Taking a break from meetings in Chicago yesterday, I was tipped to a rumor that Sudipta Bhattacharya was out as CEO of Invensys Operations Management. Eventually, I received a statement from Invensys. My news report is at Automation World. Back in is Mike Caliel.
You may remember Caliel as CEO of Invensys Process Systems (an assemblage of Foxboro, Triconex, Avantis and SimSci-Esscor) when the company’s InFusion and ArchestrA products were announced. He left the company supposedly because he wanted to live in Houston and the main office was in Foxboro, Mass. His replacement nearly destroyed the company. Bhattacharya, then president of Wonderware, was tapped to form IOM by adding Wonderware to the mix.There’s no doubt that he turned things around financially. But perhaps he was unable to unify the company.
Caliel was hugely popular at Foxboro, so the comments amongst the perennial complainers on Jim Pinto’s Weblog showed delight and joy. But, I would caution them that there will be no return to “the good old days” because times have changed. And he was the leader whose strategy has led to much of what we see now. And many “Foxboro” people are in senior leadership positions. They aren’t all Wonderware.
I offer some analysis at Automation World. To expand a little, this move creates a lot of questions. Have the internal battles between Foxboro and Wonderware people reached a head? Will Invensys seek to split off Wonderware for eventual sale? Was Caliel brought back to a) strengthen the process business or b) prepare it for sale?
We will know soon enough. New leaders mean new teams. So we’ll be watching the moves and signals in the coming months. Perhaps we’ll get to chat with Caliel next month and see what brought him back.
Gary, you've always been strongly pro-Sudipta, but you'll have to admit that he failed to create a culture of growth and a unity of purpose at IOM. If you were even only passively watching the events of the past couple of years, you'd know that the reason he failed at unifying the company was due to key personnel decisions that he made, all of which had largely the exact opposite effect. He went overboard in hiring friends/buddies (most of whom shared his country of origin) who lacked any experience in the industries IOM serves or in the roles they were hired for. All of this conspired to kill off real growth at the expense of cost cutting and extracting results through pressure tactics. It is a tragedy in many ways, because Sudipta is not that bad a guy when you meet him one on one (as you know). It is just that his behind the scenes behaviors did not seem to be consistent with that persona.
Well, Rashesh and Pankaj were already in high positions before Sudipta came for one thing. But you're right about unifying the company. Personally, I am not sure it's possible. I don't know how representative the writers on Jim's Weblog are, but if they are representative at all then unifying is impossible. I sense that the Foxboro people just want to be the Foxboro people.
I used to ask Paulett about that. She'd look me in the eye and say, "I know where the crown jewels are." I thought that meant that she knew that the largest segment of the company was the old Foxboro part. What can I do? Can't call her a liar or anything like that. But when you see the exodus of many people and not much product development, then you have to judge by actions.
I always asked Sudipta about Foxboro product development. In fact this year the company announced some significant product enhancements to that line. So, I figured that things were turning around.
The question now becomes, is Foxboro large enough to compete as simply as process systems and instrumentation company against much larger rivals? That will be quite a challenge. From what I'm told about London's finances, I don't think it can run out and make a bunch of acquisitions to grow significantly. ABB, Honeywell and Emerson have already been scooping up a number of companies.
I think MIke has quite a challenge ahead–both in terms of market and in terms of dealing with London. I wish him well.