Phoenix Contact
This week I'm in the Courtyard Marriott at the Philadelphia Airport. Trips to eastern Pennsylvania are always celebrated with a Yuengling (pronounced "ying-ling") beer. I visited Phoenix Contact today in Harrisburg. This is an interesting company with a broadly diversified product portfolio that is part of the German "Mittelstand" group, that is, medium-sized, privately held companies. This "medium-sized" company is starting to push $1 billion in total revenues.
I first knew about it as a terminal block company that was involved in introducing an industrially hardened I/O block designed for direct machine mounting (rather than mounting within an enclosure). The terminal block companies jumped on the open networking bandwagon by introducing input/output modules that could work with other companies' controllers (read Siemens and Rockwell Automation). Some of the companies also developed controllers, but only Phoenix and Wago seem to have made the transition stick. Phoenix acquired K&W software for a real-time IEC 61131 implementation, then recently acquired Entivity with its Steeplechase and Think'n'Do flow chart programming software.
Although Phoenix Contact has this controller offering, it is still mostly about connectivity, and has a robust Ethernet product offering as well as various types of wireless. It is especially strong in FHSS radio currently, even developing point to multipoint and networking methodologies.
The company has just reorganized worldwide into regional centers of excellence. A new design center is being assembled in Harrisburg to further diversify the product line. 25 new products (not extensions, but new products) were introduced in 2004 and another 21 will be introduced this year. The new company culture is to be innovation-driven. It appears that Phoenix Contact is organized and motivated to achieve this change. I expect to see more good things out of it.
6:56:52 PM 
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