A review of the Business Insider on the company’s work environment revealed that the company provided their employees with more perks than usual, plus created a laid-back working environment. As such, 98% of their employees approve of the company’s CEO, James Truchard.
The company was founded in 1976, when three employees of Austin Applied Research Laboratories became frustrated with the equipment they were using on a project they were working on for the US Navy. They decided to create a product that would perform better in their line of work, specifically their current project.
Working out of a garage, Jeff Kodosky, Bill Nowlin, and James Truchard, created the product and started a company called National Instruments to market it. After four years, the company had revenues in excess of $1 million. They also had to increase the number of their employees, and by 1986, the company had 100 employees working from a 10,000 sq ft office that they leased.
Today, National Instrument products are used all over the world. They have offices in nearly 50 countries and around 7,100 employees distributed throughout their offices worldwide. In 2012, the company reported an annual revenue of $1.14 billion, and a customer base of 35,000 customers every year.
The success of the company can be attributed to the company’s business model. Instead of selling their products through other parties, the company chose to sell their products directly to their customers. As such, many of their worldwide offices are sales offices, tasked to communicate with their customers directly.