Smart power, energy moves mean a bright future

To steal a cliché, it is a perfect storm of sorts where all major economies across the globe seem to be failing at the same time. That was not always the case, when the one economy would falter, another would genuinely be robust enough to keep pushing through. Not now, however.
“But there is hope at the end of the tunnel,” said Joseph Hogan, chief executive at ABB Group during this morning’s keynote address at the company’s ABB Automation & Power World in Orlando, Fla.
“In this cycle, every economy is in a negative cycle,” Hogan said. “For the first time ever in the world every economy is in the same cycle. We have to approach business in a different way.”
“The world is linked together and financial situations are linked today,” he said. “When you look at the amount of GDP that is exported around the world, the economies are certainly linked and we have to deal with it on a global sense and we will all feel it that way.”
If anyone says they know the answer, Hogan pretty much said you should be careful.
“It is difficult to see where the economy is going. The world has changed so irrevocably, it will never be the same.”
“With the ascendance of the Asian economy; the ascendance of areas like Brazil, Russia, China and India; that demand will come back,” he said. “We just have to get through the situation where the securitization of debt around the world failed and when that is over the future will be incredible.”
“There is a good future out there for us. Things have changed. The world ahead of us has a great deal of opportunity going forward.”
But when it comes to the company’s future, Hogan wants to be able to meld the services aspect with growth in technology offerings.
“We want to respond properly to customers. We want to assemble products with a total solution package,” Hogan said.
Part of the package includes areas where end users can control costs through:
• Improvements in energy efficiency
• Improvements in productivity
• Integrated technologies
• Strong long-term partnerships
• Expansive service offerings
In talking about the economy, Mark Taft, ABB Group Vice President, Process Automation, Global Control System Business said, “I was in a meeting the other day and we were talking about the problems of today and someone said it is important to remember tomorrow isn’t cancelled.”