Echoing some of the things I noted in my blog last month about ABB and their emergence from the near disastrous happenings in the late 1990s and early in this decade, Jim Pinto has published one of his company reviews on ABB. I believe Jim's analysis is correct
As I have said before, I believe that Emerson's dominance in the process automation space has less to do with Emerson being brilliant marketers and really good manufacturers as it does with the fact that all of Emerson's major competitors were in the process of attempting to commit seppuku. Now, this isn't to say that Emerson doesn't do what they do well...they certainly do. And their marketing engine is awesome. But as John Berra, president of Emerson Process Management put it, he now spends about half his time "instilling a proper sense of competitive paranoia" into his troops.
It isn't just ABB who's back. And the end result for end-users and system integrators is that there are more choices, not less, and more pressure on competitive excellence, not less, and the possibility that the automation industry would collapse into One Big Controls Company is effectively over, for at least this cycle.
Comments?
--Walt Boyes