FORTUNE APRIL 2020 45mer Garmin software engineer. “See-
ing the pace at which things moved
at Garmin was very different.”
Nowhere was the company’s slow
progress more apparent than in
fitness watches, which gradually be-
came favorites of hard-core athletes
eager to use GPS to pinpoint the
accuracy of their events. “Having the
GPS is so important,” says Ray Maker,
a runner and fitness gadget blogger,
who was an early convert to Garmin’s
Forerunner line. “Your heart and legs
don’t really know what pace you’re
doing.” He says Garmin’s strength is
its multiple features, which may also
be intimidating for casual athletes.
Garmin’s fitness segment, which
extends beyond watches and into de-
vices like a baseball bat–swing sensor
and indoor smart bike trainers, was
the company’s top revenue generator
last year. That helped the company
surpass its 2008 revenue mark of
$3.5 billion for the first time, sending
its shares soaring as well. While the
automotive segment has shriveled
relative to its fitness offerings, its avia-
tion line has become one of its fastest
growers.
Will Power, an analyst with broker-
age Robert W. Baird, credits Garmin’s
“blocking and tackling” for its staying
power. “They build really strong de-
fensive positions in areas that, by and
large, have less competition.”
In a way, Garmin never stopped
being a niche player, albeit a
multibillion-dollar one. “What we
like about Garmin is the way they
position deep expertise around the
customer group they’re serving,” says
Edzard Overbeek, CEO of HERE
Technologies, a mapping company
that provides location data to Gar-
min. “The team that is responsible
for their cycling watch are profes-
sional cyclers. The aviation team are
pilots. The secret sauce is under-
standing what the expert user wants.”ACOMPANY CAN go only so far
catering to enthusiasts, of
course, and at the CES gadgets
show in January, Garmin
showed off its mass-market
aspirations around fitness products—
displaying more than 30 watches
and wearables ranging from a $70
kids’ fitness tracker to a $2,500 Marq
Driver watch that boasts a stylish
look and multiple motor-sport func-
tions. In all, Garmin offers about 90
wearable products made for runners,
swimmers, boaters, pilots, and people
who just want to track their steps.
“The biggest challenge is getting
that mass market to understand we
have the perfect watch for them,”
says Susan Lyman, the company’s top
marketing executive. “It kills me when
I see people walking their first 5K or
running with nothing on their wrist.”
Going after every segment inevita-bly means challenging the beasts of
Silicon Valley, the same companies
that knocked Garmin off its perch
a decade ago. The Apple Watch,
mocked as a less-than-innovative
offering when it debuted in 2014,
now commands 38% of the smart-
watch market. Fitbit, soon to be part
of Google, has 7.5% share. All of
Garmin’s watches combined add up
to just under 6%.
Garmin, ever the good Midwest-
erner, plays down the necessity of
beating the unbeatable competitor.
“We’re not trying to out-Apple Apple,”
says Pemble. “We’re trying to be Gar-
min. We only focus on what we can
control. So we prepare our business
and structure our business in a way
that best suits it for the next crisis.”
After all, you don’t need a fancy navi-
gational device to know that crisis
eventually will arrive.PERSONAL
NAVIGATION
Clockwise from top
left: the Forerunner,
Impact bat-swing
sensor, Vívosport,
and Striker 7.tand we have the perfect watch for them.” —SUSAN LYMAN, GARMIN’S MARKETING CHIEF
COURTESY OF GARMINGAR.W.0420.XMIT.indd 45 FINAL 3/10/2020 1:28:29 PM