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ABB’s new boss, Björn Rosengren (61), has just started his new job and is already facing the world’s biggest crisis. But that doesn’t bother him. After all, it was the “best job in the world” and he lived in “one of the most beautiful cities in the world,” said the Swede by birth in his first interview with the “NZZ.”
The only downside: his new wife, Cecilia, is trapped in Sweden. Due to the blockade, he is denied entry to Switzerland.
The Swede already knows Switzerland very well: in the early 1990s, the father of three, who started his new job in March, was living in Switzerland with his wife at the time. At the time I was working for the Swedish welding technology group Esab.
Fewer employees at Oerlikon
The new ABB chief wants to keep the Zurich-Oerlikon headquarters slim. Responsibility must be delegated down, Rosengren said. “My approach is to keep core global functions small,” he says. “It will be small but nice in the future.”
But it shouldn’t work without the solid headquarters. Management continues to set the rules, issue instructions, and make sure teams adhere to them, the new boss explains. Before ABB, Rosengren worked for the Swedish industrial company Sandvik.
Global core functions have already been reduced from 17,500 to 1,300 in the past. Many positions have been relocated to individual departments. Overall, the 130-year-old company has 17 business units in areas such as robotics or electrification. ABB operates in more than 100 countries and employs 147,000 people.
Emotionless
Although in ABB the last and current quarter also When sales decline, the new boss remains optimistic. And he looks at China. “There was a strong recovery there in March, and things are going better for us now than a year ago.”
The secret of his leadership is for Rosengren to keep his emotions in check. You shouldn’t fall too much in love with the business you’re in, he explains. “You have to do it without sentimentality,” he says. “It helps to have a stranger like me.”
The blanket falls on his head
As much as he likes Zurich, he worries after weeks of confinement. He is usually a busy manager. He’s been trapped here for a month now. “That makes me a little uneasy.” (SDA / vnf)
