Today, Otto Bock HealthCare employs more than 700 people in the USA and Canada.
“Otto Bock has long since established itself as a leading company in the prosthesis and orthosis market. Customers and patients expect us to set the standards in terms of innovation, quality, and service,” Bert Harman notes.
The company has come a long way in order to get where it is today. At the end of the 50s, Jack Hendrickson was still a student unpacking boxes from Germany in his father’s company. Later on, he repeatedly accompanied John Hendrickson to Duderstadt and decided to work for the company himself. Dr. Max Näder appointed him as John Hendrickson’s successor in 1979.
“It’s an indescribable feeling. When someone trusts you to do the right thing, it really makes you dedicate your heart and soul to the matter,” Jack Hendrickson tells us when he remembers the day.
In addition to mutual trust, he also values the continuity of leadership at Otto Bock; the company only had three CEOs since it was founded in 1919.
“Of course the transition from Otto Bock to Max Näder in the early 50s took place under entirely different circumstances than the handover from Max Näder to Hans Georg Näder in 1990. But the company philosophy, the traditions, and the values stayed the same.” He describes his work with numerous colleagues over the years as “a wonderful experience. I am very proud that I played a role in shaping part of the history of this outstanding company.”
Otto Bock Minneapolis spent eleven tough years before reaching 1 million US dollars in sales for the first time in 1969. By comparison, global Otto Bock sales were 15 million US dollars in 1970. Reaching the 2 million US dollar mark in 1975 took six more years of effort. By the end of 2007, sales exceeded 170 million US dollars. Preliminary figures show that global sales for Otto Bock HealthCare reached 675 million US dollars or € 460 million for 2007.
