CHICAGO GANG OF 4 TARGETS AZERBAIJAN OIL
Azerbaijan’s president visits the U.S. later this month, and his itinerary includes a side trip to Chicago, thanks to the urging of four area companies. Why are execs from FMC Corp., Amoco Corp., Motorola Inc. and Caterpillar Inc. so eager for face time with President Geidar Aliev?
Oil. There’s lots of it in the Caspian Sea, and somebody has to drill for it. Why not Amoco, with equipment and infrastructure courtesy of Caterpillar and FMC and communications by Motorola?
But it’s also part of an agenda to remind the world, particularly developing countries, that Chicago–and Chicago companies and Chicago money–is here.
“They always go to Washington where they want to hustle money, then they go to New York,” said James McClung, vice president of worldwide marketing for FMC. “They need to come here. These companies in Chicago are global in scope and they have foreign markets.”
Top executives of the four companies courted Aliev individually, McClung said, but part of the strategy is to demonstrate how companies can join forces on a huge project.
“It used to be one company bidding against another company to get business,” he said. “Now it’s one group of companies teaming with another group of companies to get business. Azerbaijan is not going to give all the oil and gas to Amoco or Exxon or anybody else. You’re finding that competitors are teaming up.”
The four companies are more complementary than competitors. Amoco has the drilling expertise, FMC provides much of the machinery Amoco would need, Caterpillar can build the infrastructure–from new roads to new schools for kids of workers who’d move to the area–and Motorola has the communications equipment to keep everybody in touch with the world.
“We see all the countries of the former Soviet Union as needing a lot of the things that we can do,” said a Caterpillar spokeswoman.
Aliev is scheduled to be in Chicago Aug. 4 and 5. The Mid America Committee is planning a lunch to introduce the prez to movers and shakers.
Totally PC: Chicago-area companies are nothing if not PC–as in “personal computer,” not that other thing. PC Week magazine has come up with the “Fast-Track 500” companies that are doing the best job of adopting new technologies. Many are not in obvious “high-tech” industries.
No. 1 was BOC-Gases of Murray Hill, N.J.
Area names in the top 20 include:
No.2, Medline Industries Mundelein; No. 4, GATX Corp.; No. 6, Hewitt Associates; No. 9, Woodward Governor Co., Rockford; No. 11, Nalco Chemical Co., Naperville; and No. 16, Steelcase Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich.
PC Week says these companies are trendsetters and are indicators of what innovations will be routinely adopted by business.
Clean out your garage: Bosch Power Tools is looking for the oldest Bosch jigsaw (or of its predecessor, the Lesto jigsaw) in the U.S. The occasion is the Chicago company’s 50th birthday.
The winning oldie will go on permanent display at the U.S. headquarters of S-B Power Tool Co. on the city’s Northwest Side. In exchange, the owner will get a Swiss watch (the jigsaw was invented in Switzerland), a year’s supply of Swiss chocolate and the latest model of the tool.
If you think you’ve got the winner, please don’t call us. Send a picture of the jigsaw along with its serial number and model number to Jigsaw contest, Bosch Power Tools, 4300 W. Peterson Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60646. You have until Oct. 31. Oh, yes: Don’t forget to include your name.
Merger momentum: Coopers & Lybrand concludes that after a merger, rapid transitions, rather than a slow-but-sure approach, achieve best results.
A survey, “Speed Makes a Difference: A Survey of Mergers & Acquisitions,” finds that only 8 percent of the companies said their merger met the goal of cutting costs, especially manufacturing costs.
