ABB User Group Meeting
This week I'm in Houston at the ABB Users Conference. It has a catchy name--Automation World. They expect about 1,700 people here including around 700 end users. The theme this year is Results-Driven Automation. That's also catchy. You'd think that it's obvious that automation investments should deliver results, but it's amazing how few people actually try to figure out if they really have any.
ABB Group CEO Fred Kindle delivered the opening keynote, thankfully devoid of flashy PowerPoints. His key point was that results are a consequence of many factors, but the most important one is relationships. Users conferences are a valuable relationship building tool. Acknowledging the company downturn from about 2000 to 2003 and that he only joined the company 10 months ago, Kindle said taht he did his due diligence before signing on and found a lot of core strength in ABB. Strengths include market position, relations with key customers, products, strong brand recognition and good people.
He states that today the company is fully emerged from past problems. The company has about $22 billion in sales with about 9% margin in automation and 7% in power products. The only thing holding its bond rating below investment grade is the continuing asbestos liability derived from its acquisition of Combustion Engineering. The company is taking active steps to develop a final resolution to that problem. The stock rating, according to Kindle, is now rated investment grade.
The company's strategies going forward include investment in research and development, strengthen market channels, improve operational performance, strngthen position with core customers, and develop high value-add services.
My take is that ABB has turned the corner and is showing strong growth.
3:30:48 PM 
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