In this recession/depression, the stock of all major automation companies has dropped - a falling tide sinks all boats. Some are encountering turbulence, which will bring change.

Here are my own observations regarding recent happenings.

Much of my input comes from the frequent weblogs (links below) which admittedly include pessimists who have nowhere else to vent their frustrations. For most industry observers, the weblogs represent a valuable source of information regarding things that do NOT appear in the regular corporate press-releases. 

INVENSYS: 

CEO Ulf Henriksson appointed ex-EDS executive Paulett Eberhart as President of Invensys Process Systems about 2 years ago.

He then allowed her to take the major step of moving IPS HQ from Foxboro, MA. to Plano, TX. near Dallas, close to the former EDS headquarters and her own home. There were no specific reasons given other than that the move seemed to suit her strategy of developing IPS into a consulting and services company modeled on EDS. She then proceeded to recruit key executives, many from EDS, with no experience of the process automation industry.

Several key executives with automation backgrounds departed.

After all these drastic changes, last week, Ulf suddenly announced that Paulett was no longer at Invensys IPS, and he was "stepping in as Acting President and CEO of IPS with immediate effect". Clearly she had been fired. No one was told why. Clearly too, there was no internal successor.

The weblogs are rife with speculation. After Ulf's successive mistakes, some questioned his ability to select executives.

Many think the selection of Ken Brown as IPS chief would have had good results and eliminated all this nonsense.

Midst all this turmoil, and after the arrival of Sir Nigel Rudd to lead the Invensys Board, it remains to be seen who Ulf will select to head IPS. Perhaps he himself will resign. Or be fired.

HONEYWELL:

Companies don't really do any press-releases on layoffs, especially when jobs keep being transferred overseas.

So it's understandable that weblogs chronicle the complaints

- from those who have been riffed, those who bear the brunt of the remaining workload, and those who are responsible for training their own offshore replacements. Some of these weblogs expound very sensibly, at great length.

A long term Honeyweller points poignantly that H*ONE*ywell has become the Power of "one", with David Cote in the middle as the ONE employee and everyone else eligible for being outsourced.

The Honeywell weblog was the first to announce (before the trade press received any announcements) that Jack Bolick, President of Honeywell Process Systems, had suddenly "retired". After first being told he was moving to Houston, (which indicates some

turbulence) I was sorry to note his sudden departure.

I respect Jack Bolick. He deserves a lot of credit for re-establishing Honeywell Process Systems as an industry leader following the debacle of the failed merger with GE in 2001.

ROCKWELL:

After a series of write-downs and badly handled layoffs, Rockwell is struggling to make headway and its stock dropped to about 30% of the 12-month high.

The Rockwell weblog continues to report significant turmoil, centered around layoffs in various locations, and compounded by the news (not verified, but not denied) that CEO Keith Nosbusch and other executives had received big bonuses.

Lots of noise from UK and the Far East. Rockwell is shuffling distribution channels in an attempt to generate growth, which remains elusive. Recently, the company took the unusual step of firing ALL its distributors in Australia and New Zealand, and appointed just one to cover the entire territory. Naturally, this set off a round of reactions. Read the Rockwell weblogs.

One comedian (perhaps prescient?) predicted a merger of Invensys and Rockwell. Remember, "Pig + pig = piglets".

You know, I've been predicting for a while that the Automation Top-10 will shrink to the Top-5. The turbulent financial environment of the last part of the first decade of the new millennium will bring changes.

Stay tuned - read the weblogs.

Invensys weblog:

http://jimpinto.com/weblog/invensyslog.html

Rockwell weblog:

http://jimpinto.com/weblog/rockwellog.html

Honeywell weblog:

http://jimpinto.com/weblog/honeywellog.html

Read more in Andrew Bond's Automation Insider:

http://www.iainsider.co.uk/