On Working for the Europeans
AEG's Head Office on the Main River
But all good things must come to an end. In 1985 they did. It had been decided that the Westinghouse Drive Control Systems and Factory Automation departments were to be sold. Siemens and AEG were among the interested parties. Dave Armstrong, Massaro’s predecessor, was responsible for the sale and was a pleasure to work with. He was the ‘father’ of the distributed control technology that set Westinghouse ahead of its competitors. I worked with Dave during the due diligence phase and, finally, AEG from Frankfurt and Berlin was the winner. AEG had several other automation related subsidiaries in the USA and it was at times a painful process to merge personnel from each side into a new organization, which would be headquartered in O’Hara Township a few hundred yards from Westinghouse. Luis was not to be among those who made the transition. Gordon and I were offered signing bonuses to stay with AEG for, at least, the first year.
Typical of the buildings on Hohenzollerndam
Somewhat unwisely, a decision was made to house all of AEG’s remaining facilities in a new factory and office building to be built south of Pittsburgh. As AEG we continued to sell our systems around the world, perhaps most significantly, a major system with SMS Dusseldorf to Tata Iron and Steel. This resulted from the excellent relationship we had with SMS from both the Wheeling Pittsburgh and Nucor projects.
As mentioned, we did bid on Keith Busse’s Steel Dynamics projects but our beloved Chief Financial Officer, who fancied himself as a master negotiator, managed to infuriate Bain Capital to such an extent that no amount of superior technology could prevail. Siemens, realizing the fantastic opportunity, won the contract for Steel Dynamics and for many subsequent CSP installations.
Ultimately, in 1994, Daimler Benz, five years after The Wall came down, which had been sheltering AEG Berlin for years, decided it had to go and we were sold to Cegelec, itself an amalgamation of major French and British Companies. So we had four different technologies: Westinghouse’s, AEG Berlin’s, the French technology from Paris and the British former GEC technology.
It was decided in Paris that the automation technology to be offered would be determined by the geographic location of the project. This might have been great for Cegelec’s management because it avoided the need to make a difficult decision which would please practically no one; but, for the world’s foremost mechanical equipment supplier, it was a source of extreme confusion and aggravation and, strangely, since we the Americans had the closest working relationship with SMS, I was told by them that this needed to be sorted out. When SMS worked with Siemens, they worked with the same people, the same methods of documentation, one location and one single technology. When they were to work with Cegelec there were four sets of people, four approaches to documentation, four entirely different technologies and four different locations. Nuts! The management in Paris was persuaded that we needed either to merge two or more of the technologies or, preferably, select just one to go forward with globally. This required the wisdom of Solomon, as babies did not cut well. Naturally there was intense politicking. As seemed inevitable, the least technically competent person, me, was selected to present the concept of what was required to Cegelec’s senior management or, maybe, board members in Paris–they never identified themselves.
And so began the period of my life when I became Chairman’s Preferred on US Airways and crossed the Atlantic just about every other week between Paris, Berlin, Rugby and Pittsburgh, comfortably traveling in the small but luxurious First Class cabin of their 767’s.
There were four of us in the team assigned to reach a consensus on technology and how it was to be presented to the presentees, whoever they were; all of us were strongly sales/customer oriented and after many meetings, in their respective parts of Europe, a consensus was beginning to form. Since I was to be the presenter and had to design and prepare the presentation, I was keen to have the final version agreed and ready several days before the deadline in August 1996. I set up camp in Cegelec's offices in Massey, close to Orly Airport and stayed at a hotel within easy walking distance of both the offices and the Metro.
The presentation was ready for just one more review with our Parisian boss, my good friend Bruno Le Bars. Almost immediately Bruno stated that I couldn’t possibly say what we had all agreed I would say regarding the technology merger. I think one of our French team members had gone behind the rest of our backs to tip him off; it was the most important point of the presentation and showed the direction in which we could proceed toward having optimal technology with the least development cost. I protested, but was overruled. The presentation had to be revised. I must have changed the presentation in such a way that there remained a small hint of what we really had to do technologically; when we got to that part of the presentation, one board member was astute enough to pick up the unsaid, unwritten. Instead of challenging me, he skewered Bruno with precisely the right questions, which, unfortunately were very difficult to answer without revealing the only logical conclusion.
Naturally, the outcome of the presentation was a decision to do nothing. Several years later after Cegelec had declared my services no longer required, still no action towards a merger of technology had been taken and still SMS was reluctant to work with Cegelec.
The AEG Berliners were among the most delightful people to work with and it was always a pleasure to travel to Berlin for meetings at their offices on Hohenzollerndamm. The big boss was Hartmut Hensel and one of his senior managers, Heinz Plaetrich, taught me a lot about Prussian history supported by visits to the places in and near Berlin of particular historical interest. Berlin is a great walking city and walk Heinz and I did. I made many other friends in Berlin. Among them Dr. Eckherd Raatz, whose great technology was so appreciated that Cegelec transferred him to their headquarters in Paris. Hopefully, that technology became the adopted standard.
Back in Pittsburgh, we were led by a very boisterous Australian. I was Vice President of Sales. It was good working with Ralph, but that didn’t last forever and Ralph was returned whence he came. His successor—a parochial American with whom I was not particularly compatible: I was very much an internationalist and he appeared to prefer to stay at home. Perhaps he resented the jetting about that I was required to do, but that was my job. Through my travels, I seemed to have far more contact and interaction with our chiefs in Paris and Rugby; clearly this would be a problem. After Ralph’s departure, I was again vulnerable and one day in 1997 I was invited to move on again. And so I did.
As mentioned, we did bid on Keith Busse’s Steel Dynamics projects but our beloved Chief Financial Officer, who fancied himself as a master negotiator, managed to infuriate Bain Capital to such an extent that no amount of superior technology could prevail. Siemens, realizing the fantastic opportunity, won the contract for Steel Dynamics and for many subsequent CSP installations.
Ultimately, in 1994, Daimler Benz, five years after The Wall came down, which had been sheltering AEG Berlin for years, decided it had to go and we were sold to Cegelec, itself an amalgamation of major French and British Companies. So we had four different technologies: Westinghouse’s, AEG Berlin’s, the French technology from Paris and the British former GEC technology.
It was decided in Paris that the automation technology to be offered would be determined by the geographic location of the project. This might have been great for Cegelec’s management because it avoided the need to make a difficult decision which would please practically no one; but, for the world’s foremost mechanical equipment supplier, it was a source of extreme confusion and aggravation and, strangely, since we the Americans had the closest working relationship with SMS, I was told by them that this needed to be sorted out. When SMS worked with Siemens, they worked with the same people, the same methods of documentation, one location and one single technology. When they were to work with Cegelec there were four sets of people, four approaches to documentation, four entirely different technologies and four different locations. Nuts! The management in Paris was persuaded that we needed either to merge two or more of the technologies or, preferably, select just one to go forward with globally. This required the wisdom of Solomon, as babies did not cut well. Naturally there was intense politicking. As seemed inevitable, the least technically competent person, me, was selected to present the concept of what was required to Cegelec’s senior management or, maybe, board members in Paris–they never identified themselves.
And so began the period of my life when I became Chairman’s Preferred on US Airways and crossed the Atlantic just about every other week between Paris, Berlin, Rugby and Pittsburgh, comfortably traveling in the small but luxurious First Class cabin of their 767’s.
There were four of us in the team assigned to reach a consensus on technology and how it was to be presented to the presentees, whoever they were; all of us were strongly sales/customer oriented and after many meetings, in their respective parts of Europe, a consensus was beginning to form. Since I was to be the presenter and had to design and prepare the presentation, I was keen to have the final version agreed and ready several days before the deadline in August 1996. I set up camp in Cegelec's offices in Massey, close to Orly Airport and stayed at a hotel within easy walking distance of both the offices and the Metro.
The presentation was ready for just one more review with our Parisian boss, my good friend Bruno Le Bars. Almost immediately Bruno stated that I couldn’t possibly say what we had all agreed I would say regarding the technology merger. I think one of our French team members had gone behind the rest of our backs to tip him off; it was the most important point of the presentation and showed the direction in which we could proceed toward having optimal technology with the least development cost. I protested, but was overruled. The presentation had to be revised. I must have changed the presentation in such a way that there remained a small hint of what we really had to do technologically; when we got to that part of the presentation, one board member was astute enough to pick up the unsaid, unwritten. Instead of challenging me, he skewered Bruno with precisely the right questions, which, unfortunately were very difficult to answer without revealing the only logical conclusion.
Naturally, the outcome of the presentation was a decision to do nothing. Several years later after Cegelec had declared my services no longer required, still no action towards a merger of technology had been taken and still SMS was reluctant to work with Cegelec.
The AEG Berliners were among the most delightful people to work with and it was always a pleasure to travel to Berlin for meetings at their offices on Hohenzollerndamm. The big boss was Hartmut Hensel and one of his senior managers, Heinz Plaetrich, taught me a lot about Prussian history supported by visits to the places in and near Berlin of particular historical interest. Berlin is a great walking city and walk Heinz and I did. I made many other friends in Berlin. Among them Dr. Eckherd Raatz, whose great technology was so appreciated that Cegelec transferred him to their headquarters in Paris. Hopefully, that technology became the adopted standard.
Back in Pittsburgh, we were led by a very boisterous Australian. I was Vice President of Sales. It was good working with Ralph, but that didn’t last forever and Ralph was returned whence he came. His successor—a parochial American with whom I was not particularly compatible: I was very much an internationalist and he appeared to prefer to stay at home. Perhaps he resented the jetting about that I was required to do, but that was my job. Through my travels, I seemed to have far more contact and interaction with our chiefs in Paris and Rugby; clearly this would be a problem. After Ralph’s departure, I was again vulnerable and one day in 1997 I was invited to move on again. And so I did.