CHEManager's Dr. Volker Oestreich visited the Emerson Global User's Exchange in Dusseldorf from 29th to 30thMay and talked with Steve Sonnenberg about Emerson's ambitious goal to become their customer's "most trusted advisor".

CHEManager Europe: In the US, the Emerson Exchange has grown over the past couple of decades to an important event with thousands of participants. The first Emerson Global Users Exchange dedicated to Europe and the Middle East here in Dusseldorf has attracted about 1,000 participants. Are you satisfied with this event?

Steve Sonnenberg: Yes we are, everybody here at Emerson did a great job and I would like to thank our Emerson Exchange Board of Directors. They have volunteered countless hours, weeks and months to make this event a reality. Like all of us, they already have full-time jobs, so their work was a labour of love to bring a world-class conference to all visitors, by users, for users.
And since this event has such a personal character, we want to provide our customers and business partners, who are our shareholders in a manner of speaking, with an update on our company's performance and strategic direction. I believe it is important for our shareholders to know the things our company is focused on, not out of arrogance, but instead out of a sense of stewardship. Because our customers don't simply buy products, they are placing their trust in our company.

What exactly is Emerson focused on?

S. Sonnenberg: Two years ago, during our Emerson Global Users Exchange in the United States, I committed that Emerson would focus on two important things in the future: First, that Emerson would continue to invest in areas that we believe will bring our investors value and secondly, that Emerson would strive to be an organisation that listens and acts on what we hear. It's only by listening and understanding our customer's problems that we can work to provide a solution.

Can you give an example for this "listening & understanding" philosophy?

S. Sonnenberg: Well, you can't listen if you don't ask, so we asked our customers. One thing that came out clearly was that Emerson offers great technology and has very good people, but our response times are sometimes too slow. This is one reason Emerson is investing so extensively in manufacturing and service facilities around the world. So we can respond faster and better. My leadership team and I are also identifying other areas we can improve on, ranging from our quoting process to delivery.

Alongside your "listening & understanding" philosophy you said investments play an important role in the company's strategy. How much courage is necessary to make investments in such nervous times, with an ongoing financial crisis not only in Europe?

S. Sonnenberg: After the downturn of 2009 and now the European debt crisis, it is clear that the world is indeed a very small place economically. Markets around the world can affect each other in profound ways and very quickly. With a nervous economy, it is common for companies to become fiscally conservative.
Emerson's position on investment takes a very long-term view. In fact, it has been our policy to invest, even in the darkest of times, to ensure we come out of those downturns in a position of strength. We challenged ourselves to do this in 2009 and 2010 and as you will see, it has helped us to do just that - recover from a position of strength. Emerson is not being timid when it comes to investment in this industry; in fact, we are investing at unprecedented levels.

Which markets are you focusing on?

S. Sonnenberg: Emerson is very much a global company, but in the past few years, we have placed an even bigger emphasis on becoming more local. We have added manufacturing facilities in Russia, Sweden, Turkey, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Brazil and Dubai. We have also added regional service centres in multiple locations in Europe, as well as Abu Dhabi, Qatar and three in China. 2012 will continue to see major investments in regional manufacturing and customer support centres, including new or upgraded facilities in cities all over the world. Regardless of the location, they all share a common theme -position Emerson to be the most responsive, supportive local partner to customers.

Just a few days before your last Emerson Exchange event in the U.S. in October, the tragic flood in Thailand occurred. Emerson and its customers were directly affected by the flooding, since shipments were delayed. How did your react to this tragedy?

S. Sonnenberg: There was much we did not know at that time, as the flooding had just happened days before. But we did know that our production shipments would be affected due to the supply of electronic boards. So in the spirit of transparency, I announced this delay during the opening of our Emerson Exchange event, in front of 3,000 people. Not exactly the way you want to open a conference with your customers.
We are now receiving full shipments of almost all of our boards and we plan to reduce our overdue backlog in the next several months. I am proud of the 1000's of Emerson employees that worked tirelessly through these many months to minimize the negative impact to our customers. Implementation of risk mitigation plans, started prior to the flooding, have been significantly expedited since to ensure that we will have one of the most robust supply chains in the industry.

You announced the delay "in the spirit of transparency". A new Emerson guideline?

S. Sonnenberg: Well, it's pretty simple. Emerson has one, very clear goal: To be our customer's most trusted advisor. We don't want to just supply cool technologies and services and give a positive spin. We want to be transparent and genuinely desire to be part of the inner circle of all of our stakeholders: We want to be the people you turn to with your toughest challenges, with the confidence that you will get our best, each and every day. And to achieve this, we have to earn our customer's trust each and every day.

Companies normally try to earn revenue, not trust.

S. Sonnenberg: The thing about trust is that it's not a milestone. It's not a static position you strive for and then once you get it, you keep it. Trust is a daily commitment. It's earned each day and it's at risk of being lost. It's true each day in our personal relationships and it's true each day in our business relationships.
It's actually become a pretty common word, which many of us use in everyday speech. Like a lot of things today, you could argue that the word trust has become overused. But if you look at what's happening in politics, the news or financial sectors, is trust still alive and well? I'm not so sure.
Being trustworthy includes the small things as well as the big ones. It can be as small as being on time to a meeting, or following up on a task from that meeting or as big as delivering on time a very large, complex order. It means only committing to a product delivery date that we are confident we can hit. This is why we are adding production and support locations all around the world - to give us the ability to meet the schedules you demand and do it with the confidence of knowing we will keep our promises.

Does this philosophy influence your products as well?

S. Sonnenberg: Our customers are in everyday contact with our products, so of course we are focused on earning trust through satisfaction. We try to satisfy our customers by using our Human Centered Design approach. In 2009, we introduced the idea of "Conquering Complexity" and applying the science of Human Centered Design to every product we develop. I'm proud to say that no automation supplier puts greater focus on ease-of-use and improved usability than Emerson.
But creating great technologies and products by themselves is not enough. To get the full value, they need to be integrated with existing assets and often this involves many different types of technologies working together. That's why we are placing even greater emphasis on integrated application packages in which we pre-bundle solutions across multiple product groups to minimise the work our customers have to do.

What are your personal highlight technologies presented here at Emerson Exchange in Dusseldorf?

S. Sonnenberg: Among lots of new technologies, let me just mention two of them: Our Combustion Control System with True-Energy technology and our recently introduced Rosemount Wireless Acoustic Transmitter, which allows the operator to monitor steam trap leakage. Both innovations can help customers, who want to improve their energy management. The creation of energy - steam and electricity to run plants - can account for 30%, even 40% of the operating budget. That's enormous! Imagine putting a percentage point or two to the bottom line just by not wasting energy or being smarter about how to create it. A plant may be wasting millions of dollars every year in energy management and these two technologies can put it back on the bottom line.