ABB and the global market

Competing in a global environment implies that the authors previous business environment has been less than global, and there are indeed changes underway that lead to a more universal environment. But, there are still differences between regions and especially between the mature economies in the OECD countries and the rapidly developing countries, of which a majority are in Asia. For the OECD countries, the time after World War 2 and up to about 1970 was a period of unprecedented growth. Rebuilding after the war and a general growth of the use of electric power required high investments in power systems and caused a booming market for equipment suppliers. After a trend break in the beginning of the 1970s to less than 40 GW 10 years later, then slowly increased to about 50 GW today. At the same time, annual capacity growth in developing countries increased from less than 20 GW to about 50 GW, i.e. the same level as in OECD. This means that ABB is now passing a cross-over point: from now on less than half of their global market is in their well-known OECD world. And this share will continue to shrink. ABB is now restructuring to fulfill market needs in less developed, developing, and newly industrialized countries. This is the most important change in their global environment is addressed in this article