ABB's New ABCs

Global engineering, industrial-automation, and energy technology companies take note. With ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd.'s newly flattened structure -- its regional management units were dissolved last September -- there's no doubt that President and CEO Goran Lindahl is serious about making the Swiss-Swedish engineering and technology group "a faster, more knowledge- and service-based global company." Specifically, Lindahl intends to develop market leadership as industrial-control systems, deepwater oil and gas exploration, and intelligent electrical systems.