Flowserve Corporation

When mergers are being planned, identity is too often an afterthought (or worse, an ill-considered piece of the CEOs’ handshake agreement). You almost never see an identity consultant in the room when the companies’ teams, and their investment bankers, first meet to assess the synergies.

This happened, however, in April ’97 when the BW/IP and Durco International teams met in secrecy at a neutral airport hotel. Thinking well ahead, BW/IP’s CEO Bernard G. Rethore had me on the job weeks in advance. This helped in positioning the new company for industry leadership from day one, in the minds of its future managers (and lawyers and bankers, too.)

The industrial pump, seal and valve companies Durco and BW/IP (formerly Borg Warner Industrial Products) were specialty players in highly-engineered fluid handling equipment for chemicals, petroleum and other performance-critical industrial applications. Together, they would be a strong global #2, and a credible contender for the positioning we created:

“The world’s premier provider of industrial flow management services.”

CEO-designate Rethore personally directed the positioning, naming and logo decision processes, with the support of Durco’s CEO (and COO designate) Bill Jordan.

The name “Flowserve” won over others because it so precisely expresses the new company’s positioning. Spaeth associate Jack Summerford, the Dallas-based designer, then produced a classic logo which neatly integrates the two-part name, using a curve which shows both ‘flow,’ and the outline of the impeller blade that puts the flow in motion.

Logos and names are important. But that’s not what this is all about. To quote Mr. Rethore:

“Your pride in ‘Flowserve’ is well founded. You did us a terrific service not only in name but also in framing the underlying substance of mission, purpose etc. They have been very useful in explaining and gaining buy-in to our vision both within the company and outside. The Flowserve logo itself has also proven to work well; Jack Summerford did very well by us.”

Bernard G. Rethore
Chairman and CEO
February, 1998