今年的主题是“以结果为导向的自动化”。
ABB Group Chief Executive Officer Fred Kindle delivered the opening keynote. His main point was that results are a consequence of many factors, but that the most important one is relationships. User conferences are a valuable relationship-building tool. Acknowledging ABB’s declining fortunes from about 2000 to 2003, and that he only joined the company 10 months ago, Kindle said that he did his due diligence before signing on, and found much core strength in ABB. Strengths include market position, relations with key customers, products, strong brand recognition and good people.
他报道说,今天,该公司已经完全摆脱了过去的问题。该公司的销售额约为220亿美元,自动化利润率约为9%,电力产品的利润率为7%。将其债券评级低于投资等级的唯一一件事是从1990年对燃烧工程的收购造成的石棉责任。该公司正在采取积极的步骤来制定解决该问题的最终解决方案。据Kindle称,股票评级现在为投资等级。
该公司未来的战略包括在研发上进行投资,加强市场渠道,提高运营绩效,加强与核心客户的地位以及开发高价值的服务。
针对北美
总部位于康涅狄格州诺沃克的北美业务集团负责人Dinesh Paliwal,ABB全球自动化业务领导者,在周四的会议期间告诉一群集会编辑,该公司将北美作为北美作为持续的关键市场,以继续公司增长。
加入Paliwal的是北美业务区经理Roger Bailey(过程自动化),Greg Scheu(Automation Products)和Bo Elisson(制造自动化)。该小组在承认这位两岁的业务方面,但指出,将公司的广泛和多样化的产品基础转移到现代技术是最重要的目标。帕利瓦尔说:“如今,大多数项目都是棕地,我们的大型安装基地是一个关键的优势。”
帕利瓦尔(Paliwal)将ABB北美的战略列出了:通过基于绩效的服务来确保核心业务,利用和增强安装基础,加速自动化部署,开发新的合作伙伴渠道并专注于关键帐户。
Make partnerships work
In another opening keynote, Margaret Walker, vice president of engineering, at The Dow Chemical Co. (www.dow.com), Midland, Mich., discussed the ways in which ABB and Dow leveraged their strategic partnership to develop new controller technology. Technology must be there, she told attendees, or the collaboration can’t even start. But it was the relationship that developed between the companies that allowed the project to be real, she said. “Relationship drives sustainable results,” was the Walker dictum.
那是什么使关系成功?沃克说,就像婚姻,家庭或任何其他关系一样,有五个支柱:
- 时间和能量
- Shared vision
- Trust
- 沟通
- 解决冲突。
她指出,两家公司之间的第一次会议涉及约90人。沃克(Walker)奠定了以下基本规则:没有椅子,没有桌子,没有PowerPoint(她也没有用演讲) - 仅翻转图表纸和“闻起来很香的标记”。人们有15分钟的时间来画出共同的愿景的样子 - 不允许说话。然后每个人都简要解释了他们的照片。
会议结束后,他们没有把照片扔掉,而是对他们进行了层压。他们在随后的每次会议上都被张贴,以不断提醒您这项工作的目标。
加里·明彻尔(Gary Mintchell)