Sermon from the Mike

Mike Caliel (who gets my vote as one of the five best CEOs in this industry) gave a stirring sermon about the vicissitudes of life ("Who'da thunk it?" he scatted on the Katrina and Rita disasters, and what they'd done for the process industries.) "This meeting serves to show you the progress we've made and to solicit feedback," he said. "For us, this meeting is about listening." The topic is "Get More from One," he said. So let's talk about the reorganizations and set the record straight, he went on. Contrary to what you read in the papers and the rumor mills, Invensys's recent changeover at the top was a carefully orchestrated way of getting from Rick Haythornewaite to Ulf Hendrickson, Caliel insisted, since Hendrickson had the skills to run Invensys (and implying that Haythornewaite did not). "Invensys is back with a vengeance," he opined. He described the reorganized rump of Invensys as a company whose "whole business is now controls oriented." Process systems, he showed, is ahead of expectations for the past two years running. "Invensys is now a profitable and well run company!" he stated. But it was also confession time. "We used to look like multiple companies--- we'd lost our way. We'd lost our way with technology. Gaps existed, major gaps, but we're almost there." He said that they've strengthened their core processes. They've brought out new solutions, and especially services (Rich Merritt's been predicting it, shows he's right) like alarm management, loop tuning, security. He said they've brought out new technologies, and made huge investments in core platforms. "We're bringing our entire portfolio back to world class standards. We've got a different business now." They are, he announced, leveraging their portfolio to give users more. What keeps plant management awake at night? --operational safety --keeping aging plants running --getting the most out of people --complex regulatory compliance --hightened security issues --unprecedented pressures from competition and customers --environmental impact on plants, and of plants The solution, Caliel said, is to become proactive; maximize availability, manage risk, manage complexity, and cut costs. He noted that Invensys would be right there to help users do that. He noted that traditionally, asset management had been focused on devices, an equipment. He argued for a wider view, which he called Operational control. In this view, sets and groups of devices and equipment are managed, not just individual products. A coker for example, instead of pressure sensors. He said that it was time we started looking more wholistically at asset management and the definition of same. He then argued for an even wider view: Plant Business Control, using managing global assets to drive RONCE performance. Invensys, he said, was right there. They would be spending, according to Caliel, 7% of sales on R&D this year. This has led, he noted, to many new products, including wireless technologies, and new partner relationships. "We want to focus on your needs," he said. "Invensys wants to be an inch wide, and a mile deep." "Thank you for sticking with us," he closed.