Acquisitions and the constant restructuring - based on function or market/industry or geographic etc
It’s all ultimately just a balance sheet manipulation game crafted to present the illusion of functionality, profitability and lucrative forecasting. In reality the many many companies that Xylem purchased were never integrated well-the corporate machine at the top is unsupportive of allowing enough autonomy or innovation for the independent entities to grow or sustain their product lines or services- slowly corroding the factors that had made their brands successful originally and made them a desirable acquisition for Xylem.
The allure for the companies when courted for acquisition was the access to the immensely greater capital of a large publicly traded corporation, ability to leverage a wealth of shared resources, markets and instant access to a huge global customer base— however, dysfunction and disjointedness drives this corporate machine. Ultimately they will have to continue to acquire because their short term balance sheets for each quarter will always preceded adequate investments necessary to produce new and innovative products - they’ve repeatedly proven to squander opportunities for collaborative development of new products and improvements needed to even keep pace with competitors.
