Circuit City

A short circuit in this city might leave a lot of electronic gadgets on the shelves. Circuit City Stores is the #3 consumer electronics retailer in the US (behind Best Buy and Wal Mart), with more than 640 superstores in about 45 states. The big box outlets offer a wide array of televisions, DVD players, and audio systems, as well as CDs and DVDs. Circuit City also sells personal computers and peripherals, mobile computing devices, telephones, and video games. In addition to its retail stores, the company sells products through its Web site. Circuit City's international operations are conducted by Canadian subsidiary InterTAN, which operates more than 800 locations in that country.

Trying to make up ground against its bigger rival, the company has been remodeling and relocating some of its stores to attract more customer traffic. At the same time, Circuit City has closed some underperforming locations as well as a distribution center to cut costs.

In 2007 the company announced it would close more than 60 stores in Canada, in addition to a distribution center and seven Superstores in the US, after intense competition in the flat panel TV arena. It also reorganized its management structure to improve channel alignment and accountability. It is letting go another 3,500 employees who were paid above the market rate and will hire new employees compensated at "the current market range."

Stryker

Is this an operating room or Dad's workshop? Stryker's surgical products include such instruments as drills, saws, rasps, even cement mixers. The company's Orthopaedic Implants category includes artificial joints, spinal rods and screws, artificial vertebral discs, bone cement, and other orthopedic implants and supplies. The MedSurg segment include endoscopy equipment, facial and hand surgery instruments, and stretchers. Stryker's Physiotherapy Associates also provides rehabilitation services at more than 480 clinics in 31 states and Washington, DC. The company's Stryker Biotech division makes OP-1, a product to grow bone. The Stryker family owns about 25% of the company.

Stryker operates worldwide and markets its products in more than 100 countries; sales outside of the US represent about 35% of revenue. In the US and select countries, Stryker uses its own sales and marketing force. In smaller markets, though, the firm relies on distributors.

To expand into the growing market of health care information technology, the company bought eTrauma, a developer of digital imaging management software, in early 2005.

The company has been active in acquiring developing technologies and therapies. In 2005 it bought SpineCore, a maker of artificial lumbar and cervical discs, to expand its spinal implant business, and PlasmaSol, which is developing sterilization technologies.