MOVING FORWARD TOGETHER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

By Tarak Mehta , president, Motion business area, ABB  

"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself." – Henry Ford 

For ABB Motion , 2023 was by far our best year in terms of performance, and not just from a financial point of view. From a leadership perspective, these results make me very proud. However, let’s not forget it’s people, their energy, hard work and commitment in delivering for customers & partners to grow the business which makes this level of success happen in the end. I take this occasion to share a few insights, so you can benefit from our learnings. 

Walk the talk  

At ABB Motion, not only do we stand for productivity in a low-carbon society, but we like to show that we can walk the talk. Last year, we achieved our environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets on GHG emissions, Female Leaders and Lost Time Incident Frequency Rate (LTIFR). Notably, in terms of safety performance, we did not have one single serious accident. A reflection of the efforts and practice put in by the teams to keep our most precious resource, our people, safe.   

Break the status quo 

We already know what happened, so I rather focus on the future than the past. A business cannot just sit back and rest on its laurels, so you must ensure to invest in your future, to continue making a difference and staying competitive. Amongst other things, it means investing to develop competencies and capabilities to build winning teams. At ABB Motion: Every day is a school day. This is how we strive to build a culture of Continuous Learning, where employees develop skills and knowledge for their current and future roles, grow their careers, and realize their full potential.  

In addition, it can be a long-term commitment to research and development. In 2023, our seven divisions have increased their research & development budget by 20% for instance, so we can innovate and push the boundaries of technology to contribute to energy efficient, decarbonizing and circular solutions for customers, industries and societies. 

Bring value to your customers  

In short, creating customer value means offering a product or service with attractive benefits that outweigh its cost. Enabling customers to do more with less by improving their energy efficiency is one of our goals. For instance, in 2023 we successfully launched a new Energy Appraisal tool that is able to assess complex motor-driven systems to determine optimum energy efficiency setups for our customers. Using the tool we identified an average energy-saving potential of 31 percent per motor across 2,000 motors assessed. These findings provide compelling evidence for both the financial and environmental benefits of using our leading technology. 

As a global leader in motors and drives, in 2024 we will continue to create value for our customers and partners through our domain expertise, technology and services to optimize energy use, improve safety & reliability and achieve precise control around the clock. Moving forward together, we can go further.