|
by   | Abstract: | After a financially successful first year as CEO, Rockwell's Keith Nosbusch is quietly taking steps that will profoundly change the 101-year-old company. |
The timing could not have been better. One year ago, as the economy and the manufacturing industry were dusting themselves off from the effects of recession, Keith Nosbusch was poised to become chief executive of Rockwell Automation. With his appointment occurring in the year of Rockwell's 100th anniversary, and with important bets already made on transforming Rockwell into a more consultative, solutions-oriented business, expectations were high as Nosbusch, a 30-year Rockwell veteran, prepared to succeed Don Davis, Rockwell's longtime chief. As luck, or some might say events, would have it, economic and industry conditions cooperated with the change of command. As Nosbusch prepares for his first anniversary as CEO next month, he will do so with four straight fiscal quarters of sales growth and a 6% to 8% growth projection for 2005. "I've been very lucky that the economy has been a tail wind rather than a head wind," he said at Rockwell's Automation Fair in Orlando. But Nosbusch knows that luck has its limits. Even as underlying conditions were improving over the past year, Nosbusch has been making a series of changes at the automation giant that, in sum, will have a major effect on the company in years to come. In brand identity, internal IT, key executive positions, alliances such as with Intel on application specific chips and in how it goes to market with its foundation Logix architecture, Nosbusch has begun to put his stamp on Rockwell Automation. [Click to continue] |