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by David R. Brousell, MA Editorial Staff   | Abstract: | The broad restructuring of the industrial automation giant late last year in a time of scandal is just the first step in a business transformation journey. |
Observers of the industrial automation market will probably debate for years whether the huge corporate reorganization at Siemens AG, which became effective last month, was a planned or largely spontaneous event. Advocates of the spontaneity theory will argue that the bribery scandal that engulfed Siemens for much of 2007 and claimed the company's two top executives not only forced the reorganization, but also required that it be broad and deep. Others, including new CEO Peter Loscher, will take the view that Siemens was already in the process of self-examination based on an analysis of demographic and market trends and would have reorganized regardless of the scandal. In such a debate, the timing of the reorganization becomes the real variable, but what's indisputable is that both things — the scandal and the market analysis — occurred in parallel and now present what Loscher evidently sees as both an immediate opportunity to restore confidence in Siemens and a far more significant long-term play to transform the company for the years ahead. [Click to continue] |