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Riddett isn't the only one doing that. Pretty much every major multi-national corporation has been for the past decade, killing the individual companies under the umbrella corporation. These people know what they're doing. They know outsourcing to India, China et al. does not work.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

My last Year at Invensys Controls

Let us say a company had a problem, such as too much debt, and the Board wants to fix it. One thing the Board can do is to appoint a new CEO with a reputation in restructuring. Such was the case with Rick Haythornwaite. By appointing Rick the Board is saying we have a problem, we know what it is and we know how to fix it. Also if Rick is on a fixed term contract the Board is also putting a time on the resolution of the problem. With one appointment The Board is sending a message to the Market, potential buyers and employees. Rick was probably the perfect appointment.

Now look at the management at Controls. I concede that it is very difficult to get such a perfect fit with a manager such as Rick. Controls have had a revolving door of General Managers. Rick came to Invensys to do a job, then left. Now tell me what the current management of Controls represents. What problems and solutions is the current management espousing? The global environment is difficult but it will pick up. Controls have valuable and innovative products. The answer is No. The current management can do no more than close factories and drop product lines as they become unprofitable. An accountant fresh out of college with a spreadsheet could do this.

This is why I am leaving Controls; it has taken several years to get into this position, but it has been clear for many years that Controls was drifting and has no clear strategy.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Riddett visited us here in Australia and saw nobody, was here less than a day in Melbourne and apparently had to be home via Singapore for the weekend. Louisville to Brisbane to Melbourne to Singapore to Louisville in 5 days? Idiot explained. Five times on planes compared to seeing people. Has no idea.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - "And for those of you whining about Ulf, Wayne and others just wanting to run up the stock value: Hello!? That is a key part of their job..."

Well damn, and here the rest of us thought it was providing quality goods and services to customers at a fair price.

THIS is what is wrong with heartless, unethical multinational corporations. The almighty quatloo is the goal, grabbing as much as one can get and "shag the other guy, shag the customer, I'm getting mine!" and the health of the corporation does not matter.

Companies that are customer focused... Remember those? Extinct, gone the way of the dodo.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Trivia - How many times does Riddett repeat the word, "particularly" in the Agility video? It's funny how every word mentioned about Riddett in this blog becomes credible after this video.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

We were seriously thinking of buying the Invensys Rail. Now we changed our mind. Probably the best deal will be to buy the Spanish ISRE and not the whole of Invensys Rail.

Monday, January 30, 2012 - Re: not managinging stock price:

This is the best post for a while. Under Ulf and Riddett it's all been about "me as well" products at the lowest costs. This has brought Safetran and the rest of Rail to where it is today. Cutting in to vital areas to reduce costs and outsourcing core competence for short term gains to stock prices. Sure, Riddett will personally get a bonus; but where is the business going medium to long term? If you want a leading indicator on this, then look out for the free cash flow as well as profit. In a long cycle project business you can manipulate profit but not cash.

Riddett will be exposed for what he is. Everyone knows it.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Anyone with a ounce of business sense knows that the way to manage a successful business is to NOT "manage" the stock price. This has been the fundamental issue since Ulf came on board. Please pay attention to what's going on in your businesses and not so much the results. If you focus on what is happening and try to improve upon it, the results and the stock price will follow. I look forward to the board taking a more active role in the major issues and opportunities at Invensys.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

I don't care what opinions other people have of Riddett, I have personally seen his behavior here in Louisville. He is an arrogant bully who was only just kept in control by Terri Wiethorn the VP of HR. He threatened people, was personally abusive and basically is an animal.

Thursday, January 26, 2012 - To the poster on Safetran:

Are you really telling me that Riddett has just bought a new Mercedes S500? You are kidding surely? That's a $120k car. Rail just had a $30m profit write down with less than 12 weeks to go in the year. This guy must have photo's of Wayne car!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Read the analysis by Jim Pinto in his latest JimPinto.com eNews, January 25, 2012.

Invensys Top-level Changes & Loss Warnings

Extracts:
So again, there are major changes at the top in Invensys. IOM CEO Sudipta Bhattacharya was fired after 3 years and Mike Caliel (long-time Foxboro employee and CEO of IPS who had quit previously) was appointed in his place. Here's a summary of what happened.

Ex CFO, now CEO, Wayne Edmunds has likely been spending most of his time looking seriously at how to offload the Invensys pension-plan that weighs down the value in any possible acquisition. Siemens will likely buy the IOM piece, while Rail will go to China. Who knows who will buy ailing Controls?

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

I've read this blog on and off for a couple of years. I'm now a former employee through my own choice and have no ill feelings toward the company at any level.

What I find interesting is that the majority of RAIL comments are negative and I'm guessing originate form IRNE. I spent a fair amount of time in IRNE and there is a general sense of entitlement and whining. Same holds true for pockets of IOM.

One thing every one seems to not really understand is that Riddett and other senior leaders don't make all the decisions. They have lots of managers and people who make decisions and either execute well or not. These earnings warning are the culmination of several years of issues building up to where they now had to be recognized. For sure James Drummond knew about the issues on Singapore DTL and Sudipta knew about issues on the China Nuclear. Let's be clear that while Riddett and Suidipta are accountable there are lots of other people who are as well.

Some of you are on this blog and have had a hand in shoddy work. And for those of you whining about Ulf, Wayne and others just wanting to run up the stock value: Hello!? That is a key part of their job. Clearly it has to be done intelligently, but stock value is a key component of CEO/CFO responsibilities.

So if you want to throw rocks take a look at what the stock price has done since the elegant Sir Nigel and Wayne took the reins. In case you struggle with math, the stock is down about 50% and that was before the recent earnings warnings. Most of you should lose your nappies and put on big boy pants - go to work and get a life.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Riddett gets a lot of bad press here and rightfully so. I have been in several meetings with him where he is obviously multi-tasking too much - Attention Deficit Syndrome ? - and does not really engage or is continuously distracted. He also does not bring the "gravity, leadership, polished persona to the job" like Drummond used to, but that is not directly his fault - he can't change his personality any more than you or I can. However, with all that said, the one thing that is true is that his given (?) direction, when he joined IRNA/Safetran - to cut cost, relocate manufacturing etc. It was not his mandate to bring strategic thinking to the business or to grow it.

His predecessor (previous IRNA president), who left / was let go by Drummond, clearly refused to cut the business without an intelligent, sustainable plan for growth. Drummond's plan was to turn all the BU's into just sales offices and consolidate all mfg, R&D etc. Riddett's predecessor refused to go along with this even though he would have benefited personally. Everyone makes choices; you, me, Riddett. That does not make him an idiot. It is the same as if you were running a business and had a lot to gain personally if you cut costs significantly. You would either go along and walk away with your bonus or would decide that your morals/ethics prevent you from doing this. Everyone makes a choice.

Everything that is happening at Invensys has to be read in the context of the business being sold - it has been in process for 2 years.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - In response to the "Controls does not have salesmen. It has sales engineers."

While I somewhat agree with this statement and the rest of your post, honestly I'd say there are maybe two in the sales position who can have "engineer" as part of their title and get away with it, though they are not really engineers. The rest, for the most part, neither generate new sales nor have engineering knowledge. But they do generate nothing but frustration for the engineering and development groups. For these people I would extend your statement of not enough knowledge of the manufacturing capability to no knowledge of the engineering capability and little to no knowledge of the customer requirements and expectations as well.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I don't have an opinion on Riddett, but he does seem to lack skills that you would expect to see in a CEO. I listened to his recent Town Hall call and it was very poor. However the frustrations on this blog are understandable. But some bloggers are too quick to pin the blame without looking at the facts. Rail is a very long cycle business and the current issues in Rail go back to three key problems.

1. Ulf insisted on a 20% ROS even though all our competitors have margins in the range 10-14%. This was all about getting the share price to £4. To his credit Drummond did occasionally stand up to Ulf but ultimately went along with this folly, fostering a terrible culture of fear and 'yes men'.
2. In an effort to build the order-book quickly, Drummond bid large projects (CBTC mostly) with a sharp pencil in growth markets even though we did not have core technology ready. That is the story of Singapore DTL.
3. The Drummond exec was far too large and bloated, with no strategy or plan to build global engineering capability.

All is not lost here, particularly if we are bought as a single entity for one of our competitors. I still work alongside great engineers and managers and there is a lot of value in the business. So lets lay off personal attacks on Riddett and focus on the real issues.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Riddett may or may not be an idiot. However what is clear is that the problems in both IOM and Rail were being posted on here almost a year ago. So the leadership of both business divisions must have known about it. The problems that led to the profits warning were there under Ulf's, Sudipta's and Riddett's leadership. Both IOM and Rail are long cycle project businesses, so to pretend that $92M in cost overruns suddenly just happened is untrue.

Sir Nigel Rudd resolved one of these problems last February. However Wayne didn't act quickly enough and fired Sudipta after the event. Neither Sudipta or Riddett were his appointments. His failure to act on Riddett will become apparent when Rail fails to meet the post warning expectations and performance continues to deteriorate. Rail was a $1B revenue, 18% return on sales business when Riddett took over. Let's see where it ends up.

Monday, January 23, 2012 - My last Year at Invensys Controls

There is one issue at Controls that really gets under my skin.

In the game of Craps rolling a 12 (a double 6) is extremely lucky for the house. The chance of rolling a double six is 1 in 36. If a player has just rolled a double six, the chance of the next roll being a double six is still 1 in 36. The events are independent, one roll of the dice does not affect the next roll.

No. The chance of the next roll being a double six is more likely to be zero. By this time the table would have been over turned and the players will be trying to lynch the guy running the game, calling him a cheat. The dice are more than likely loaded. The events are not independent.

Now, look at the way many organizations run their project books, not just Controls. When a project is booked in the value of the project and the chance of success as a percentage is entered. The percentage is an estimate by the sales guy, but this is not a problem. The management will then multiply the value of the each project by the percentage and then add all the projects together.

Say there is a widget project worth $100 and there is a 25% chance of winning the job, this is entered into the system. Say there are four widget projects in the system all for $100 with a 25% chance of success. The management will multiply all the projects by value and percentage and add them all together come up with a value of $100. Saying; that in the year $100 worth of projects will be delivered. This is nonsense. However it does have the advantage of inflating the value of the project book.

A 25% chance of winning is very low; it is saying that the widget is not very competitive. If the sales guy has been to four clients and all are rated at 25%; this is saying that the widget is not competitive across a number of clients. The events are not independent. Using the mathematics of probability is incorrect. By visiting four clients the possibility (not chance) of winning any of the four projects is revealed as being lower than 25%. The sales guy could visit 100 clients with the uncompetitive widget and still not win any project.

A better system would be to look only at projects on the book with a chance of success over 75%. This would provide a much better estimate of what will be delivered in projects in any one year. Of course, the value of the project book would plummet. Management would have to come up a better plan rather than pushing things out until next year. It would require better more creative management - not a bad thing.

Monday, January 23, 2012 - Re the Safetran employee who said we haven't seen low yet.

Well, we must be getting close with the lowest customer quality levels I have seen in the last 7 years. Then there was the profit "adjustment" from years of incorrect pricing spotted by the customer. Now we are looking at another major quantity of customer returns and customer repayment.

Riddett sits in his refurbished office tapping on his company-paid-for Apple devices telling everyone who will listen about his new S500 Mercedes.

Mon, 23 Jan 2012

Controls news: Plant closings. Mexicali was announced this past Friday. Belluno and Monaco, you both are on deck. Be prepared. Rather than diagnosing and fixing the problem, washed up sales guy will throw a band-aid on it. Typical management thinking around here.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

I hear that the "idiot" Riddett is coming down to visit us this week here in Australia. This will be the second visit in his 18 months in charge. Apparently he is spending less than a day here in our Melbourne HQ. How this fool thinks he can manage a global operation from Louisville, Kentucky is astonishing.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

I think the point the guy was making with the joke about the reversing valve and wall thermostat is that Controls is a marginal player in many marginal markets. To some extent I must agree.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

I cannot comment on the downtown line or Taiwan. All I know is that Spain has apparently turned Singapore around, Taiwan is apparently under control. Riddett is universally seen as an idiot (people refer to him as the idiot) on four continents. Amazing but obviously Wayne is happy with things. Safetran apparently has more problems to add to APAC

Sunday, January 22, 2012

When the former CFO, turned CEO, is suddenly "surprised" by an aggregate of $92 million in project cost overruns, it certainly reeks of some form of impropriety or conscious omissions. My first impression was that they must have thought they could bury those numbers long enough to secure a good acquisition price for the company. Purely conjecture, but there is almost no way this information wasn't well known with the executive levels. There's something rotten in London.

Sunday, January 22, 2012 - Re: "Out of nearly 4,000 Rail employment, maybe 20 are even aware that this blog exists":

This is not even close to the truth. I don't know of anyone in Rail who doesn't read this blog, even if they don't post to it. The reason for the success of this blog is the lack of any confidence in the Rail management, total distrust of what few communications occur and a total frustration with an ineffective management team that seem hell-bent on bringing a once great company to ruin. I'm sad to say it after 30 years with the company, but I think we are finished.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

I left Invensys almost 2 years ago, after over almost 30 years in various parts of the business. I left on my own - but it had more to do with personal differences with my boss than dissatisfaction with the company. It happens and I have no regrets moving on. However, my humble opinion is that Invensys has a lot more great people than jerks. I miss many of my friends there and I wish them nothing but success.

Does Invensy have issues? Yes, not many companies don't. Take a look at the other weblogs on this site. Rockwell and Honeywell comments are just as negative. The others have very few comments, which I would take to indicate things are probably either better, people have better things to do or they just don't have a clue about this site.

I am not going to go into Rail or IOM as I really don't understand those business models other than knowing that contract accounting in these businesses can easily be abused and lead to surprises. It was the same in the old Building Systems business as well which I know a little more about. My last decade at Invensys was spent in Controls. I know quite a bit about the Controls business and still work in that industry.

I believe Invensys Controls to be a great business. It played a huge part in keeping Invensys out of bankruptcy following the mess Yurko left and the mass business disposals to keep the company afloat. That was when Rail was in the "Development Division" which meant it was not yet worth selling but non-core to the Invensys management at that time. Controls has always had consistent margins and cash flow. Controls was for sale along with most everything except what evolved as IOM. Controls was kept because it did not attract a price worth Invensys giving up those margins and cash flow. It was for sale because it lacked the "glamor" of the automation business.

The Controls business has had an average tenure of its Presidents of something less than 2 years. Mark Balcunas now has the longest tenure of anybody in this role under Invensys. To my mind, he is also the best one they have had. Is he a washed up salesman? He was. When the old Climate Controls and Appliance Controls business were combined, he went from being the Vice President of North America Appliance Controls to the Maytag Sales role, which was in the process of merging with Whirlpool This was due to the early bias of the executive team being from the Climate business rather than any reflection on Mark. I envy Mark's career resurrection and my belief is that he deserves it. Is he perfect? Far from it, but he has done a good job.

The comment about the salesman carrying the reversing valve, the washer valve and the thermostat is a joke. Aside from the aftermarket business in the US and the Heating business in Europe, Controls does not have salesmen. It has sales engineers who are responsible for getting products spec'd into new models. They don't carry around anything other than a knowledge of the customers requirements, the engineering ability of the development staff and some but not enough knowledge of the manufacturing capability of the organization. It is similar to the auto industry. While there are some breakthrough developments, it is very limited because the customer generally does not want to fund it, it is unproven which is hugely important to the customer and it can be very expensive.

In my opinion, the primary management issues in Controls still revolve around biases. The US vs. Asia vs. Europe and lingering Climate vs. Appliance. The regional biases revolve around historic and cultural issues. These business have always tended to revolve around regional management structures. Over Control's history, sometimes these businesses have had a US dominated central executive team and at other times these businesses have stood alone. US managers have always struggled with understanding that the rest of the world does not necessarily operate like it does in the US. This has always been an issue and will continue to be until there is truly a "Controls" management team free from regional biases. As for the lingering Climate vs. Appliance bias, this is slowly going away as people move on. When these businesses were combined in the mid to late 90s, 125 senior managers were called together to effect the combination. Of those 125, when I left there were less than 25 left. I suspect it is even less now. A similar but much more difficult transformation will need to occur to get rid of the regional biases.

All my best to my good friends at Invensys.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

The Singapore DTL project must be a disaster by now, from what has been going around in the small circle of railway engineers, and the situation in Taiwan is even worse. The rumours going around in Taipei are that the English from UK and elsewhere are not concentrating on their jobs and work towards the successful completion of the project, but are just spending time in pubs and engaging in activities which are morally wrong. The authorities have heard about this now and will be commencing actions on the individuals soon. Those who fly frequently from the UK are also engaged in such activities.

Friday, January 20, 2012 Re: "Éout of nearly 4000 employees in Rail, not one has ever come on here to explain what a success Riddett is."

Out of nearly 4,000 Rail employment, maybe 20 are even aware that this blog exists. The reason you don't hear anything good getting posted here is because only malcontents post here (including my own self.)

Still, one has to only wonder what Mr. Riddett's goals were for holding a frankly bizarre meeting of surviving employees since it ended up being kin to Captain Edward John Smith informing the crew that there would be plenty of ice for their gin even though the ship is sinking.

The reason why all the ink printers across Invensys ran out of paper immediate after the meeting is because everyone finds it rather dodgy to limit one's resume to just 2 pages. Somehow the meeting failed to instill confidence in the corporation's management.

Look yonder on the horizon! Is that rescue ship I see named Siemens?

Friday, January 20, 2012 - Spanish empire in Rail:

Sudipta in IOM was far better than Guzman in Rail. Rail is no more a UK MNC, but Spanish Co. May be thinking the whole world is substandard to Spanish.

Friday, January 20, 2012 - Spanish empire in Rail:

Does the company want to diminish the shareholders to Spanish only? If the project in Singapore is managed and directed by IRSE why the need to have the IRAP P and his team be based in Singapore? Why the IRSE continue to sack the Singapore team one by one and IRAP P keeps on recruiting in Singapore for the same project? Isn't it the IRSE that brought the project in to delay and cost overrun by not providing relevant product info and not collaborating to others in IRNE/IRAP for 2 years after the project start? Then why the project was transitioned to IRSE? What kind of strategy is this?

Friday, January 20, 2012

Rail is hitting a new low. It took some believing but unfortunately it's true. Riddett is, I'm sorry to say, way over his head. The town hall webcast was received with a mixture of humour and incredulity. He sounded like a 10-year-old in a spelling-bee. He is an embarrassment to Rail. Jesus Guzman wasn't much better with his Spain-only view. Neither are global leaders. A home grown plant manager and a Spanish R&D manager. Both in the wrong jobs and if left there will bring Wayne down. Still it's his choice.

Thursday, January 19, 2012 - My Last Year at Invensys Controls.

I once head a joke: What do you call someone with a reversing valve, a water valve out of a washing machine and a wall thermostat in their bag? The answer: An Invensys Salesman.

Of course Ranco reversing valves are no more, but the point is that the product lineup at Invensys Controls simply makes no sense. There are one or two products in each market segment, but Controls is not strong in any market segment. Worst still Controls have purchased companies and then proceeded to let these companies whither on the vine.

Of course a lot of what Allen Yurko did simply did not make sense. But no one at Invensys was able to integrate or develop the synergies in any of the companies that were purchased. No doubt this is an extremely difficult thing to do, but Tyco is able to do it, Emmerson is able to do it and Siemens is famous for it. Look at all the companies purchased by Controls, Firex, Paragon, Eliwell, Eberle they have all gone backwards under the stewardship of Invensys Controls, not to mention the companies that were sold, Fasco etc. Have I have missed any?

I cannot think of any manager at Invensys who ever shown any interest in putting together a sensible strategy to tie these companies together. In fact the opposite is true. Whenever mid-level staff has tried to work with other groups in the organization, it has been my experience that senior management will try to sabotage every effort. Petty land grabs and people trying to defend their patch is all that is on offer. When it was suggested that people at Controls should talk to the now sold Invensys Building Services about wall thermostats, there was hell to pay. Building Services might sell more wall thermostats than Controls and Controls might lose the wall thermostat business. There are people at Invensys who can close factories and shut down product lines; but show me anyone who can build a business.

The real issue for Controls is that all the R&D effort is fractured. With all these different product lines all the expensive R&D is spent on single products. There are no product families where R&D can be spread across. Of course this is not conceding that Controls does any R&D; Controls is more a jobbing shop.

What we can expect in future is a load of un-inspiring bean-counting managers who can read a spreadsheet and say "We will close factory X"

This is death for Controls hence why I have a plan to leave.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Spanish empire in Rail: For two years after the project start, the IRNE consistently did not cooperate well with Singapore DTL project teams which used to spread over UK, AUS, Spain, Taiwan, India and Singapore. IRNE did not provide timely (1) CBTC product interface requirement to various subsystems within TDMS, ATS and PSD, (2) the product safety cases (3) type approval details, (4) Train borne ATC design and so on. Then the so called "We Know What we are doing" IRNE took over the project direction and management. The whole UK, AUS, Taiwan and India teams were thrown out of the project. All work taken over by the Spanish. Does anyone know how this project is doing now?

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Riddett's town hall webcast meeting was one of the most amateurish and embarrassing I have seen. Slides flicking backwards and forwards out of sync with what was being presented making it difficult to follow. Riddett's presentation was terrible. He was clearly reading aloud and he sounded ridiculous, like a child reading a book. You could even hear his papers shuffling as he read them. People were actually chuckling in the large group I was in. Jesus Guzman was a lot better, talking freely and fluently although his heavy Spanish accent was difficult to understand at times.

As for content - there wasn't any. All generic comments about how everything is going well. Didn't we just announce a profit warning? The line of business (LOB) model was impossible to understand. Three unknown people with Spanish names are going to be responsible for all main line, mass transit, products and maintenance business. So what are the BU Presidents and their existing teams that bid and deliver this business currently going to do? The big unanswered question regarding what's happening to R&D was not covered. Waste of time and 25 minutes of my life I can't get back.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

We had an "inspirational" talk today from the idiot Riddett and the real boss of Rail, Jesus Guzman. What a pathetic shambles! All we could hear was the rustling of paper as Riddett read badly from his script. People were just stood laughing at his total inadequacy. The "lines of business" we were being told about convinced nobody that we are going to get out of this mess we are in with our jobs intact.

How much longer Wayne?

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

There are many other shoes that remain to drop in rail in North America. With poorly executed R&D on the shelf for technology products, with the inability to introduce or support the most insignificant technology-based product, with all the talent that has left and that is leaving in frustration of working for these incredible "Executive" idiots, and with so many other rail-focused companies stepping up their game in the North American market, IRNA is all but dead on the vine.

Everyone is so critical of Riddett, however, that's not what will be responsible for driving the last nail in the coffin for IRNA. It's Riddett's replacement that took things to an all-time low. He was a fairly weak salesman, and he's proven to be incredibly ill-equipped to handle the challenges of a business that cries out for a strong leader.

You haven't seen "low" yet. There is much more to come.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

I worked in IRNE for three years but left to a competitor as I was told that all new business would go to Spain. IRNE pre qualified for the two Danish contracts and this was taken away with Dimetronic taking over the bids as they "knew what they were doing". Two bids and both lost. Spain totally uncompetitive. Spain is in recession so no more lucrative EU funded contracts. Watch what happens next.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The interesting thing is that out of nearly 4000 employees in Rail, not one has ever come on here to explain what a success Riddett is. Isn't it obvious to all who have come across him that he is not capable of operating at this level? We can't wait here in Oz for his global town hall web meeting. No doubt more genius insights from our "CEO". Incidentally, are we not going to stop calling Financial Directors, CFOs and MDs as CEOs. There only two of these in Invensys. Talk about confusing our customers. During the last visit of Magoo to Singapore the client thought he was meeting the CEO of Invensys. To say he was disappointed is an understatement. We've just lost the next Singapore contract for the North South East West lines and were told our total lack of capable leadership was the core reason. Spanish people that didn't want to be here, a French CEO and then another American CEO that appears clueless. That's on top of an Australian COO they are used to dealing with. Look, chaos does not do it justice.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Riddett:'All hands on deck'?
Obadia: 'The 5 pillars'?
Crossfield: 'BIP'
Traynor: 'Business streamlining'

In 5 years, a book may be available on airport bookshelves about this... And perhaps the future leaders of this world will pick it up, ingest the detais and say, "Never again". These 4 imbeciles will only equal diasater.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Communications in the IOM (dis)organization has been a problem from day one. I don't believe Wonderware distributors (who are Wonderware) have even been told that Sudipta is gone. Thankfully we have this Blog.

Someone below mentioned the status of LOB. Hopefully reality sets in and management recognize that LOB really means revert the business model back to pre the IOM disaster. The component businesses have different customers, different go-to-market strategies, different products - there is no synergy.

Monday, January 16, 2012

No matter how you dress it up, Riddett is responsible for Rail and the £20m hit. According to sources in Australia there is more to come. This idiot has been in charge for over a year and has done nothing. Even today he has only visited us once. Look, this chap isn't up to the job and there is no point in firing local management as they have customer relationships. Riddett is completely incompetent and if action isn't taken then those above are to blame.

Monday, January 16, 2012

I am still amazed at all the fuss on the share price - but then most of the news was buried a long time ago (like bidding at a loss for Singapore LTA). All this was known by the Directors and VPs of the Invensys Rail NE business at the time. The facts were masked by all in order to announce a major contract award. Taiwan is a hangover from many years ago and was always going to lose money. The real issues are closer to home though. The Network Rail part of the NE business has not performed well for a long time and when you add in SSL/SSR then you have the sum total of the Westinghouse business.

Monday, January 16, 2012

What an absolute disaster! Makes you wonder who was the previous CFO. Looks like my prediction a few weeks ago was heralding the truth. Collapse to 160 and then someone will buy. Either way, this mismanagement and surprise cannot continue and wouldn't anywhere else.

Monday, January 16, 2012

What a surprise, three months before fiscal year end! For a CEO (ex CFO) it is not great "value creation" news! I am wondering what is the role of Delivery; Finance and external (independent) auditors should have flagged this few months before. Are there any other hidden issues?

Sunday, January 15, 2012

IOM, don't fret. The China Nuclear job is a hangover from the Ulf and Paulette era (among a lot of other things). If the job can be successfully delivered it will be a real accomplishment. Keep positive. Management has now done the right thing (yes even David Thomas and Wayne). So focus on your job and don't be afraid to communicate to management. You should know that the days of management who think they are supremely better than you (with the exception of one or two who remain - hopefully will be purged) are over. Let's move forward and not make excuses.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Interesting isn't it? The China Nuclear problems have been a point of discussion here in on these weblogs for many months. Known problems internally and on external blogs, but a surprise to the management needing a root and branch review to discover. What does that tell you about internal information transfer within Invensys and in particular vertical information flow? Where there is no internal channel for comms, it'll find its way out in other ways, ergo this blog.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

With the Announcements of write-offs, all pieces of the Puzzle are falling in place.

1. Sudipta got Fired for the £40 Million hole in IOM Results that he caused and hid. Miraculously Rail CEO still survives as he sits on £20 Million hole. Looks like no one wants to Captain that Sinking Ship.
2. All that was written in the Blog regarding Chinese Nuclear Contracts making Losses and Invensys Management Cooking Books were finally proved to be True. This implies that employees and shareholders should trust this blog more than the "official" Invensys statements.
3. If we dig further, we may find more worms inside this ditch. Invensys management has lost complete credibility. They should be sued for misguiding the Markets, the Share Holders and the Employees by precooking false profits on Loss-making orders.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Now the blood letting and recrimination has slowed down, it's a good time to take a look at what happened in Rail. Under Drummond there was a well educated, professional set of global executives that provided oversight and governance across the 4 business units. The latter didn't like it as they were asked difficult questions and in many cases stopped from taking poor decisions. Campion, Whitfield, Traynor, Drury, King, Barry and others had the ability and insight to alert the CEO to risks and problems. The CEO may or may not decide to listen and do something. But at least he had the opportunity.

So then Riddett, a local President of a small manufacturing part of Rail, gets appointed COO, and then CEO Drummond's team gets decimated to almost nothing. All governance is removed by Riddett, who knows almost nothing about the business and projects. He has no idea of what he is head of, the customers, the projects and the risks. For almost a year he does little to find out, deciding to sit in his expensively refurbished offices here in Louisville.

If you think having a small team of professional executives providing governance and oversight is expensive, try Riddett's way. The difference over the last 15 months is £20m, so far.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Profit warnings are issued, contracts run into difficulties and the share value drops 20% in an hour. Yet still we are supposed to "shut up and get back to work". Or maybe all this stuff is our fault for being a bit negative?

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Shedding more light on IRAP: Australia projects have problems, Singapore LTA project losing money, Taiwan long-standing issues. Incurring further cost building up a useless Apac headquarters in Singapore with a whole team of Directors both local and expatriates, little engineering talent and depending on expensive imports from Spain and UK. Where do you think all the money is going down the drain? More bad news to follow I hear.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Does anyone know what these new people in the ranks of VPs and Ds based in Singapore are doing for IRAP? It is strange that all these new comers are from non-rail; hopefully intend to make the current Aussie leadership team redundant.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Looks like the nattering nabobs of negativism that hang out in this blog may have guessed right for a change:

Extracts from Telegraph today - article by Emily Gosden :

Invensys shares lost almost a fifth of their value after the technology group warned problems with work on nuclear power stations in China and rail contracts would wipe £60m from expected profits. The company had been targeting a rise in profits year-on-year but said that underlying operating profits would now fall "significantly" below the £262m for the 2010-11 year. Wayne Edmunds, Invensys chief executive, described the profit warning as "disappointing".

Invensys said it had reviewed three contracts to install and commission control and safety systems on nuclear reactors in China, in its operations management division, and had discovered delays and extra engineering work that would cost it £40m. The problems relate to one contract, for four reactors, which was worth around $250m (£163m) and would now be loss-making. The other two contracts, which relate to another four reactors, were still expected to be profitable.

The company said in its rail division it had discovered that project reviews which had been conducted at a local level had been "ineffective". It had now conducted a detailed "drains-up" review of its rail contracts which had revealed various problems with a number of small contracts, which, together, would lead to costs of £20m more than expected.

While declining to disclose the specifics of the affected rail projects, the company said that it was not a case of there being a single "endemic" reason that affected all its rail operations.

Invensys also said that its controls division, which supplies technology for white goods, had been affected by "weak" appliance markets in North America and Europe, but that this had been "partially offset" by continued strength in commercial and wholesale markets.

Analysts said the warning raised questions about Mr Edmunds, the former finance director who replaced Ulf Henriksson as chief executive in March 2011, pledging an "increased focus on execution."

Invensys shares have lost almost 50% of their value since January 2011, when they hit 364.3p. The company was relegated from the FTSE 100 in May 2011. The shares tumbled 44, or 19.4pc, to 183.1p.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Oh my god! Rail which makes up over half the profit of Invensys drops over £20m in profit. How on earth has the CEO and former COO survived? The disaster in Rail APAC has been on here for more than 6 months. Riddett is a disaster, which everybody has been saying on this weblog for over a year.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Wayne and his team have made two mistakes. Firstly letting Ulf's legacy (these problems didn't happen in the last 8 months - see postings on here a year ago) to remain buried. Secondly why didn't he fire the moron in charge of Rail? And Sudipta should have gone immediately. Riddett is an Ulf appointment and a complete idiot. In fact he is despised and a joke figure across four continents which is some achievement. Now his true capability is clear. What more do you want to see? Wait for it to get worse ?

Friday, January 13, 2012

Incredible. Just 10 weeks to go and all the time Riddett has been telling people in Rail that all is well. Seems posts on here about what was really happening in Rail and Riddetts capabilities (lack of) were true. Invensys in APAC must be making a loss this year while moving into lavish new facilities and recruiting! £20 million write off in Rail. What a disaster as it's all in emerging markets in APAC. Where is Drummond when you need him? Riddett is an imbecile who has been in charge as COO or CEO for 18 months. Come back Drummond please and let's have some basic competency.

Friday, January 13, 2012

During the Invensys Conference call for analysts and fund managers today, David Thomas the CFO (or "that plonker" as he is known internally) let slip that Rail's problems were in Australia. What a management shambles and all should follow the old UK "wise investor" practice of selling and/or running for the door at the first profit warning.

Friday, January 13, 2012

So, the shares are tumbling and at least one commentator has "lost confidence in the management". Come on Wayne - you have already fixed IOM's leader - how about getting rid of the idiot Riddett and giving Rail a chance?

Friday, January 13, 2012 - Blogger Thurs 12, opening statement, "used to work for Invensys Rail UK but was made redundant last year":

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Q3 INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT, 13 January 2012

Q3 performance

The performance of the substantial majority of the Group continues to be in line with management expectations. However a number of operational issues relating to certain projects within Invensys Operations Management and Invensys Rail will affect performance for the current year. We now expect that our reported operating profit1 for the full year will be significantly below last year.

Invensys Operations Management maintained momentum with growth in revenue supported by continued market strength and its large order book. However a review has been carried out of the engineering requirements and associated costs for the three contracts to install and commission control and safety systems into eight nuclear reactors under construction in China. This review has concluded that there will be a delay in delivery and the need for additional engineering to be carried out on the first contract and, whilst some of this engineering will be reused on the later contracts, this will impact the division's performance this year by around £40 million.

At Invensys Rail, the division has achieved notable recent successes in winning orders in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UK. However detailed reviews of a small number of contracts have identified the need to delay revenue recognition and provide for additional costs, which will result in the division's performance for the year being around £20 million less than expected.

At Invensys Controls, the appliance markets in North America and Europe remained weak which was partially offset by continued strength in the commercial and wholesale markets.

Going forward, we remain confident about the prospects for the Group.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Regarding the Safetran comment below: The poster is correct. The present head of Safetran is a salesman who believes in milking what he presently has to the max i.e. milk the current products to the max. It is well known that he is not a strategic thinker or planner.

This approach can and will work in slow moving markets like US rail. Only problem is that at some point there will be a strategic change in the industry, as is presently happening with PTC. That is when the current product portfolio can become a "boat anchor" and you need different products, but don't have them.

When electronic interlockings came out, everyone said that relays would go away. But Safetran still sells a lot of relays. Similarly, if PTC is successful, he believes that Safetran will still sell many crossing products (Safetran's main revenue stream). Hence even with PTC, he believes that things will sort themselves out and Safetran will not be affected. So why take the risk of new product development? Plus he meets his numbers and makes his bonus.

This is a valid approach and many of you would consider similar options as well. It remains to be seen if it works longer term or not. Probably another 3 years before the effects will be seen on Safetran, if any.

Thursday, January 12, 2012 - My Last Year at Invensys Controls.

I would like to reflect on factory closures and moves to developing economies (low cost) and what has happened.

It is common to hear Managers at Controls say, "our clients moved to China and we followed them". An obvious strategy and probably "easy", but a strategy that was never going to provide a successful outcome. This strategy fails to recognise several key points.

Firstly that the economies of markets had changed - simply the sell price of many of our products had plummeted. Secondly the distribution methods of these products had changed. Thirdly our stocking and delivery policies on some products was so rigid, it is little wonder customers looked for other alternatives. I concede the second and third points are related

Lets take these points one at a time. The management of Invensys cannot be blamed for competitors coming into the market and lowering prices. However when you have been producing the same product since 1950's, basically unchanged you can't be surprised.

Also anyone who has been to an Invensys Factory In China or Mexico and a competitors factory will see the difference. It is not sufficient to simply transplant Invensys into a developing country. Anyone can see the extra layers of cost Invensys slaps onto its production. Have I flown to all these factories at great cost? Yes I have. However look at the products that come out of our competitor factories they are designed for low end markets. They not only use lower specifications but more importantly they offer very restricted line variations. I would reference Bitron or Carel.

Secondly, distribution. Recently I tried to see how easy it was to buy a direct replacement of all the Invensys products I was aware of from our competitors. I was able to get quotations on 90% of the products via the internet - hardly surprising. What did strike me was how easy it was, in fact it was easier that getting a quotation from Invensys. I could buy in box quantities; I did not need a distribution supply agreement. The cost was comparable with any price I could get from an Authorized Invensys Dealer.

I suppose my third point relates to my second point. After speaking to many distributors of our products it becomes evident that they stock alternatives to the Invensys brands. This is because it many instances it is so much easier to get a product direct from some manufacture in China than it is to get an original part from Invensys. This was confirmed by looking at Invoices and Order dates.

This is where the current management strategies have failed Controls. Simply moving production to China was a road to nowhere. Where is the recognition that Invensys Controls had to change? Where are the new product directions? This is where the current management has failed over many years.

In my next installment I will detail what our more successful competitors have done.

To the chap who thinks I should get back to work - I suppose he will say that this is all 20/20 hind sight. However, I have been saying these things for years.

Thursday, January 12, 2012 - re: What has happened to the CSR deal?

Well apparently, if what I hear is true, then Madrid don't want to give the Chinese the technology and Wayne does. The Spanish know that a Chinese supplier with mass transit signalling technology will destroy their "do it all from Madrid" model. Job losses in Madrid is a strict No from Riddett and Guzman.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Safetran went into a short term view of slashing costs for short term gain under Riddett. R&D slashed, no innovation and we now have the worst delivered quality in Invensys. Our new President is a nice but misguided fool and Riddett is still running things. Products get released to customers with loads of faults in the rush to be a me-too supplier.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Well, well. UK stock market down today, yet Invensys up nearly 6% on the day with volumes double the usual daily trades. It does look like a good-news situation. With less than one quarter to trade, the performance in IOM and Rail must be strong. What happened to all the posts on China Nuclear and Rail? Well done to Edmunds and Thomas. Riddett has clearly turned Rail around and is on target or better. Not sure why Sudipta got fired.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

So, anything new about Invensys IOM? Wonder if Mike will keep the "Marble Palace" in Dallas? Wonder how much turnover at the senior level will happen. Mark Davidson has taken early retirement. Any others? Mike brought Pankaj Mody from Honeywell. Not sure about others.

Thursday, January 12, 2012 - RE "Shut up and get back to work":

Didn't hit a raw nerve at all. Bloggers decided to give you what you gave those telling the truth. Obviously you didn't realise potential vendors and customers reviewed this blog as you wouldn't have posted something so asinine - someone must've told you that after the fact. Now you're trying to explain & clean up your crude and rude posting - incredible. Damage has been done, first impressions are everything, kindness may be forgotten but arrogance and ignorance are always remembered.

You are tired of hearing about and reading the blog yet you continue to post? As you state, no one is forcing you to be here so leave and do not return.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

I used to work for Invensys Rail UK but was made redundant last year. I experienced the frustration shared by many on this blog however I have had a long enough career in the Engineering industry to know that Invensys is not unique in this respect.

My advice is to stop wasting your time by whinging here. This will change nothing. It will only harm the company which helps no-one. If you feel so strongly, put some constructive suggestions down on paper explaining what you see is wrong, what needs to be changed and how you will contribute. You have a choice - be thankful you have a job, get on with it to the best of your ability and try to make a difference, or you can vote with your feet and leave.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Safetran has lost its passion for the rail signaling business, and that passion has been replaced by greed and self preservation by select management. Customers have seen the company erode for some time now, and they have tried to maintain their commitment to the company that "once was" in hopes that Safetran would somehow return to their former stature as a leader in signaling. That customer commitment has been waning for some time now, and as Safetran falls further into the abyss, alternate suppliers are benefiting. XO Rail, Siemens, Ansoldo and a number of smaller independent companies are successfully nipping away at the bones, and soon nothing will remain of the great company that was. For several years now we've seen nothing but poorly implemented ideas. Certainly nothing comparable to the true innovation of Safetran a decade ago. The focus on safety, vitality, maintainability, etc. is all but gone. Now it's more about getting a product to market, with little care about how that product will perform. The new Safetran is all about copying others successes and selling them cheaper, not about creating value through innovation. If it wasn't for Safetran being able to leverage "their" full line of "old school" products, the doors would already have been closed, but the end of leveraging yesterdays spoils is about over. The only good that can come from how poorly this company is run is bankruptcy, and therefore a new beginning.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The mandatory screensaver will also be used to detect 'non activity' from the workforce who it is deemed should have an activity >80%. However the management forgot that the type of people they are targeting are 100% active (50% work and 50% facebook) so the purpose of the exercise will not bear fruit.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

I am glad to see that my post on 'get back to work' has hit such a raw nerve. I mean every word. I am fed up with people in the office talking about this blog. It's time to focus on working hard and delivering for our customers. Do you negative whingers not realise that the markets and our customers (present and future) read this blog? Every negative comment reduces the chances of a customer placing an order with us or stops an investor buying our stock. My point is simply either stay and work hard or leave and get a job somewhere else. Its that simple, no one is forcing you to stay.

I reckon only 10 - 15 negative weirdos are blogging here and they are poisoning our well. Have you all not realised that we are in the worst economic crisis of all time? I work hard here to earn money to support my family, sure everything is not perfect but no where is. Again could you all please get back to work.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Have you really still got Kevin Riddett in charge of Rail? Amazing - when he took P&L responsibility almost 18 months ago the return on sales was round 18%, inherited from Drummond. Let's see what he comes up with on his own! If his track record here in Alsaldo is to go by then Invensys Rail is in trouble.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Mandatory screen savers ? Disgraceful. Probably a HR idea, i.e. out of touch and offensive to most employees. I thought Ulf and Larson were gone. Probably the new guy Drury with the same old ideas. This leadership does not get free spirit, innovation, creativity and success. Still chasing the same old formula approach.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The last post from Australia is partly true in that there is a lavish new facility in Melbourne which is beautiful and very expensive. Meanwhile the layers of management has increased with new appointees in the Singapore HQ, most of which, for a business this small are unsustainable. Riddett appears happy to keep recruiting and growing costs here in APAC. Obadia is invisible and we are not sure if he, or anyone is in actually in charge. In fact it's just like the old days with Phil Ellingworth still in charge.

What has happened to the CSR China deal that was much vaunted by Ulf a year ago? I know that we here in APAC haven't done a single dollar in business with them? Just hype?

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Two words. MANDATORY SCREENSAVER. What a stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid idea. What is even more disheartening is the realization that someone is actually getting paid to put such an idiotic policy into place. Unbelievable. I have no respect for this company whatsoever.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

This is to the blogger telling someone else: "You are as much to blame as the management for our problems" and "shut-up and get back to work".

If we employees have the SAME decision-making power on business, people, cash etc. everything as the Executives have, then we are "as much to blame as the management for our problems". Personally, do you expect someone else to share the negative results of your own decision if you made one? Of course, you can't - if you're an adult. Within Controls, we employees always are the first batch for redundancy caused by worse business result year by year, or some "changes" initiated by exec.teams. Any executives voluntarily leave for their decisions which prove to be bad ones?

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

I agree with the last post from the Saftran employee. According to our CEO, Riddett and our MD here in Australia everything is fine. We are in new fantastic offices that are amazing compared to the old ones. Beautiful docklands setting. Business is good and we are poised for a good year. Never seem to see our President Obadia but thats a good sign. Things are on track here in APAC. All this negative posting is wrong.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - Re: 'Typical of this blog'.

You label those of us who dare to complain about our management as 'arrogant', and then in the next breath you snort "Get back to work and shut up." Oh, the irony. You should run for President.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

What if half the stuff published on here was true? Say IOM was really in trouble with China nuclear? It's been on here for nearly a year. Equally if the information about a disaster under this Riddett guy in Asia is correct then the company would be in trouble.

Controls is what it is and is in terminal demise.

However, the IOM and Rail comments can't be accurate as something would have to be made public since Invensys is a UK publicly traded FTSE company. Officers of the company, especially Edmunds and Thomas would have to say something. Therefore the only conclusion that can be rationally reached is that it's all malicious gossip spread by ex-employees. Guidance has been on track, so clearly this must be the case. Stop the gossip.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

2012 will be the year for the Rail business. We need to focus on delivering projects to make money. That means making existing products into the cash cows. Look at all the money spent on the Interlocking series these have to start earning their keep. That means the D has to work on developing these. As for the R has to focused on the rising stars : ERTMS and Control Centers. But no more DTG-R : falling star before it was released. And no more playing with academic ideas for you Rrs.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

This is to the ignorant blogger telling someone else to "shut-up and get back to work". You only show your arrogance, ignorance and childish ways by making those statements.

1. The person never said they were going to retire, just this will be their last year at Controls. Perhaps they've started looking for a better position and positive they will find one in the near term. Could it be they've found a better position, have given notice and will be leaving. Perhaps they've learned redundancies are coming and preparing to be one of the unfortunate. In any event while they are still at the company they will state instances of lost business, opportunities and the sort.
2. Maybe the person works for or alongside you and is tired of hearing your idiotic comments - from your posting it's apparent you make them quite often.
3. How do you know it was a mister? Perhaps the person is a woman. Also, maybe this person is management or a contractor. Point is you don't know.
4. If you don't like what the person or others said, don't come to the blog.
5. Stop being jealous because someone is leaving the company and your laziness has you stuck in a rut or you're going to have to actually do your own work instead of just taking credit for it.
6. Why don't you shut up and get back to work, stop being lazy, arrogant, ignorant, negative and get a life.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - To Mr 'last year in Controls'." - why so aggressive? Are you an exec who is responsible for the demise?

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 = To Mr 'last year in Controls':

Please proceed with exactly what you had planned to do in your time left at Controls. While most of this blog contains rants against Mr. Riddet, whoever he is, there is not much mention of Controls aside from the occasional stab in the back of the so called "Washed up Key Account Manager".

There is a lot that goes on in the shadows here and we need someone to share their opinions about our "Management". You definitely are not alone and your assessment of our management is in line with what quite a few of us believe is true around here.

We have had quite a few good people leave and quite a few are looking and have been looking for the last few months. Obviously the still encumbered economy has a lot to do with those who have not found greener pastures yet, but also I believe people are looking for their next experience to be better than this one so they are taking their time to find the right position.

Based on chatter that I have heard coming through the grapevine we are due for yet another major hatchet job, and it appears that the Electronics group will be affected in a major way once again. These events tend to happen toward the end of the Fiscal Year so we are approximately 1 to 2 months out at the moment. Govern yourselves accordingly.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - To Mr 'last year in Controls'.

Typical of this blog. How about working for the last year of your career instead of spreading crass and poisonous gossip on this site? Look in the mirror, all you negative bloggers. You are as much to blame as the management for our problems. Lazy and arrogant. Get back to work and shut up. Or if thats too much for you, retire now and get a life.

Monday, January 9, 2012

You really have to question the intention of Sudipita to outsource the R&D, IT and Finance/Accounting. Almost every company sees R&D as its future. Sudipita brought most of the gangs and most of those guys have no industrial automation experience. After a little while, the gang will have hijacked the whole company.

Monday, January 9, 2012

2012 will be a very interesting year for Invensys. We've had years of claimed disasters any minute now. Here in Safetran, we have had a great two years and sales and profits are good. According to our CEO, Mr Riddett, we are in great shape and there is little to worry about.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Senior Management is all about strategy. Not the administration of the business and projects. Perhaps this is this reason for a desperate and competing collection of business that make up Invensys. Nobody really thought about what was it all about.

Unfortunately British corporate history is littered with building business to suit the stock market's very short view point and financial people make a lot from putting theses acquisitions together.

So perhaps Safetran would be better if alone as it has fallen victim to the British disease. Look at the successful manufacturing companies - with few exceptions all non-British. e.g. Nissan. Look at the companies that have managed themselves in to the ground - Rover.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

2012 will be my last year at Invensys Controls. Over my short time left I intend to chronicle all the mistakes and lost opportunities made by Controls. My main contention is that the role of manager is not just to set budgets and approve payments but to look at the world and decide a direction. That is what Controls has lacked. While our competitors like Emerson and Honeywell have developed there business, Controls has contracted. The only function the management at controls could complete was to close factories and dump product lines. This is not management this is bean counting.

Await the next installment.

Saturday, January 7, 2012 - Re:"None of our competitors have outsourced their R&D."

A few did in fact try though none were stupid enough to believe the Cognizant company's lies. Some competitors have tried to outsource, failed like every company inevitably does, and re-acquired enough of their laid-off competence to claw their way back to industry relevance.

Invensys management has yet to learn the lesson that outsourcing does not work. They believe the claims of companies like Cognizant and they accept the lying claims from managers of other companies that tried it, saw it does not work, yet continue to claim it does to avoid having to admit they were fools to try, losing millions of serious money and losing industry reputation while trying.

So yes, competitors have in fact bought in to the myth of outsourcing. Eventually Invensys management will accept the fact that it cannot work and give it up also.

Saturday, January 7, 2012 - "Final question: Can the individual companies function better or worse without Invensys lying on top of them?"

Look at Safetran Systems in the United States before Invensys swooped down and gobbled them up and look at Safetran today.

Invensys has been the death of a number of companies that used to produce quality goods and services for customers who actually wanted their products until Invensys looted the companies.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Can someone explain the frequent visits of the Invensys VPs to Cognizant? Why should they come so often? Freebies!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

For those concerned about Riddett's leadership, I suggest you don't worry. Guzman and the Dimetronic team are really running the show and Riddett seems to do what he is told.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

We need to start reversing the damage done by Sudipta before it is too late. Fire his jokers, stop futile outsourcing of R&D to Cognizant, create strong R&D teams in US. Sudipta's claim that outsourcing is going to be the new industry trend has not been observed anywhere else. None of our competitors have outsourced their R&D.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Anybody in Rail expecting Riddett to implement anything then forget it. He is on a comp package that will see him retire in wealth when Invensys gets sold. Don't believe me? Watch.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Riddett really has become a case study in Rail. Here in the US he pulled off the biggest heists ever. He and other fools think he turned Safetran around.

What actually happened is that he used HQ (UK plc) money to pay all the severance and transfer costs, together with funding an empty factory building in California for 3 years. Meanwhile the IOM factory now makes his product at best, break-even. For Ridditt a big success and promotion way above his ability. For Invensys? Probably a loss.

Now he continues to dismantle what's left of R&D in Rancho and doing the same in the UK. Are there any accountants left that can't see this stupidity? How can management get bonuses when sales values are changed the next year and money has to be paid back? Taking money from HQ and laying people off to claim savings! Does Invensys have a CEO or CFO ?

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Mike Caliel was not the main force behind that disaster (and marketing play) known as InFusion, and it's evil twin, Archestra. That goes far back to the era of Jeff Kissling and Pankaj Mody, who sold Rick Haythornthwaite on the concept and proceeded down the road of pouring many tens of millions of critical investment dollars into the sewer.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

I am not sure if IOM has implemented this LOB thing. Have anyone seen the IOM Marketing brochures changing or even evolving towards this concept?

It is a very easy thing to find out - ask all the so called IOM Technical Sales Consultant (TSCs) about what is LOB and even Infusion. If they cannot put up a convincing sales pitch to your secretary and even to the lowest level Application Engineer (AE), then it is another waste of time, e-mail bandwidth and memory space.

I am not trying to apportion any blame, but you can see how the front line Invensys Marketing people and the sales people - have all been "sleeping".

Monday, January 2, 2012

My Stock prediction for Invensys: Accelerated pressure as business softens. Stock will fall and the lower end to get serious interest 16 p. Fair price for a failing giant with just a chink of light.

Monday, January 2, 2012

What is all this line of business (LOB) about ? I understand how IOM have implemented it and what it's benefits can be. However in Rail we had some half baked announcement from Mr Magoo (Riddett ) that had no names or detail. Two months later I cannot find a manager anywhere who knows what is actually happening differently. What a load of BS. Why is Rail in this mess?

Monday, January 2, 2012

Interesting article in the Sunday Times on Invensys as a top tip for 2012. The City Money seems to be on Invensys being taken over. The only obstacle is the pensions problem. How will they fix that in this climate?

Monday, January 2, 2012

There is alternative view to Crossfield and his Cronies shrinking the business. From my perspective I've watched leaders like McPhee and his Exec team destroy IRNE with adventures in Asia. This cost IRNE tens of millions in losses. Meanwhile R&D were out of control producing out of date technology, late and over budget. Getting rid of McPhee and his team was the best thing Drummond did, although too late.

The loss of LU is a blow. However from what I'm told, at the price Bombardier secured the contract, they are most welcome to it!

This Exec team has it's weak points, notably HR, but also has some seasoned professionals that have been in the company and/or industry for years. The proof of the pudding will come from the success or failure in the Network Rail bids. Contracts with this customer, together with product sales, are where IRNE has always made its money.

R&D going to Madrid is just an example of where Mr Riddett continues to show poor leadership. I suspect the overloaded Dimetronic team will fail to deliver anything other than for their own contracts and we will end up bringing back what we need for the Northern European markets.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

And IOM think they have a problem with leadership? If you think IOM had it bad, try Riddett. Idiot personified.

What can only be described as a moronic announcement from Riddett 2 months ago stated that Rail was going to line of business (LOB). The pathetic announcement went on to mention the LOBs and rumour before hand indicated a COO model. Now 3 months later nobody has a clue, no names, no responsibilities, or accountabilities.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Under the false pretense of strategic leadership, Sudipta basically destroyed the culture of IOM and also its ability to grow as a business. He brought in very incompetent friends and business contacts to run key parts of the IOM organization. Most of these guys have managed IT services organizations in Indian companies. They have no idea about how to run US or global organizations. They all know how to talk big. Fortunately, we still have a very smart workforce (although not motivated at this time) in IOM and we can still turn the corner.

Mike Caliel is not new to IOM but people still remember his failed bid of 1-by-6 initiative. Current, the people who are most thrilled with this appointment are from the Foxboro office. They think that Mike will solve all their problems and bring back Foxboro into the focus more than the West Coast brands. Mike probably has 12 to 18 months to turn around IOM from a very sluggish and dying organization to a fast moving and growing organization. If Mike fails in his effort, he will also be out. But it is worth giving him a chance and supporting his strategy to see if he can make IOM a growing business again.

IOM R&D is in a bad shape. VP of development is focused on some useless initiatives (he claims he mastered them in his previous jobs in India). The organization is now heavy on processes and key developers are focusing on analyzing useless data for improving the performance rather than focusing on the product development. The previous VP of R&D Operations left leaving a complete mess and the newly appointed VP of R&D Operations is from the Outsourcing Office. He couldn't figure out how to work with Cognizant so that we can get the value out of the large amount of money we are paying them every year.

The other organizations are also in the similar shape. LOB structure is confusing and the responsibilities are unclear. Nuclear projects are generating negative cash flow. This requires Mike to clean house as soon as possible. If he doesn't make sizable changes relatively quickly, he will suffer the same destiny as Sudipta. Let us wish Mike a good luck and support his strategy and initiatives.

Friday, December 30, 2011

New leader of IOM: Two things stick in my mind as the announcement was made. First, this guy abandoned Invensys once - his choice, and obviously his new company didn't see great long term loyalty. Secondly, he is the architect of Infusion - in my opinion the turning point that destroyed individual brand equity. I hope the BOD know what they have done and that he needs to be surrounded with people that know customers from the outside. My bet is this latest play will not succeed.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Crossfield is a bad joke. He prances around with a high and mighty manner, surrounding himself with cronies with no experience or feel for the business. He has no strategy, despite the pathetic tough guy image. All he wants is Riddet's job; it is so embarassingly obvious.

He has gone too far stripping costs out of IRNE. We are losing our critical mass and regressing to what we were 10 years ago - a legacy supplier to UK mainline railways. This is a shrinking market - at some point in 6/7 years there will be no mainline to re-signal, it will all be finished. The ETCS and modular schemes beyond this date have much less capital cost. By losing the LU work, having no real export opportunities and moving R+D control to Madrid, IRNE is a shrinking business. All for the personal ambition of Mr Nicholas Crossfield.

Shameful, and for those who say 'get out', you forget that people like me have more than 20 years of our lives invested here.

Friday, December 30, 2011 - Re: "So what if Invensys is sold? We all still come to work":

I can't work out if you are being sarcastic or are simply deluded. If Invensys is sold, Rail Group will be decimated as they remove R&D, manufacturing and all the support functions, leaving just the contract staff to service the home market (what's left of it). That will reduce the UK division to about a third of its current size.

Friday, December 30, 2011 - Re: "Mr Crossfield's view of the business as a vertically integrated suppler, must be good for the times ahead. (?)":

I really, sincerely hope that the (?) turns out to be a (!). Not sure if I should be holding my breath though.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

It has been a dramatic year for IRNE. Mr Crossfield's view of the business as a vertically integrated suppler, must be good for the times ahead. (?) Longer term, most of the competitors cannot compete for integrated solutions, so they are likely to be take-over targets or buyers?

So what if Invensys is sold? We all still come to work. It's a crap time if you are being kicked out. But for those remaining, this year must be the start of better times.

Friday, December 23, 2011 - re:" I don't even know who Guzman is":

Actually he is MD of Spain and is the egotistical maniac who persuaded the idiot Riddett that the only people who can do R&D are Madrid. He is now reaping what he sowed as they can't cope with the work and aren't as smart as he thought they were.

Friday, December 23, 2011

If what the person who claimed that Rail is agreeing to the onerous IP demands of the Chinese is true, it is certain verification that the company is preparing for sale, cranking up short term numbers at the expense of long term viability. Mortgaging the future. However, it would almost certainly backfire if the acquirer is GE, Siemens, ABB, or any company of substance. Their IP and contracts attorneys will uncover all of these messes during due diligence, with commensurate reduction in the deal value. It is almost a moot point, however, given the manner in which future value has been destroyed during the Ulf era. Cowardly and irresponsible behavior by the ISYS board for utter lack of oversight on strategic decisions.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Apparently Riddett does whatever Jesus Guzman tells him and R&D engineers are being made redundant in the UK and recruited in Madrid. This shows the level of leadership in Rail.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

NE Rail descends into further chaos. R&D engineers are being laid off when projects are short of resources. The excuse is "outsourcing" but there are no credible partnerships in place, certainly not Cognizant. R&D management is invisible and totally ineffective in IRNE and morale is at an all-time low. Nobody knows whether they will have a job in six months time. The illness of IRNE is terminal.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Re: "people aren't being forced to stay if they hate things so much."

OK wiseguy, YOU find me a local rail industry company that's recruiting. No? Didn't think so. Relocate? Yeah that's a good idea; I'll drag my kids from their school and my wife from her job and move us all up country somewhere and wait for a year+ for my house to sell. Great idea!

Did it occur to you that perhaps we essentially like the company for whom we already work, and that all we ask is for it to be run properly? For our management to show proper vision and leadership? Like they used to, years ago?

Oh, but of course, we gutless cowards should be discussing this with that very management, shouldn't we? Don't make me laugh. Just how far do you think that would get us, apart from the end of the nearest dole queue when the next round of redundancies are announced?

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

I can't believe the damage done to Rail in the year Riddett has been in charge. Rail was 70% of Invensys profit and almost all its cash. Now a fraction of itself, it is in free fall in IRAP and I'm told failed in Denmark and Spain. Safetran are struggling from Riddetts decision to ignore pricing errors to ensure bonus payments. Big repayments needed to customers in order to balance the books. Happy holidays to all !

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Well according to Kevin Riddett, Wayne Edmunds wants to give away all our IP to the Chinese in order to boost the share price. Apparently Jesus Guzman thinks Wayne is a fool and a simple accountant that doesn't understand the business. I don't even know who Guzman is but apparently he is a big cheese in the UK.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Thank goodness someone who understands the automation business is back in control at IOM. Hopefully Mike Caliel can restore integrity and professionalism into an organisation that has no respect for its business partners or distribution channels even when they have been loyal and hard working for decades and have built up the Invensys business from scratch.

All the marketing hype from Sudipta Battacharya about ecopartners and the importance thereof was just b...t. To be awarded top growth partner in one month and then terminated the next after decades of building up the Invensys business shows a complete lack of competence. No wonder IOM is losing market share and shareholder value rapidly - our customers are disgusted and now migrating to competitors. Running a business is simple: Treat your staff, distributors and customers like kings and the business will flourish.

Good luck Mike Caliel!

Monday, December 19, 2011 - Re:"So you think we should shut and just accept what we see as poor leadership and lack direction? That we should say, "Well the company's being driven down the toilet, but hey, at least I've got a job. For now, anyway.""

Actually I have to agree with his/her point; that is exactly what you should do. The reason why people whine and complain HERE in this blog is because they're too gutless and cowardly to discuss problems with their managers in face-to-face forums where legitimate problems can be addressed with legitimate solutions. Here you're just crying in your milk.

What I don't agree with what was said is that there are no jobs to flee to; there is no good reason to stick with Invensys; people aren't being forced to stay if they hate things so much.

The irony is that every company has the same problems and issues that Invensys has, every company has a percentage of malcontents, every company has people who move from company to company searching for some Utopian greener lawn when the realities are that the people who are happiest are those who shut the frick up, do their jobs with professional commitment, and ignore the irrelevant nonsense around them.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Rail will continue it's slow downward spiral under Riddett. This man is the least respected, incompetent and small minded individual to lead Rail. His lack of intellect has made him a joke-like figure. This is a great shame as the individual companies in Rail are good with strong individual leaders. However Riddett is so far over his head, it's embarrassing. My guess is that Rail will be way down on AOP for both profit and cash. Unless Wayne does something it will get worse.

Controls? It's only going to be a story of declining revenue in the current Market conditions.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Seems IOM will change with new CEO. What's the change for Rail and Controls? In Controls, most possibly we will miss FY2011/12 AOP goals.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

It was me who posted saying that when the share price dropped to 200 or less then the big sharks would swoop in and take the meat and leave the fat to dry up and disappear.

The share price has teetered on 200-ish for some time. This surely hasn't gone unnoticed by Siemens, ABB, etc. Can anyone confirm if the old pension liability has been taken on by someone else? This can only be the one sole stumbling block preventing a takeover bid. And Wayne is getting his house in order by getting rid of yet another high profile chap.

Final question: Can the individual companies function better or worse without Invensys lying on top of them?

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Message to IOM and especially PLC management: Stop the nonsense around improving your "processes" and focus on customer jobs. You are spending way too much time and money on internal organizations, structures and inward focus. Same e-mails and meetings occurring over and over again with no traction and benefit to anyone. It's been going on for years. I hope Caliel will quickly see this. It's time to get focused on the customer and strengthen relationships.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

The only silver lining is this ugly debacle is that the value of Ulf Henrikkson's shares continues to plummet. He'll still be filthy rich despite his complete incompetence, though. The Invensys board should be ashamed of the limp way they handled their responsibilities over the past few years. Shame on you!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Caliel comes with the final blessing to Wonderware. IOM showed that the only business that matters is Controls. WW is the black sheep of the family.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011 Gary Mintchell (Editor, Automation World) blog - extract:

The challenge is that IOM is smaller than its rivals. And Emerson and ABB especially have been bulking up. Rockwell Automation has been growing rapidly, although it doesn't offer instrumentation and final control elements to go along with its control and safety portfolio.

I've had some people call who think that merely a leadership change at IOM will make all the difference in the world. I know Mike Caliel and I have much respect for him. But expectations in some quarters are running very high right now. He has a challenge, for sure.

More Analysis Of Invensys Leadership Changes

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 Gary Mintchell (Editor, Automation World) blog - extract:

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.

Another Change At The Top For Invensys Operations Management

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

We had Mike Caliel earlier and he always cut development and then left before his actions could show the disasters of not investing in R&D. Under him people in Development were laid off to show profits and he took away fat bonuses. Hope he does not repeat the same.

Despite what IOM has shown as spectacular results, our budgets are cut and very little investment is being allowed by the accountant CEO at PLC who is surrounded by another bunch of accountants. So we have to live with accountants dictating how development should be done! Our share price is down because the market knows when there is no visionary at the top!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I remember the first time I met Mike. I was in the Houston office and a very low man on the totem pole. We had about a 10 minute conversation while getting coffee. The perception at the time was that I was surprised he wanted to get to know me a little.

I don't know if he is still that way or not or even if he is still personable it will help take Invensys to the next level or not.

What I do know is that Mike has one of the leadership qualities that you cannot learn from a book or in a lecture. To me, he has the It Factor. He looks to be the man in charge and it is easy to buy into what he is selling. Well, except for 1 x 6. Or was it 2 x 6? I don't remember. I do remember that was a little silly.

We have seen a lot of bad leadership come and go since he left. Only time will tell if this is a good move for Invensys. I am glad he's back and look forward to what's going to happen under his leadership.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

CONGRATULATIONS to IOM! Sudipta is Gone. Lets reverse his worst decisions to get out of this hole. Replace his buddies, sell Skelta, Disengage Cognizant and setup or buy out another IDC in India etc.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Invensys Announcement : Mike Caliel appointed President and CEO of Invensys Operations Management
13 December 2011

Invensys plc announces the appointment of Michael J (Mike) Caliel as President and CEO of Invensys Operations Management with effect from 1 January 2012.

Mike was previously with Invensys from 1993 to 2006, latterly as Chief Executive of Invensys Process Systems, the largest of the predecessor companies that were brought together to form Invensys Operations Management in early 2009. He has over 25 years experience in the industry and was until recently CEO of Integrated Electrical Services, Inc.

He is taking over from Sudipta Bhattacharya who joined the Group in 2007 as President of the Wonderware Software division and has been the leader of Invensys Operations Management since February 2009. Sudipta has decided to leave next year to take up a new role outside Invensys. In the meantime, he will be working with Mike to ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities within the division and will also be assisting on group business development in the Middle East and Asia.

Wayne Edmunds, Chief Executive of Invensys plc, commented:

"I am delighted to welcome Mike back to Invensys into a role which is very familiar to him. He has first class experience in the industries the division operates in, our customers as well as our products and technologies. His enthusiasm and drive will now be directed to building on the division's strong market positions.

"I would like to thank Sudipta for his tremendous efforts over the past four years where we have continually shown double digit growth at Wonderware and then at Invensys Operations Management and wish him every success in the future. Invensys Operations Management has shown strong growth since its formation and Sudipta has built an excellent management team to take the business forward under Mike's leadership."

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Let us be real folks. Under Edmund's watch, the value of Invensys stock has fallen 40%. All he has done so far is just changing the BU presidents. In IOM, he forced his LOB's and now there are 3 LOB's without a lot of business!. Just wondering if the Board has any idea on what is going on. Hopefully the board will get rid of the bean counter CEO and put someone who knows about the products and services.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Good thing now that Sudipta and his merry country men and friends will be shown the door. The sooner the better. The ground-level people never really got on and along with Sudipta, simply because he puts his friends into good key positions. This is usual and you can see it happening everywhere often.

Getting Mike Caliel back may not be all that bad. I don't think Sudipta needs to show Mike Caliel "around" in the next few days or weeks. He knows his way around better.

A change is good now because under Sudipta IOM was not heading anywhere to greater things. It is just floating by and surviving. At least I feel now that it slows down the rot a little. The next phase for IOM is important.

We need to do sensible things in the organisation, developing and putting sensible products that the market that end-users wants to see and use. Re-evaluate and close down the failed R&D bed-sharing with Cognizant - the hare-brained schemes of Sudipta and his merry country men.

Stop pushing and forcing IOM projects offices to use senseless engineering centres in locations like Egypt. This is the worst place to be now. With the country in turmoil, how can you get in and out there safely, let alone the staff producing good engineering work without being affected by the political situation happening there daily?

Time will tell if the change is good now as IOM as under Sudipta. IOM is not heading anywhere to greater things. It is just floating by and surviving. Time will tell if Mike Caliel can steady the ship a little better...

Monday, December 12, 2011

It is a sad state of affairs. We write here and read this while others leave. Recently the head of HR in US left and she had some direct feedback on why people leave and she left. These are very senior execs and must know something. Two were company veterans and had been here a long time. This is experience walking away and customers and competition notice.

Monday, December 12, 2011

I think stockholders are going to be disappointed. Just bringing Mike Caliel back won't bring back the "good old days." Paulett Eberhart destroyed too much. But even before her, I think Foxboro was too small. Emerson is eating everyone's lunch. ABB bought huge market share. Rockwell is growing (might be catching up to Foxboro?) Of course, Honeywell and Yokogawa are in a holding pattern. Siemens is huge in some markets.

I think it might be good to sell or spin off Wonderware - the Foxboro people HATE the Wonderware people. But the Foxboro people are not winners. The best idea is that a Chinese DCS company buys IPS. But, who knows?

Monday, December 12, 2011

No one can really know the meaningof this change right now, but I'd guess that Wayne Edmunds does not want to invest in building IOM. So, he brings back the Foxboro guy. Probably looks to spin off Wonderware. Then pretties up IPS for sale.

Monday, December 12, 2011

With today's announcement of Sudipita leaving, Mike is back. Good thing for the business. The issue is Sudipita's gang has to leave and put the outsourced work back. Finance, IT, and all the senior level of his whole organization. He spent the past 2 and half years just getting his buddies in, without creating any value to the business.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Bloggers rejoice! Mike Caliel is back. Wayne has sent an email today saying, "He has great experience in the industries that the division operates in, our customers as well as our products and technologies. His enthusiasm and drive will now be directed to building on the division's strong market positions." Got it in one!

I have been at Invensys a long time and remember Mike running IPS. It is great to have him back.

Monday, December 12, 2011

So was Sudipta fired or did he choose to leave? I will tell you one thing though - I would not want to be one of Sudipta's "buddies" right now. They would be wise to start looking for their next job, because Caliel will clean house of them.

Monday, December 12, 2011

I am very excited to see that Mike Caliel will be back as President and CEO of Invensys Operations Management effectively Jan 1st 2012! I think there has been a void in management and I am excited to see that he's back.

Monday, December 12, 2011

BIG NEWS: Michael Caliel is replacing Sudipta January 1!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Sudipta fired last week. Usual words of thanks. Who is next as Wayne must put his own people in place? Neither that idiot Riddett or Balcunas are his boys. Time real changes to the organization as opposed to minor adjustments.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Okay, everybody, the new social media policy has been released and every one of you who posts from now on is subject to being fired for violating the new rules. So stop it. Now.

Monday, December 12, 2011

What about a march on Controls Headquarters? "What do we want; We don't want the Management flying to Hawaii for a week of Beer Drinking when R&D Engineers are being retrenched. When don't we want the management flying around the World? Now.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Perhaps we could have own Arab Spring at Controls. Over throw all the incompetent rulers we have suffered under for all these years. We could march on Carol Stream, shouting "What do we want; not some washed up sales guy running the place. When don't we want him? Now".

Sunday, December 11, 2011 - Re: "stop your complaining about IR, stop your incessant whining."

So you think we should shut and just accept what we see as poor leadership and lack direction? That we should say, "Well the company's being driven down the toilet, but hey, at least I've got a job. For now, anyway."

What breathtaking arrogance. People don't blog about the good products and services because *that's what the company is supposed to produce*. What would be the point of blowing a trumpet and ignoring the fact that the trumpet is dented and falling to bits?

Sunday, December 11, 2011

It's clear that the cost of Cognizant engagement with respect to value added is much higher than what was anticipated. Sudipta needs to put forward figures of Value added divided by Cost for Cognizant Teams and its comparison with other Invensys R&D teams to justify this engagement.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Cognizant is a complete FARCE. Shabby and costly work; Incompetent people; unproductive Project Managers and an onsite team consisting of a "Director", a "Senior Manager" and a handful of engineers who mostly sit idle! And on top of it a Senior Director!

Sudipta - accept that this relationship is failure.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Completely in agreement with several opinions on IOM and the HR in IOM. We have so many directors, senior(?) directors, VP's flying around the globe and wasting $. Added to that, HR is also flying around and giving sermons. IOM is completely rudderless, clueless on how to run the business. When we will get rid of the incompetent layer on TOP?

Friday, December 9, 2011 - Re: I cannot get decent PC workstations; lack of investment in tools and software"

I completely AGREE with the referenced weblog. It is the same in every country!

Resourcing Directors travel for 1 day visits and what are they achieving? Spend enormous $. IOM is STEADILY going down. Stuffed ex IT space guys everywhere incl. BU heads who do not have ANY idea of the market, customers and business. HR Director located somewhere keeps traveling around the country so that by weekend he can be at his place ( a distant city). BU head who keeps traveling all over the country with irrelevant people and other D's traveling continuously for their OWN personal gains! What an organization !

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Share holder said, "If I am evil for believing in your company, then I am uncertain why you want be there. Your shareholders are your biggest supporters."

Two things: First, MOST people remain at Invensys despite being hacked off because there are no jobs worth jonesing anywhere else that they can go to though many stay because they really are dedicated and still love this heartless conglomerate despite all. Second, if share holders really did give a bloody good damn about the health of Invensys, why are the share holders allowing IR to turn in to an outsourced third-rate corporation with all the inevitable sixes and sevens?

The last time Invensys Royals graced us with their omnipresence here in IRNE, we got the impression it was the share holders that are driving the failed attempt to outsource in a bid to squeeze more shillings out of this tea bag before share holders finally go crawling to China to dump the desiccated remains, waiting only for the ruling elite to sort out the pension mess among themselves.

Far from caring about the health of Invensys, share holders seem to be greedily sucking the life blood from the company in a vampiric glutton fest the likes of which that's got a couple of million Yanks screaming in the streets of NA about. Greed far too easily explains the state of the company far better than an endless series of hapless cock ups.

I may be a half soaked peon with the IQ of a Royal but it's greed, so far as I see, not incompetence.

Thursday, December 8, 2011 - Regarding the Shareholder comment -

I am the shareholder that posted the comment. I invested in the business for a number of reasons. First the company was undervalued when I purchased the stock. Second, the business was able to demonstrate that it could move the top and bottom line in the right direction. You can't have those things happening without good people working for the company. I am assuming that there are still good people in the business and the poor results are due to lack of focus and leadership.

As I stated, it is time for change, IOM and Rail are moving in the wrong direction and neither leader has demonstrated the ability to change it. There are some large funds that control the ownership of Invensys, they need to apply pressure to Wayne to adjust. If I am evil for believing in your company, then I am uncertain why you want be there. Your shareholders are your biggest supporters.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Good contribution, things could be worse, come and work for Invensys Controls. A washed out sales guy running the place, washed out products, and all the wrong projects being undertaken. Yet there still seems to be money for senior management to fly around the world in Business Class.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Yes most of management know how serious things are in IR APAC. We are being told from Riddett in Kentucky to cover it up. Our COO here in Melbourne is waiting for his pay off. Damage to Invensys? Over 30 million Aussi dollars. Riddett or Obadia ? Never seen either.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

According to the Spanish the IRNE R&D redundancies are going to be over 100 people. Contacts in Spain also quote Riddett saying that Wayne is going to give all our intellectual property away to the Chinese in order to get business. Apparently both Riddett and the Spanish think Wayne is a fool to do this. To be honest they might be right.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

I laughed out loud when I read the posts on Riddett. I came across this blog by accident and as a former Pirelli NA employee I have experience with this individual. Let me guess, he is completely confused by any complexity? Has no ability to lead or motivate ? Seems to have limited intellect? Is clueless on his financial data? Changes his mind daily? It was this that got him fired in Pirelli. I don't envy the Rail part of Invensys.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Forget about any leadership from Riddett. The man is the weakest leader of Rail ever. He still has, after over a year as firstly COO and then CEO, no idea about a contracting business. It's quite difficult to become a global joke, but from what is posted here and talked about openly, Riddett has achieved it. How long can Wayne ignore it? The results will show Riddett's inability. This will reflect on Wayne.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

You know what, stop your complaining about IR, all of you people who still have a job, stop your incessant whining. Good grief, you think it sucks working for Invensys? Well, step outside and take a look around. For every one of you complainers there are 150 qualified engineers who would love for you to step aside so they could have your job.

None of you bother to blog about the quality products and services that IR provides to customers, nor do you blog about the customers who appreciate quick and timely IR support and solutions to field problems, much of which IR provides to rail customers for free.

And another thing, look at you, everyone who is still with IR. You're with IR because you're dedicated, committed, and you have what it takes to develop products and provide services in an era where only the best quality engineers have survived, all of which places YOU at the top of the heap so far as engineers go.

Forget HR, ignore IPMS, work around Cognizant and smile because you should be happy and appreciative of where you are and appreciative of your skills that remain marketable.

I don't check this blog often - yet every time I do it's constantly negative. Well, this is the last time I'll bother checking the blog, I get enough complaining from my wife, ha!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Does anybody know how serious things are here in Australia? Forget about IPMS or our HR Directors bad behaviours. Major projects are deep in the red and nobody seems to be worried. Where is the leadership? I don't even know what Obadia looks like let alone Riddett. The latter seems to think he can lead a global organisation from Kentucky.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

It is a quite strange the situation of IOM Brazil. While Honeywell, Siemens , Schneider, Rockwell and other big companies are growing at least 10% a year, Invensys IOM is falling down with poor management. Seems that they want to brake the company to sell quick to other big group.

Unfortunatelly we won RNEST refinery project 3 years ago. This project is causing terrible problems of cashflow and it will be a disaster in the end with the probably biggest loss of the company around the world. Invensys should investigate more this project regarding bribery and corruption and they will find that our Engineering Director made a fortune of more than US$ 2milion in the last two years protected by the Managing Director.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Seen the latest in the know for IRNE Technology. Whats with this company? Keeping the same failures in senior positions. Will these people ever learn to be leaders and managers? They need to change their behaviours: start to produce some valued output to the company. What about the interface from R&D : who are these people? Perhaps this exclusive club keep themselves in the jobs.

Pity about our customers not getting what they contracted. Pity about the 30% of R&D UK that will get the boot in the new year.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Well, if you think Sudipta was bad, then talk to the analysts that listened to Rail. Kevin Riddett is a laughingstock. What's with these CEO titles? I expect they are a leftover from Ulf's strange planet.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

I worked for Invensys Plc 10 years ago during the Yurko and Haithornewaite tenure. It wasn't picture perfect, and even then things were often quite out of control. However what is going on these days, if the blog is to be believed, OMG!

I left the group in 2005 when Ulf installed a VP of IT in the business unit I worked for at the time. The guy wasn't just clueless about how to run an IS operation, but also managed to bring in his children as well as friends as temps, giving them tasks travelling the world doing simple tasks whilst clocking up airmiles. Stuff that the hard tried perm staff would have killed each other for, to get to do. I couldn't sit and watch this ludicrous behaviour of a senior officer, so I left and I have never looked back. Being part of Invensys though thought me a lot which I am still banking on as an independent consultant, and I can only say to the people who cares about their work situation as most bloggers here clearly do, GO somewhere else. There are plenty of companies around that need people who has a genuine interest in the running of a company, and who is prepared to do their bit. Invensys mistakenly became the playground for big guys with big ideas, and it has gone tremendously down hill ever since.

Friday, December 2, 2011

I see the sustained campaign against the IRAP HR Director in Melbourne. I'm wondering what she's done that is so dreadful. When you make your list, just be sure to exclude stuff that is just about doing her job, like handing out the rubbish she's handed down from HR disaster central.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Well, it seems that the investment community saw right through Bhattarachya's shallow pronouncements at OpsManage. Down 20% as a result. Emperor SB has no clothes.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

I have worked for Invensys Rail in Australia for more than 20 years. Back then we were Westinghouse Brakes and Signals. Our business is falling apart with total mismanagement and absence of any leadership. Obadia is hardly ever seen and Riddett is completely invisible. The latter has been here once and made an idiot of himself. Embarrassing doesn't come close. How does Wayne put up with this?

Thursday, December 1, 2011 - Re: "As a shareholder of Invensys, there is only one problem":

Oh I'm sorry Mr.Shareholder. How selfish of us to be concerned about our job security and the future prospects of our employer, when your only real area of concern is the dent in your portfolio. Thank you for pointing out what we should *really* be worried about.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

"There is no progress without dissent". Do it collectively - Chuck out the HR Director, she is past it and do it pdq, and we'll be in pretty good shape going forward.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

As an IOM employee, I was wondering how Invensys as a whole can still function properly. There are so many things that are broken and under-invested for the engineering offices.

The basic list :

• I cannot get decent PC workstations to load and test my systems software, let alone have a decent one myself.
• Lack of investment in tools and software for the current day engineering office. The biggest embarrassment in an IOM engineering office is that it does not have decent basic document control management tools.
• I have not seen or met any of my supervisor's boss. He is sitting on his bump in another city.
• Strange for a company like Invensys that there are not any town hall meetings by VPs on general directions, strategies etc. The small panel shop supplier with a small staff does quarterly meetings by the owner to his workers. Sudipta doesn't even do any of this. All he does is to send e-mail messages. I hope he does not make another one of those laughable "SPIRIT WEEK" videos again.
• Six months ago, after the employee survey, a list of tasks were generated chaired by a senior manager. Now it is end of 2011, has anything been implemented?
• My engineering office has NO IT support. Period. The original IT support has been relocated elsewhere. We ended up with an unclear IT support plan. When a call is made to some IOM IT outsourced Indian company, most of the time, they are half lost.

Money has been put in by the imbecile IOM management to churned out "IT initiatives" from iPMS, iHR, iConnect, iGrow, ibuy, isell, iForum etc. With so many websites, sharepoint sites etc...that we needs to have different password access. I am not sure what the UK based IT cooperate VP is doing but with such an unclear IT plan and confusion planning, I find it almost laughable.

Like all of our higher echelon leaders, we only get e-mails. Everything is "faceless and is in phantom and in spirit". You can only see these people in person during sales conferences like Ops-Manage events.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - In response of to the blog, "Shareholders aren't all evil monsters..."

I just like to add this:

• Invensys is unable to attract better candidates as they can sense the incompetent leadership provided by these incompetent VP.
• At the same time, incompetent VPs will most probably hire incompetent people, who will be of no future threat to expose their bosses' incompetentleadership.

At this current level, if these shareholders are happy with the current share prices, then I would say they are incompetently evil to subject us, the few competent employees, to such imbecile leadership.

If you believe what Invensys' board of directors are saying about tough situation and it is difficult to make decent money, then think again. Look no further. Look at Emerson. It is a similar company to Invensy. Emerson has been paying dividends to shareholders I believe for the past 30 or so more years? As a shareholder, wouldn't that be your first and foremost aim ?

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

That's rather unfair saying that Cognizant is pretty much worthless. Cognizant can help - provided what they do isn't R&D engineering and instead focus on something that they are qualified to do.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - Re the 'hark at the shareholder':

WHAT THE .... no wonder Invensys is in such a mess if it employs people who don't realise who their customers / owners are. Man - do you not realise Invensys wouldn't even exist without them? Shareholders aren't all evil monsters.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Cognizant/IOM safety ODC Managers are paid only to talk about "Innovation & Innovative Ideas". One should be a very good A**licker to get promoted. If you are very good A**licker, you know when you will get promoted - may be 6 months in advance. Decisions are made in Smoking zones & Bars not in Team meetings. It is the only place where 15+ yrs & 5+ yrs got promoted as Managers in a revision cycle! 2 Sr Manager, 4 Managers for one/two projects!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

With the APAC restructuring now moving ahead, the question many staff are asking is what is to happen with the Melbourne office. They have little work on their books and are very reliant on our Queensland business to keep them a float. With changes having been made in Projects, R&D and Engineering, its time that Marketing & Sales, HR and Finance took a serious look at downsizing their numbers to a realistic amount of staff. What we need is quality staff, not quantity.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Hark at the shareholder. The only reason you remain is probably the loss to you is so great. So don't pontificate on this blog. If you are big enough put pressure on the executive leadership. That's why we post here. You have a different avenue and frankly we probably don't care if you lose your shirt.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

IPMS very cute, but in LatinAmerica we are still waiting to receive SIP Q1, Q2 and Q3 ... The organization is completely destroyed, Brazil and Mexico are set on fire, the management does not respond, it hurts to see a region with such good talent this drift by their managers.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

I think it is now time to remove the main obstacle to setting up a decent way forward for IRAP - make the HR Director redundant. In one go, costs will be cut, morale will improve, and the directors can get on and run the company without being scared to act. We in HR will suddenly have the freedom to support the company instead of confusing it and slowing it down.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

IRAP at last is making progress with its change management plan. We have lost a large number of talented staff (experience), we have lost a large amount of money key projects (mis-management) and now we are moving the staff responsible (Head of Projects & Commercial gone, Head of Engineering moved sideways and others to follow).

The staff we now have in control, don't know or what to do to win and deliver work. Except for Queensland that is where the Brisbane team is kicking goals and is the company's savior. It should be the head office, not Singapore

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Where is there so much talk about IPMS. The system works and is required to ensure that management get their annual bonus. Its one in the year that my manager actually talks to me, but leaves me to fill in the required fields. She then just approves it - and life goes on in HR.

Monday, November 28, 2011

There is a lot of complaining on this blog. As a shareholder of Invensys, there is only one problem - the value of the stock continues drop. I am sure there were lots of issues with Ulf at the helm, but the stock price increased during his tenure. Since his departure, the stock stinks. Sir Nigel and Wayne E need to get the share price moving in the right direction. There are a number of large shareholders that need to get pressure on the Executive Leadership. Sudipta, Kevin, etc... Start adding value, or step aside. I want a return on my investment and this team doesn't appear to have the ability to deliver.

Monday, November 28, 2011

The same issues apply to the Controls Division. Over the years we have lost all the talent as the business shrinks. It is easy for a so called manager to cut costs and reduce staff but it takes a different kind of talent to grow the business. Controls is now run by a washed out sales guy.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Well, that's the stupidity of the IPMS complete for another few months. Lets see if we can concentrate on delivering work now before another brainless email comes in. During the recent mid year a number of our team were in the middle of critical deliveries. We were told in no uncertain terms that the completion of the IPMS must take precedence over all other work. What a sad state...

Sunday, November 27, 2011

What is Invensys paying Cognizant for? Late, shabby and costly work; Incompetent staff; unproductive Project Managers and an onsite team consisting of a "Director", a "Senior Manager" and a handful of engineers who mostly sit idle!

The payment made to Cognizant should purely be based on productive work done and we should not be paying for every idle or incompetent Cognizant employee. As frustration grows, Sudipta needs to explain what productivity this Cognizant engagement provides us and at what costs.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Completely in agreement with several opinions on IOM and the HR in IOM. We have so many directors, senior(?) directors, VP's flying around the globe and wasting $. Added to that, HR is also flying around and giving sermons. IOM is completely rudderless, clueless on how to run the business. When we will get rid of the incompetent layer on TOP?

Friday, November 25, 2011

Wow - the number of director roles being created is out numbering the doers that make it happen!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

By talking to many people who work very hard for the business, they felt the HR reward system is totally a joke. People or business unit which has good result does not get reward properly. It is a flat reward system, at least were implemented that way. The APAC region is the worst area that the HR function there is totally a joke.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

What future has the Controls plant got in Plymouth UK? Making commodity thermostats in England cannot be effective. Shame as I think the world will turn full circle and manufacturing jobs will be valued in Europe.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

With Invensys shares rapidly re-approaching a 5 year low, clearly no one with a brain is buying the 20% growth story as anything sustainable. There are fundamental problems with the company that need to be fixed, ones that go far beyond the pension issues. The current executive team has bled the company dry and now has no other way to sustain profitability. The product pipeline is virtually empty. The management team is incompetent. The customers are confused. All of these factors influence the share price, which reflects future value.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Anyone know what Wayne has been doing lately? Is Invensys being actively shopped around?

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Can anyone explain the organisation in Rail? Who exactly is running R&D ? It was a global function with CoEs. We then had a VP for Europe and he has vanished along with the global SVP. Now apparently we have something called lines of business that report into Madrid and this includes R&D. I have yet to find anyone who knows what this means, how it works or can put a name to a role. It has been 8 months of confusion. Forget about IPMS we don't have any clear ownership or accountability. Riddett's amateurish announcement doesn't have a single named person/responsibility in it and is adding to the confusion.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Is there any future for us in Controls ? It's been over 5 years of closing factories in the US and Europe. Orders, sales and profit down each year. The global financial crises looks to be here for a while? Any interesting jobs seem to be moving to China. Looks like time to move on.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

What ever happened to CSR, the Chinese train company that was apparently our partner in Asia? At one stage Ulf even spoke to the press about them buying Invensys. Well I'm a manager in IR APAC and am not aware of any business with them past or present.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The challenge with IOM is that they refuse to promote the good offerings they do have under the brands that have industry credibility. Foxboro, Wonderware, Triconix, Eurotherm were market leading names - and trusted. IOM has destroyed the go-to-market path for Wonderware across the world by mixing direct sales (via amateurs) with the proven distributor channel. They should look at their own "workflow" first.

Monday, November 21, 2011

The challenge at IOM is simple. We lack the Global talent to truly leverage our offerings, even if they are mediocre. We are even getting picked off in our sweet spot. See Rockwell press release regarding SK , an area that used to be dominated by Triconix. We hear lots of new people coming, yet we won't take the step. Our share price continues to wither. We are in a Global industry yet we refuse to accept and adapt.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Rail is in real trouble, only under a fool like Riddett doesn't know it yet. It took over 6 months for this idiot to even visit us in APAC after being made COO. During this time things here in Australia fell apart. It was clear to all even then that we're sitting on a A $20m problem. Riddett sat in Louisville for almost 8 months before visiting and then didn't see what he was told. APAC in Rail is rotten and the real hit will be A$30m. Our Indian operation is also totally ridden with corruption. What a mess!

Monday, November 21, 2011

IPMS has never worked since it was introduced. It changes every year so that you are unable to do a 1 to 1 comparison. A few years ago several depts. were instructed to drop all engineersâ assessments by one grade. There has never been a clear process of the output and it is not reviewed by higher management or HR unless you end up on the "at risk of redundancy" then it is avidly used. I hear they want to bring in performance-related pay.Why should some be down graded when they are allocated tasks when project managers are already aware that the individual has more tasks than hours in a day, with support and resources are lacking. That does not equate to under-performing etc. As for growing skills etc, that's only applicable to the select few.

Monday, November 21, 2011

First half results were positive, probably better than most, and yet the price keeps dropping. What is it that the analyst are seeing that is driving down our share price considerably more than the FTSE?

Sunday, November 20, 2011

After all these "good news" with orders, will the lower end of the food chain get a little bit better pay increment? The last one I got was "insulting" to say the least.

The IOM HR in our world area thinks that salary scale survey data released by a professional engineering board is all "hog-wash". The HR (especially the HR VP) can continue "to ignore" this but the salary data surveyed are supplied and provided by employers and employees, factored in with market sentiments. The data surveyed are very valid and transparent as it was coordinated by the Engineering Professional Body.

You hire good people and then when they get a head turning offer, people will leave. We ended up an IOM engineering office with bodies but with no in-depth knowledge on the products. You have the blind leading the blind. People gets frustrated, they leave and the same hiring cycle comes on again.

So finally what's the point of having projects with no skilled people to work on them? The IOM HR, together with the hiring managers are really slow in making offers. I bet that this "Sudipta thing on hiring people that will not threatened their future" can have some basis.

Upper echelons VPs like to sit on these things and micro manage whether I can take this internal course or which airlines I can fly. That is why Invensys is a "stagnated" company, even though fortunately, Invensys still have one or two products that can still sell to the world.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Extracts from "Industrial Automation Insider" - November, 2011

Invensys half year results

The Invensys Group half year results were published on November 4th. Sudipta Bhattacharya, president and ceo of IOM, commented on these in his keynote speech and in separate discussions later. IOM is undoubtedly the star in the Invensys crown at the moment.

IOM sales revenues were up 21% for the half year at GBP 618M, driven by a doubling of the income from large projects, now 17% of the business. Orders were up 4% at GBP 599M: however, during FY2011, last year, there had been a significant order from China Nuclear in this first half, boosting the overall order intake level - by excluding this contract value, the 20% growth in base business orders shows the IOM position is "surprisingly strong" with the "order base distributed across a broader range of customers".

Saturday, November 19, 2011

While the Invensys management team is trying to tease the city with nuclear wins and rail potential projects in China, do not forget that the China rail is getting bankrupt and urgently asking their government for GBP100billion to pay for the vendors and keep the current rail running. So do not count on make any money on China deals. The China cards are outdated.

Friday, November 18, 2011 - Re: The Uk guy we should have offered the job to run IOM

I gave him the go-ahead too from the USA. I used to work with him and he is a real Global growth guy. I hear though that Sudipta thinks he may be a threat to his future and so he has just swept the issue under the carpet. That's what happens here at IOM.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Perhaps we are looking at IPMS from the wrong perspective. Managers were once an important bi-directional link between corporate layers. They provided feedback and advice to those above and below them. Then the managers became overburdened with demands from above. The two-way communications suffered between managers and the people they managed. They no longer provided the advice that guided employees to grow their skills in ways that mutually benefited both company and employee.

Along comes IPMS, a low-cost substitute for certain managerial functions. The theory may be good but the execution is a failure. Instead of helping the managers do a better job of managing their people, it seems this important facet of management has simply been abandoned. There does not seem to be any evidence that the managers are doing a better job. In fact, there seems to be less communication, rapport and common purpose than before.

IPMS is not the disease. It is a symptom of a mis- or un-managed company.

Friday, November 18, 2011 Re:"No sales mean jobs are going. No profit means jobs are gone. Simple as that."

That is not entirely true, or I should say, not the whole story. Whole companies under Invensys have seen layoffs and plant closures despite being profitable, some of them despite being profitable for decades.

It's greed that drives the layoffs. Already obscenely wealthy shareholders want more and more and more, and the health of the corporation is utterly irrelevant.

Friday, November 18, 2011

I think people are mis-guided when it comes to IPMS. The system is fine and the start process is fine. BUT when it comes to final grades, the top levels of management in IRNE order managers to grade staff according to a distribution curve rather than what is real. So a team cannot have 50% that exceed expectations. My question is: why not? If they are well led and managed and they are motivated to do a good job, then surely they should and would be above average. But to then be told to re-grade people downwards to suit a demographic is rather pathetic and ill conceived.

Friday, November 18, 2011

The stock declines because we can't get rid of the massive pension liability in this market and the fantasy profit forecasts made by Ulf and Co and sold to the City have inevitably run out of steam. These two things mean a break up is inevitable.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Recently there have been lots comment about IPMS. As a tool on performance appraisal and development plan, I think nothing wrong with its role. I think there are problems on implementation and commitment from managers, so stir defensive / negative reaction from employees. Back to something common in Invensys, sometimes maybe strategy is a right one, but we always are failed on execution. I don't think top guys who are sky-high thinkers will add true value to the company, show your values also on execution and commitment. Talking and meeting resolve nothing.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Riddett sent out a new "announcement" today indicating that he has put Jesus over the new Global Business Development Team In Charge Of Global Development Of Business (GBDTICOGDOB). I'm glad Jesus is taking this on and helping us.

I think most people are actually really happy with the Executive Staff here at Invensys and are really hoping they keep the same team in place for a long time, especially since many of us will be working for competitors within weeks!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Crossfield's presentation might not have been riveting. However it was about the results and so your future. You might want to listen more and try and understand this is a business not a charity. In manufacturing, no orders mean jobs at risk. No sales mean jobs are going. No profit means jobs are gone. Simple as that. Manufacturing has lost the equivalent of a whole regional office in jobs so far this year. It's tough right now and we need to cut costs to be competitive.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

I'm not sure about the US or Australia, but in the UK today's HR function came from what was known as Personnel. An unpopular term today. Personnel were mostly people from the business functions that understood the business.

From the late 80's early 90's came Human Resources. Mostly the start of abstract and systematic approach to people management. Some good things and largely still in touch with the actual business.

Then in the last decade we've seen those that actually know the business in HR disappear. The function has become a proscriptive process model with no link to the industry, people, market or customer. Under self-obsessed lunatics like Larson and Henricksson this went to new levels where the target is to hit a number rather than a result. We are still living with this as HR are completely leaderless with no will to change.

I'm not looking to the past. But if we are to have a future then HR need to know they are a support function and it's no use filling an engineering company with HR people from financial services.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

No one should be surprised that Crossfield is a complete luddite. He was always a hatchet man for Network Rail. No real feeling or empathy for the business or what our true value is. A pure numbers man with no clue about people or how to motivate them. No idea about technology and not a strategic bone in his body. He has also brought in a very strange bunch of commercial and financial types in his image who do not deserve to be senior managers of this great company. He is clueless about R&D and the value it brings. And no, I don't work for R&D. It's interesting that Crossfield is dismantling the IRNE organisation bit by bit. When he took over we had issues but were growing and had ambition and focus. Now he presides over a sinking ship, inevitably becoming a legacy supplier to Network Rail. Perhaps that was always his plan, and the senior people in NR who sponsored him to get the job in the first place. Sad, sad times.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

So many negative comments and it's easy to see why - the Invensys share price compared with the FTSE 100 is an indicator of something not being right. I think the demographic within certain business units is a problem Ñ a predominantly middle aged male engineering team and a [relatively] youthful female HR team aren't exactly going to gel nicely: theory and practice colliding head on. The IPMS issue is also a serious one Ñ local objectives that bear no relation to the overall business goals and not knowing who else has the same / similar or even conflicting goals is a problem. The idea that we should all have measurable objectives is a good one but make them team goals and change the system Ñ remember Deming said that 95% of failures are caused by the system and not the individual

Thursday, November 17, 2011

An employee appraisal and development program is a good thing. The HR driven box ticking system does not add any value as the vast majority, I bet almost all employees use it twice a year, i.e. MYR and FYR. Box ticking does not add value. Being driven to complete all employees simultaneously to some meaningless date is pointless. As per usual the Invensys HR machine has no real idea of employee motivation or development. Just a mechanistic approach to people management. Doesn't work. If this was the only HR problem we'd be relieved but the organisation is basically corrupt, recruiting friends as consultants at extremely high rates, and acting extremely 'flexible' when it comes to managing their own staff. The HR leadership is totally incompetent and out of touch.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The share price is now below 200. First half results were respectable. What is causing the stock to continue to decline?

Thursday, November 17, 2011 - Re: "ÉHR isn't driving this; business best practices are simply being followed."

Oh puh-leeze! First off, IPMS is worthless, it's not a "best practice," it's a costly, useless fad that derives zero benefit to anyone. There is zero actual benefit in IPMS.

Secondly, if HR is not driving IPMS, we need to find out which of our company's competitors sabotaged us with that thing so we can see if we can saddle *them* with something equally hideous to kill *their* morale as fitting punishment.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

I am a UK employee and three months ago there was light at the end of a tunnel. Finally we were going to employ a real good guy to run IOM . I even gave him a reference. Now we haven't gone back to him - no yes, no no. We have missed a golden opportunity to employ a global guy that really could make a difference.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The IPMS issue seems to be a serious issue for a few employees. It takes very little time to complete the IPMS and it is one of the responsibilities that come with my job. When I see people bitching about it over and over again, I have to wonder if all they ever do is complain. It is really quite simple. This is your job. Do it or quit. It's not as if you were pressed into service at Invensys and forced show up every day. Things change. Businesses mature. Every company I've ever worked for uses a system just like IPMS except for the grocer where I carried bags to cars as a boy.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011 - To the previous post on IPMS/ HR.

You mentioned that the only person who would think IPMS would be a HR Exec OR an imbecile. Surely they are both one and the same? An HR exec is always a common sense imbecile.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

I'm resolutely not HR, but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with IPMS. In particular the competency section is excellent, and the new development plans are well conceived. It's hard to do a development plan because it needs self scrutiny but it creates an excellent means of structuring training.

Where there is a big problem, and I think this is really what is at issue with the comments, is that managers are so pushed with the day job that IPMS comes as a major imposition and there isn't time to get the reviews done properly. And then HR are coming in with threats and nagging reminders and so the whole thing is done as fast as possible and not well. The process changes every year so no-one has a clue what the process is (the training is 2 hours of someone reciting a powerpoint in a dull monotone on a webinar).

Also there is the suspicion that development plans won't be backed up with actual cash for training - individuals don't even have a budget to buy books, why not give everyone $100 to buy material against a dev plan? The iGrow system is a waste of money from top to bottom and the standard courses usually irrelevant or poor, and the only way of finding out is to do the courses so no-one bothers, there is no guidance or review. And as for the iGrow development path: well personal board of directors? Puhlease! No-one has the time to do that consistently, result = no-one bothers at all. Junk it and train properly against dev plans. Goodness knows what we pay for iGrow, but let's save the money and have a party with it, would be better for everyone.

Probably counterproductive to put dev plans and competency assessment into the review leading to raises too. That puts the employee immediately on the defensive when criticised, and you need constructive criticism to develop people. But there has to be normalised scoring in any raise review system which has an overall budget, and exceptional performance is, well, the exception. Good performance should be expected.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Yawn! Got to say that the constant whining and moaning on this blog is becoming extremely tiresome. Anyone that actually tries to say something positive about Invensys is instantly labelled a member of the exec.

Major changes are needed at Invensys; could do a lot worse than getting rid of all the dead wood and the moaners and start populating the business with people who have a 'can do' attitude.

And before the accusations start, no, I'm not on the exec and I'm not HR. I'm an engineer who has experience of working with several suppliers. Invensys has a lot of potential, but all the negativity simply holds it back. It is becoming endemic.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

All this negative talk about IPMS is depressing. Typical of Invensys and IRNE in particular. There is nothing wrong with setting goals and measuring how we are doing against them. Sure the tool may have issues but at its core its about line managers sitting down with their staff on a regular basis and getting the best out of them. No I don't work for HR; could not care less about HR or the people who work in that department. I am an engineer who wants to improve and be the best I can be. The negative stuff about IPMS comes mostly from 'past it' middle band engineers who have been here too long and do not want to take responsibility for the people who work for them. Pathetic, grow up and take responsibility or step aside and let someone else have a go.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The IRNE MD made it very clear today in his incredibly boring business briefing that he just sees R&D as an overhead and that he is quite happy for it all to go to Spain.

He will rapidly find out that Spain only ever serves Spain, and the contracts he has to deliver will fail through lack of local knowledge and second in the queue support. By which time the competent engineers in IRNE R&D will have left, and I include myself in that group. Tragic, absolutely tragic. What a waste of so much knowledge.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

IPMS is like a scam get rich quick scheme that was 'sold' to an exec. Instead of get rich quick the metaphor was 'steer your rudderless ships' and get 100% loyalty from all employees/ corporate 'citizens'. In years to come a book will be wrote about this and the true wastage disclosed, although it will probably come from the genius who 'sold' it to the idiot.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Why the racist comments about the IRAP President and his town hall speech? You native Aussie accents aren't as easy to understand as you might think, 'mite'. Give him a break. He's trying hard to make things better.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

We are all slaves to the IPMS tool. Hitting our numbers for compliance metrics is much more important that actually having a decent conversation with our team members.

Assuming HR are actually professionals who want to add value, they should take the hint and back off the control freak settings and all that creating the document trail to make it easier to fire us. Just make it simple to comply and people might actually spend their time talking to each other rather than deleting the corporate spam.

Monday, November 14, 2011 - Re: "I don't understand all the complaints regarding IPMS."

That must be a HR exec and from the wording 'ship without rudder' it must be the IRAP HR director. Seriously, do you really think anybody will buy that post. Only a HR exec or an imbecile would believe that IPMS is a good thing.

Please will someone in a position to stop this finally take it on the chin and kill this thing before it truly kills any morale left within the group. If I put my true 'Medium term goal' in this nonsense it would read 'leave the company to avoid this'. Seriously, myself and many others complete CPD folders as part of our profession, why oh why make us do this BS!

Monday, November 14, 2011

"Any business groups or regions are really benefitting from HRSD? etc. With ex CEO and CHO leave, we local HR expect something will be improved really to support business, as well to make HRs work more efficiently. While till the date, there's no any change indeed at all. We just observe that new hires coming to fill the holes by previous redundancy. Seems HRSD is a do-and-redo approach only."

Marvel at the English! Astonishing how this person made it into HR and has the gall of talking about business strategy. IPMS - Is HR driven contrary to the HR person who likened it as an opportunity to re-assess and target goals etc. It is a KPI driven monopolistic exercise purely for the exec to earn brownie points and secure bonuses. The employee reviews and results are pre-determined based on a quota. In fact it is all about ensuring employees do their "day job" as one recently departed exec put it.....

Town Hall talk and empire building in Singapore - Complete balderdash....

Monday, November 14, 2011

So here we go again. R&D goes from it's 100+ year history in IRNE to Spain. Stupidly it's going under the previous leader that totally failed to deliver. Clearly Riddett is just all talk and Jesus Guzman is really running the business. What a lack of leadership we have!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Unfortunately the HR machine developed by Ulf and Paula hasn't been disbanded yet. In IR we have almost daily instructions from a faceless HR SVP who knows nothing about our business. The result is that boxes will be checked and the reviews will be a waste of time. Quantity not quality. Shame.

Monday, November 14, 2011

I have now heard it all (for a second time too!) Ex colleagues who still work for Invensys (IRNE) who I e-mail out of friendship (I left a year ago) are now saying 'please e-mail me at home because my e-mail account is being monitored'

I know it is happening but haven't the so called leadership got anything better to do than be paranoid - we are not talking about you in e-mail for gods sake, we do that in the pub. It is a really sad day when a simple one liner to a friend can no longer happen. Does that mean all the workers get their lunch breaks back? I doubt it.

Sad place Invensys - real sad

Monday, November 14, 2011

Person in England was moved up to Senior VP. General Manager and previously Director was by passed; a few technical directors will be moved up within 2 months.

This company has a problem. Upper Management is not technical. The Chinese are not happy with progress. They need to bring in top level people on contract at Director level. I have a list of people who are top level consultants managing projects ON TIME including myself. The email I gave I seldom use but I will talk to someone senior level or above; if someone wants to fix the company please leave me a phone number. Believe it or not you even have people in the company who can do the job but I am not sure HR or upper management knows who they are.

HR takes to long to hire the best people most of whom are gone by the time they make an offer that is often far to low. Some person up top is preventing the company at Management level from hiring contract consultants as Project Managers and Directors which means the best people will not work for Invensys Systems because it is all about money. Money makes money and it takes the best people to make money.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Any business groups or regions are really benefitting from HRSD? With ex CEO and CHO leave, we local HR expect something will be improved really to support business, as well to make HRs work more efficiently. While till the date, there's no any change indeed at all. We just observe that new hires coming to fill the holes by previous redundancy. Seems HRSD is a do-and-redo approach only.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Continue on IPMS. It's becoming a process and tool demotivating employees instead of motivating them to work hard for company. It seems an advantage for the manager to control some of his reports, especially when he wants to be dominating the process to screw them out. We are out of track on quality performance management and motivation.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

I don't understand all the complaints regarding IPMS. HR isn't driving this; business best practices are simply being followed. This gives us all a chance to check our own progress and ensure we are on target for the year. I actually look forward to it (mostly) as a time to assess and reset my priorities. Sure it can be a pain, but any ship left without a rudder will simply drift (sweet metaphor if you ask me).

Monday, November 7, 2011 Re: "ÉLook in the mirror and ask yourself how is the morale at IRNA? POOR!..."

That is *so* untrue and unfair! We haven't had another suicide for three months now, so long now that the carpets have not needed to be cleaned since then. Morale is improving!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

The IRAP President gave a town hall on Friday. It was a total joke. He thought he was funny, but it was impossible for us native Aussies to understand him. He must accept his empire building in Singapore is a drain to the business. If he will not listen and tighten his belt, why should he expect the real workers follow him? Mr. President, please practice what you preach or don't bother to give another town hall. If you do, many of us wont come (tune in )and listen to your garbage.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

According to the article in Businessweek, it looks as if it is only a railway software and washing machine controls company! That much is the visibility for Sudipta's IOM. And CFO says"Invensys hasn't received any approaches from the likes of Siemens, Chief Executive Officer Wayne Edmunds said". Another bloomer. Saw lots of stuff on IPMS. There is a "development plan" which needs to be filled up. And the manager is expected to discuss this and finalize during the MYR. The BOSS just looked at it and signed off. No discussion AT ALL. So why do this?

Friday, November 4, 2011

Who the hell said we like IPMS at IRNA? IPMS, another brilliant brain fart. That is right up there with outsourcing of payroll to NGA, who continues to screw up and remains the payroll vendor.

Friday, November 4, 2011 - Re: Aaaaaaaaaaarghhh. This IPMS nonsense has arrived again!

Just a word of warning: It might seem like nonsense, but it is used extensively when your job is at risk and then followed by redundancy.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

So then, revenue up 7%, profit up 2%. While there are problems, are you going to update your absolute negative statement in the summary of the business. Anyone who reads your summary would have completely the wrong perception of the business. Bet this won't be posted!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

What is it with HR in this company? I am being threatened to ensure we meet irrelevant mid-year review numbers, yet nobody is bothered that we are behind in sales, profit and cash! What is important? HR seems to still have a priority well above their importance.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Invensys Pension Deal Hampered by Market Conditions, CFO Says

According to this article in Businessweek, it appears that yes, Invensys is for sale. It also appears from this article that Invensys is only a railway software and washing-machine controls company.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

This chart says it all:

Comparison of Invensys shares versus FTSE 100

Massive amounts of shareholder and employee/retiree value are being destroyed on the watch of the current leadership. It is time for a housecleaning before there's nothing left of what was once a proud and valuable organization.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Aaaaaaaaaaarghhh. This IPMS nonsense has arrived again. Is there anything more morale destroying and wasteful as the 'emperors new clothes' which is IPMS.

Looking at the recent email from the IRAP president it seems the only sector who has shown any interest in this crap is IRNA. If they like it thats fine but please save the rest of us from it. And no more talk of it 'helping us to deliver to customers needs'.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Poor R&D seems to be an Invensys Core Value. At Controls all the engineers who knew what they were doing were sacked and all the R&D is being moved to China. Nothing against Chinese engineers, but they have no experience and hence nothing is produced. Then they move the guy who ran China back to run North America. They put a washed out sales guy in as President. The end result is a company run by idiots.