Every time Rockwell sneezes industry pundits catch a cold. This week Rockwell Automation announced a 3% workforce reduction in selling, general and administrative positions. One well known name caught in the mess is Rick Dolezal who has been the marketing lead for the process business. I've seen three threads. The first ties this to Kevin Roach's departure. The second extrapolates that the company is exiting the process business. The third is that the company is preparing for sale by cutting expenses.
I think there are fallacies with all the (sort of) reasoning. Kevin Roach left for a better position. I'm betting he has great potential at his new company (I haven't talked with him yet but would love to). At Rockwell it's possible that his progress was somewhat at an end (speculation). Tying reduction in force to his leaving and RA exiting software is nonsense. He just left. That's all. It's no different than if I happened to leave a job I really enjoy because someone came and dumped a pile of money in my yard.
Second, Rockwell has committed tons of money to process. It has hired significant engineering and domain expertise. It's not exiting the business. It's one of the few paths to growth for the company.
Third, it's a public company, so it's always for sale. It's profitable (just not as much as the Wall Street analysts wanted, but we now know more about the ability of Wall Street...).
This is not an isolated cut. It just announced that profits weren't going to be up to Wall Street expectations. The only way Nosbusch and the CFO can face analysts is with something to offer. The sacrificial lamb is selling, general and administrative jobs. These are cuts that don't affect the core of the company (design, engineering). Further, I've been watching cuts for the past 10 years. This is just another one of many (maybe almost yearly). The company used to have two huge cash cows--PLC 5 and Bulletin 500 motor control. I'm betting that the Logix platform overall isn't the same cash and profit generator as the PLC 5 was for many years. Likewise, motor control shifted from NEMA starters to IEC. Once again a hugely profitable cash cow was reduced. Every reduction I've seen has included sales and marketing. Yet, the company still has many marketing people. I know most of them, and I like them all on a personal level. But sometimes I wonder how the company can afford so many of them along with one of the best PR agencies that editors deal with. Well, the company just said that it can't afford as many. I'm sad, but I understand.
Every time Rockwell sneezes industry pundits catch a cold. This week Rockwell Automation announced a 3% workforce reduction in selling, general and administrative positions. One well known name caught in the mess is Rick Dolezal who has been the marketing lead for the process business. I've seen three threads. The first ties this to Kevin Roach's departure. The second extrapolates that the company is exiting the process business. The third is that the company is preparing for sale by cutting expenses.
I think there are fallacies with all the (sort of) reasoning. Kevin Roach left for a better position. I'm betting he has great potential at his new company (I haven't talked with him yet but would love to). At Rockwell it's possible that his progress was somewhat at an end (speculation). Tying reduction in force to his leaving and RA exiting software is nonsense. He just left. That's all. It's no different than if I happened to leave a job I really enjoy because someone came and dumped a pile of money in my yard.
Second, Rockwell has committed tons of money to process. It has hired significant engineering and domain expertise. It's not exiting the business. It's one of the few paths to growth for the company.
Third, it's a public company, so it's always for sale. It's profitable (just not as much as the Wall Street analysts wanted, but we now know more about the ability of Wall Street...).
This is not an isolated cut. It just announced that profits weren't going to be up to Wall Street expectations. The only way Nosbusch and the CFO can face analysts is with something to offer. The sacrificial lamb is selling, general and administrative jobs. These are cuts that don't affect the core of the company (design, engineering). Further, I've been watching cuts for the past 10 years. This is just another one of many (maybe almost yearly). The company used to have two huge cash cows--PLC 5 and Bulletin 500 motor control. I'm betting that the Logix platform overall isn't the same cash and profit generator as the PLC 5 was for many years. Likewise, motor control shifted from NEMA starters to IEC. Once again a hugely profitable cash cow was reduced. Every reduction I've seen has included sales and marketing. Yet, the company still has many marketing people. I know most of them, and I like them all on a personal level. But sometimes I wonder how the company can afford so many of them along with one of the best PR agencies that editors deal with. Well, the company just said that it can't afford as many. I'm sad, but I understand.
11:18:23 AM 
|
|
