particular workflows, and that meant the things that we picked as software assets are things that are deeply rooted. They weren't horizontal applications that just happened to have great financial profiles.
So Olumide, you answered a lot of my next question, and I'm sure you get a kick, as I do, about how everybody loves hardware these days. But, you know, so let me ask you a little bit more about the software moat, right? Because I'm sure you get the question, as I do, for Fortive. First of all, are you seeing any evidence that, like, of AI-focused startups, you know, the competitive landscape? And I think the points you brought up are really, really important. Sort of, you know, entrenched in the hardware, regulatory is super important, and just creating a sort of a marketplace with customers versus you, like that deep customer relationship.
So maybe you can talk about that, 'cause it's hard for me to sort of explain, you know, versus you, and I'm sure in sort of saying: Hey, this is why Fortive, Gordian or Accruent or whatever things are still going to have very high market share 10 years from now. What's your confidence level in that?
Yeah, no, at first, it's absolutely, it's the right question to be asking.
Mm.
I think we should all be asking that question. But we should be getting the answer specific to each context. And again, for us, the nature, the conversation really needs to be about customer value, because the point is, if you don't have a unique customer value that cannot be replaced, then you should and will be replaced. And I think what we found with every single one of the software assets we have is because you can literally list them and check for each of those mode types. Do they have not just you have proprietary data, but do you have data that no single customer can get? 'Cause you have it across 10,000 customers, and you have it over 30 years, and nobody else has the usage rights you have to that data.
So, like, not just do you have data, but something truly proprietary and distinctive, right?
Mm.
That, can you check that box? Second, do you have network effects built into it? That means you're not just a workflow software, you are actually a transaction enabler.
Mm-hmm.
That transaction cannot happen with that quality without what you offer. That's important to know.
Mm.
Third, do you have some regulatory and compliance or legal moats around the business that make it really difficult for someone new to come in and do what we do, and it takes years to build the credibility to get in that position? Are you deeply entangled and embedded in that customer's operating workflow, so you're not just a system of record, but a system of action? It's how they actually get work done. It's how they train tens of thousands of technicians or clinicians to do their job every day. So even if you change it out, you have to go retrain 10,000 people-
Mm
... for months for them to do their job. Those are the types of questions-
Mm
... that you have to be able to answer with real clarity in the context. And again, we have a set of businesses. We don't have a lot of software businesses within what we do, but the software businesses we do have happen to score really high on all of those things. And we will continue to ask that question of: What else can we add as a moat to strengthen our position? And we will continue to be, for our customers, the trusted partner for AI use cases. So we're the answer to the question they're trying to answer, which is: How do I get value from all this sensational discussion about AI? And right now, we really just like the work our teams are doing to deliver on that.
Yeah, that's very helpful, Olumide. Mark, I want to get you involved. So maybe just focusing a little more on margin. You know, you drove 110 basis points of adjusted EBITDA margin in 2025. That was despite, you know, somewhat muted growth of 1.7%, and now expect margin expansion in 2026 to be in line with the 50-100 basis points, which is, you know, long-term algorithm. So you mentioned you do have better control of your cost structure. Software's doing well. So why shouldn't we be more encouraged in your potential to drive margin expansion, at least at the higher end of your 50-100 basis points?
Well, I think it's certainly within our control to drive, margin expansion, you know, higher than or at the high end of the 50-100 basis points-
Mm
... of EBITDA margin expansion that we guided to over a two-year basis. But I think it's important to understand how we're allocating capital. It's really not just about versus, you know, CapEx, M&A, share repurchase, dividend, but it's also capital on the P&L, and we've taken a very close look at our cost base across the entire corporate cost structure.
Mm.
We've collapsed structures in the segments, really with the view to freeing up capital and resources to invest in organic growth. And we've got a number of initiatives that each of the operating companies have developed as part of our strategic planning process and through annual plan, operationalized through FBS, that are fully funded in accordance with the three-pillar acceleration levers that Olumide and, you know, has set out in the Fortive Accelerated Strategy. And we're going to continue to invest in those, but really all to drive faster organic growth and all with the goal of staying within that framework. So it's possible for us to exceed it, but I think we're going to just continue to try to find ways to actually reinvest the capital to higher organic growth.
Yeah, that makes sense. Olumide, I want to dig into the segments a little bit more. I think, you know, you had 4% growth at IOS in Q4 2025, outperformed our expectations. So we know we just talked about you ramping your growth initiatives inside IOS, so maybe you can help us understand how much of the incremental growth you saw in Q4 came from the initiatives versus short cycle recovery. Maybe just ask that question up front, would you say?
Yeah. A lot of what we saw in Q4, and we're quite pleased with the performance for IOS in Q4 especially. And a lot of that was the actions that our teams have taken-
Mm
... across the businesses on product innovation and new releases that we had, you know, did really well in the quarter. Commercial acceleration, and we placed some targeted bets in-
Mm
... expanding capacity in-
Mm
... in some markets that we knew we had the right product, and we needed more presence to capture more share. So we did that, and that paid dividends. And we continue to see strong growth in our recurring customer value offerings. At Fluke, again, the 15% of that business is now subscription services and software and other things that are recurring, and that continued to do really well. So majority of it was really our team's execution in the quarter.
Mm.
I think the Short Cycle upside, we're watching that closely.
Mm.
We like what we're seeing in terms of the leading indicators, but most of Q4 was really our team's execution.
It's helpful. And then, I think on the earnings call, you mentioned that you expect all the businesses within IOS to contribute to 2026 segment growth. Maybe if you can comment on what is supporting that visibility with those businesses? And then, I know it's only been a few weeks since you reported Q4, but any update or change in demand trends this quarter across your Short Cycle businesses, particularly in IOS?
... Yeah, so let me just start from the last piece of it there. Yeah, I think, you know, it's been less than two weeks since earnings.
Yeah.
But everything we've seen, January came out really solid.
Mm
... for us, and we continue to see the trend, and that makes us feel really good about our setup for the year.
Yeah.
Not just in short cycle, but really across the board. So, that's the news. And I think from the point of view of each of the elements of the segment, we really saw contribution from, if you think about IOS, whether it's Fluke or the Environmental, Health, and Safety or FAL. We saw strong contribution from all three of those engines within IOS in our Q4 delivery. So we feel good about that going into 2026, knowing that again the benefit of all of these initiatives around commercial product and recurring customer value is still unfolding.
Yeah
... and still has upside ahead of us.
So I want to open it up to the audience in a second, but maybe I just want to double-click on... 'Cause again, we're all struggling with trying to figure out what short-cycle industrial's really doing, as maybe you are, to some extent. But you guys do have, you know, good visibility into point of sales and short cycle, I think. And so it's important to sort of try to understand what's exactly going on at point of sales at Fluke, for example. It tends to be a canary over the long term, right? So I think you've said it's pretty healthy, but has it actually been improving in North America? I know that's- you said it's your strongest region, so maybe that's the case. And then what about in EMEA and in Latin America?
Is it improving, and maybe the rate of improvement, has it gotten better over the last couple of quarters? Or anything more to help us think about where we are?
Yeah, so maybe I just go through by region, like you laid it out.
Yeah.
I think from a North America point of view, the point of sale data stayed really strong, as it was for all of 2025, and it's continued, frankly. And I think what we're seeing is the driver of that strength is evolving. I think the data center component is increasing-
Mm-hmm
... over time. But we're seeing really broad-based trend in point of sale for North America, and so, that feels really good. From an EMEA point of view, we saw sequential improvement in Q4. It was generally most of the year really soft-
Mm
... I would say overall, and we, we've been clear about that. But sequential improvement in Q4, not enough to call it a trend. We see customers getting a little bit less tentative about placing orders, but still cautious.
Mm
... in EMEA, 'cause they're trying to figure out what the macro means, and especially when it comes to big orders and long-term commitments-
Mm
... they're still quite cautious. But we liked what we saw to end the year in the EMEA arena. And then for APAC, I mean, it's a mix, as you can imagine, but it really it was stable through most of the year, and again, slight improvement to end the year. A lot of strength in India, for example. China stayed fairly stable.
Mm
... from what we saw. So, you know, those were the data points that we saw leaving the year. I think for this year, we've all seen the PMI data-
Mm
... from ISM for January. I always caution people that, you know, it's a lot going on in January in general with, you know, restocking and everything else. So we're trying to not call a trend from 1 month of being in expansion after 11 months of contraction.
Mm.
But we're certainly seeing good strength in our order book-
Mm
... you know, which, which is a good indicator as well.
That's helpful. Any questions from the audience? Anyone want to ask a question? I should just wait till someone actually asks a question.
Yeah.
But I won't do that.
Cool
... maybe just double-clicking on Fluke again. I, I think at the Investor Day, you mentioned 20+ new product intros over an 18-month period. So, like, you're really ramping up the level of innovation at Fluke. Does that continue, and is that contributing to the growth of Fluke, would you say?
Yes and yes. I mean, Fluke, we're incredibly excited about the brand. It's our, it's our single biggest company. We've got a terrific team. It's a 78-year-old brand, but you couldn't tell.
Mm.
Just the intensity of innovation and, I think, what's really... Since Investor Day, we've kept up that innovation pace, and Mark and team have just done a great job of helping direct more resources-
Mm
... to the smartest innovation ideas, so we're going even faster at those. But the thing that's been really striking for me is how much better our teams have gotten about pointing the innovation towards the best growth opportunities for the years ahead. You saw us talk at Fluke about the launch of a product that we call CertiFiber Pro in Q4, which is this terrific testing professional instrumentation for high-density fiber in data centers. The beauty of that solution is it really is a natural extension of a testing platform we already have at Fluke. So this is a platform already in the hands of tens of thousands of technicians, that now just get this new module, that all of a sudden gives them the superpower to certify these high-density fiber networks in these hyperscaler data centers.
And as you can imagine, this is a workforce that we can't get enough of right now. So this is helping them get their jobs done faster, higher fidelity, and the throughput is under one second at this point. That's incredible productivity boost... at this critical moment in time when everyone's trying to find more and more of this limited resource. And so the work our Fluke team's doing, not just in driving innovation at a higher scale, not just in improving the funding of that,
Mm-hmm
With kind of help from Mark Åkerström and his team, but also directing it at the very best kind of needs in the market, it's exciting to see, and there's more ahead for us.
Got it. And then in IOS, the other sort of bigger piece of the business is Facility and Asset Lifecycle software. You know, you talked about it being pretty strong, solid ARR growth. I think as you mentioned in your earnings call, government demand for procurement and SMA solutions beginning to stabilize, but maybe give us more color on that. I don't know, do we still have that partial government shutdown? So, I don't know. What are you seeing in that world?
Yeah, so I mean, most of what we do in that business at Gordian is really state and local government-
Yeah
agencies. And the way I'd describe it is we had, after COVID, a couple of years of just extraordinary years, where the business was growing 20%+ because the spending levels was just tremendous, with government stimulus behind a lot of the spending. And what we saw in 2025 was really a slowdown in that spending level based on, like, the fiscal pressures on these agencies, some of the trickle-down effects-
Mm
... of what's going on in the federal government. Where we now are, it's stayed stable at that level.
Yeah.
It's not getting worse. Our teams are doing a great job of now operating and executing within that new normal, if you will. And we're not, we haven't planned for things to get better, the way we've set up the year. So we feel really good about the way we're executing. If and when things recover from a spend level, that will be great tailwind for us.
Mm.
But it's not, it's not getting any worse, I think, at this point. The $1 trillion of deferred maintenance on a lot of these critical infrastructure projects in a lot of our communities, those have to be done at some point. There's only so long you can defer them. So we, we know that goodness is ahead of us, right now, we're not banking on it for 2026.
It's helpful. Let's go to AHS. Like, so you've seen some sequential improvement over the last few quarters, but you did highlight some deferral in hospital capital expenditure budgets. So as you look forward, would you say your visibility is still murky, or is it getting a little bit better? And you did say that your software products in the segment delivered solid growth, so maybe you can unpack, you know, software, like Provation, Censis, how they're doing versus the hardware.
Yeah. So I think the AHS segment, overall, we feel quite good about the visibility and what we've set up for the year. I kind of think about it as roughly three buckets within the segment. To your point, the software businesses, which are really probably our highest customer loyalty, highest value software assets in Provation and Censis, are doing really well, and we've talked about that repeatedly. Just great growth, great innovation, velocity. We're putting more there with AI use cases. So those are really doing very well. The second category, consumables and services-
Mm
... which are generally more stable because it's really kind of a, the flow of procedural volume that drives that.
Mm.
You can't shut that down. If you need to run your OR, which is your profit center-
Mm
... in a hospital, you need consumables flowing through. So that's been very stable-
Mm
... as you would expect. And the third category are capital equipment purchases.
Mm
... where customers are writing a big check for a big piece of equipment, which then drive future consumables, so they're really important. That's the piece that saw the pressure in 2025-
Mm
... because a lot of these hospital systems were going through the changes in healthcare reimbursement and policy, and that just got them feeling cautious about big capital purchases and long-term commitments. Again, we have great visibility into the funnel of opportunities. We know which customers are waiting to place the order.
Mm.
We're talking to them, and we're really close to them, and we know those deals are still with them, and they're looking to us to supply them. It's a timing question.
Mm.
And so we're seeing progressively, Q2 2025 was kind of the tightest quarter, 'cause they were all waiting for the one beautiful bill to pass in early July, and it's increasingly gotten better every quarter since then, and we expect that to keep getting better. So overall, if you think about the AHS segment, software piece, high visibility, doing really well. Consumables service is really stable. We expect that will continue. And this capital piece of the business, we feel like the, you know, the tightest period is behind us-
Mm-hmm
... and it's continuing to ease on. On top of all that, I would say ultimately, the Fortive Accelerated Strategy is being played out exactly as planned in that segment, with innovation velocity picking up. We're making bets, in particular, commercial opportunities, that will secure growth acceleration for years to come. We're building recurring customer value. That means every customer we bring in, the lifetime value is way higher than we used to have before. So all of that sets the stage for pretty high visibility going forward.
Yeah, that's very clear to illuminate. So maybe just want to shift to AHS margin for a second. You talked about some targeted growth investments in the segment that impacted the margin in Q4. Can you give us some more color on what those investments are, and your expectation for how fast we can see these investments translate to higher growth? And how are you thinking about AHS margin expansion in 2026? Like, margin in 2025 was a bit under pressure, but could you accelerate faster in that construct of 50-100 basis points of margin expansion based on your demand visibility?
... Yeah, so I'll, I'll start from the last part of your question. I, I think the overall frame of the 50-100 basis points. I just said we can imagine expansion a year in 2026, 2027, that financial framework, very high confidence in that. And, and we designed it that way because we know there are many ways to get there.
Mm-hmm.
There will be times when we have more margin expansion in one segment than the other. There may be times when we see opportunistic growth acceleration initiatives in one area that's gonna secure growth for the next three years. We can do that and still get our margin expansion.
Mm-hmm.
So complete confidence in that overall framework. The specifics on what happens with each segment in each quarter, we're deliberately leaving that fluid, because we really think to drive a company that grows faster going forward, we need that flexibility to invest when we need to invest. And that's what you saw in 2025, and especially in Q4 with the EHS segment.
Mm
... where we just saw some real opportunities to place some bets. And it's sales and marketing capacity, it's R&D investment, it's doing the right things with integrated solutions for particular customers that we know is gonna set us up for growth for years to come.
Mm.
And we made that call to do it in Q4, all still within delivering a terrific overall slate of numbers. So looking forward, you should expect the long arc of improvement in margins to continue in each of our segments-
Mm
... because it's just, that's the, that's the way we run the company-
Mm
... is we just keep getting better. But the specifics of what happens one quarter versus another in each segment-
Mm
... may, may have some color to it.
Yeah, that's fair. I want to get Mark involved again. I do have a couple of other little questions for you, Olumide. But Mark, I just want to ask you about, you know, Fortive's strong cash flow, because I think, you know, as a new company, you've leaned into buybacks for sure. You did complete two small transactions, I think, pretty recently. So as we think about 2026, should we expect a more aggressive M&A playbook from you guys? I mean, you did highlight refining your M&A funnel, but as your portfolio sits today, what specific verticals or regions do you potentially target? You know, software is on the cheap now. Do you focus on that? Like, what, what, what are you doing with your cash?
Yeah. Well, I mean, first of all, you're right to point out incredible Free Cash Flow generation in this business.
Mm.
Spits out $1 billion of Free Cash Flow a year, and if we execute well, that's gonna grow and compound over time. We have absolutely leaned into the buyback-
Mm
... and we really did that in accordance with our capital allocation strategy and guideline, which is all about just seeking best relative returns. So we're going to continue to approach, you know, the world in that way. We obviously look at Free Cash Flow per share, and EPS accretion as sort of one of our guides as we're putting things through the funnel. As it relates to M&A, I wouldn't expect aggression, if that was the word that you used. I think transformational deals-
I'll take that out.
Yeah, will continue to be off the table.
Mm.
But as you point out, you know, we have rebuilt the way that we look at M&A. We've rebuilt the funnels, and we're gonna continue to be on the hunt for great businesses in great industries, where those businesses have got market-leading positions, where we can buy them at great prices and make them worth a lot more under our ownerships than they would be under their prior owners. And that is, to some extent, it's, you know, vertical or geo-agnostic.
Mm.
So we don't really have a geo or agnostic bias to share with you. The only thing we have is really our North Star, which is deploy capital-
Mm
... really seeking best risk-adjusted returns, you know, across the board, and ultimately, all of that in accordance with the Fortive Accelerated Strategy to deliver benchmark-beating returns, for Fortive and for all of our shareholders in the years to come.
It's helpful. And then, Olumide, like, we often talk about Fluke and FAL, and so but I'd say ISC has been making a little bit more waves lately, so maybe I wanted to ask about Industrial Scientific on the hardware side. Intelex on the software side kind of is interesting to me 'cause it, you know, focuses on environmental health safety. So, you know, maybe just those kind of businesses, do they grow at, you know, average rates, higher than average rates for IOS? Like, how do you think about those businesses over the next couple of years?
Yeah. So, they're great businesses, and they're certainly growing at the fleet average-
Mm
... or better sometimes. And it's a great story because in the end, it's actually not that complicated. There's a few things that have to be true-
Mm
... for businesses to do well like that. One is you have to be in a good market, and those businesses are right now in a market that's benefiting from a tailwind of, you know, just regulatory requirements around worker safety-
Mm
... the increasing scale of high risk and hazardous operating environments-
Mm
... with mining and metals and, you know, oil and gas and all these markets growing. So you got a growing demand, both by regulatory drive and the volume of activity. So you're in a good market. Second is, you have to have a superior offering, and both of these brands really innovate aggressively. Industrial Scientific came up with this hardware as a service model that's just a unique experience for customers that's had a lot of success over the last several years here and continues to add more innovation to that. The fastest pace of innovation we've ever had in that business is going on right now.
Mm.
And then you have them being really aggressive from a commercial point of view and recurring customer point of view. So you've got, you've got a strong market, you've got a differentiated product, and you are executing ferociously, and that just leads to, to great things. So as we look ahead for that piece of IOS, it's really, it's a promising outlook for us.
... So Olumide, we talked a lot about the regions already. So North America is just—that's probably your biggest concentration of high growth verticals, right? Led by data centers. Is that fair, and that's why it should continue to grow the fastest? Like, is that what you'd—would you agree with that, or not really?
Yeah, well, I, I think in general, I think at the kind of macro-region level-
Yeah
Certainly, North America has some of this, the strength of the data center tailwind is much higher-
Yeah
in North America than in other markets. Not that the other markets don't have it, too. So that certainly benefits the market in North America. I would say across the world, beyond the macro regions, there are pockets that we're seeing a lot of strength in. We talked about India a few times.
Right.
That's a market where both of our segments grew double digits in the last quarter. That's the seed planting of just more commercial capacity in the market, more local production capacity, a little bit of product and product market fit adaptation that we're doing for some of our big brands that is just driving a lot of success for relatively low effort in those markets. So we will continue to find pockets like that.
Mm.
But it is fair to say that, you know, North America has some of those enduring overall market tailwinds that should continue to show up well.
When I look at emerging markets, is China steady now? Is that what you'd call it, or is it still kind of iffy, would you say?
I think steady would be a good term to describe China over the second half of 2025 and what we're seeing going into this year. I really do believe that it is steady both because the market is sort of leveled off a little bit from what we see, and also because, frankly, our teams have built the endurance and capabilities needed to thrive in the market the way it is. So both from a market point of view and a self-help point of view, it's really gotten to that point of what I would describe as steady.
Okay. Last question: What are the top two or three innovations and structural changes affecting your company over the next five years? And are there any emerging industry trends that are perhaps being overlooked in the current discourse?
Yeah, well, since we have a minute, I'll actually just pick one.
All right. That's good.
So I, you know, I think the one I'd pick is this idea that there's a lot of focus on the initial build-out stage of industrial capacity, including Data Center. Rightfully so, 'cause there's, you know, $700 billion getting invested in data centers this year, for example. But the more exciting part of this, from our point of view, is really the lifetime of operations and maintenance spend that needs to follow this initial build-out.
Mm.
So think about all these data centers getting built. Someone's got to worry about, "How do I actually get the uptime and returns and performance from all of this capacity?
Mm.
There's not enough technicians to manage them. There's not enough innovation in the professional instrumentation to drive them. That's where we really focus. If you think about our business at Fluke, it's a lot about that operations and maintenance life cycle.
Mm.
That's where we have real strength. So we're just really excited about once the dust settles on the initial build-out, the innovation we're powering across Fluke to really lead in that operations and maintenance.
That's great, Olumide. Olumide, Mark, thank you very much. Appreciate the time. Thank you.
Thank you.