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Focus on business fundamentals, Hogan tells ABB employees

Global CEO talks about staying aggressive in tough times at Wisconsin visit

By Plant Engineering Staff December 1, 2008

ABB global CEO Joe Hogan told an employee gathering in New Berlin, WI last week that even in tough economic times, the fundamentals of business will help drive the company to success.

“Continue to focus on your market orientation to business,” Hogan told more than 300 ABB employees. “Execute well in this, and every business cycle; get ever closer to customers; and build ever-better solutions and relationships.”
Employees queried him on a variety of concerns, including his views on the current economic climate. “Focus on your market and what you can control,” responded Hogan. “Work really hard; getting better at your job every day actually assures our future,” he noted. “Work on becoming faster, leaner and more pertinent to the customers we serve.”
At the meeting, Hogan offered introductory remarks regarding his background and familiarity with Wisconsin, based on his tenure at GE. He also shared his early impressions of ABB: “Look, the focus is where it needs to be — on offering our core competencies of power and automation to the market,” he said. “ABB is very global, truly multi-national, and there is a great, earned pride in engineering and R&D across the company; these assets, combined with good cash, gives us the tools to become stronger in the long-term.”
Asked how ABB gets ever closer to customers, Hogan emphasized, “Listen! Be humble. Be hungry.” He noted that responses with product and service solutions need to be rapid, but based on multiple inputs from end users that confirm a true trend. “ABB absolutely has, or can create, the technology to respond with better solutions,” he said.
New Berlin is home to one of the largest operating units for ABB in North America, including manufacturing and local warehousing and distribution operations.