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為自救,,這家公司開(kāi)始制造“世上最強(qiáng)大的”量子計(jì)算機(jī)

Robet Hackett
2020-05-27

這家陷入困境的工業(yè)巨頭把軟件和科幻式計(jì)算機(jī)作為轉(zhuǎn)型契機(jī),。席卷全球的新冠疫情會(huì)讓它的革新陷入停滯嗎,?

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霍尼韋爾正在開(kāi)發(fā)量子計(jì)算機(jī),后者的處理器比今天的超級(jí)計(jì)算機(jī)還要強(qiáng)大,。圖片來(lái)源:COURTESY OF HONEYWELL

要怎樣你才愿意坐飛機(jī)去出個(gè)差呢?

差不多所有渴望經(jīng)濟(jì)復(fù)蘇的公司,、政府以及受市場(chǎng)驅(qū)策的個(gè)人的心頭都?jí)褐@個(gè)問(wèn)題。除了航空公司和飛機(jī)制造商,,最不顧一切地要找到答案的可能就是霍尼韋爾了,因?yàn)楹娇蘸教焓腔裟犴f爾最大的業(yè)務(wù),。從飛機(jī)發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)到后備電力系統(tǒng),再到駕駛艙操縱裝置,,霍尼韋爾的產(chǎn)品無(wú)所不包,,現(xiàn)在它正在積極開(kāi)動(dòng)腦筋,尋找讓人們重新登上飛機(jī)的辦法,。

霍尼韋爾首席執(zhí)行官杜瑞哲認(rèn)為當(dāng)前的局勢(shì)和9.11恐怖襲擊后的情況很像,當(dāng)時(shí)也有許多人覺(jué)得航空客運(yùn)再也不會(huì)反彈了,。杜瑞哲在北卡羅來(lái)納州夏洛特市的辦公室召開(kāi)了視頻會(huì)議,身邊還放了一瓶普瑞來(lái)洗手液,他說(shuō)自己的團(tuán)隊(duì)已經(jīng)有了一些主意,。杜瑞哲堅(jiān)定地表示:“在我看來(lái),人們會(huì)去坐飛機(jī)的,。”

霍尼韋爾已經(jīng)在為美國(guó)國(guó)家儲(chǔ)備提供口罩,、手套和其他防護(hù)物資。該公司對(duì)羅德島一家護(hù)目鏡制造廠進(jìn)行了部分改造,,以便滿足迅猛增長(zhǎng)的N95口罩需求,?;裟犴f爾設(shè)在亞利桑那州的一家工廠也進(jìn)行了同樣的改造,。只要醫(yī)療服務(wù)機(jī)構(gòu)和其他“必不可少”的部門(mén)獲得了充足供應(yīng),霍尼韋爾也許就可以開(kāi)始為航空公司的員工以及乘客提供防護(hù)物品了,。

圖片來(lái)源:500_ranks_web

這是第一階段的方案,。但杜瑞哲認(rèn)為霍尼韋爾還可以做更多工作。

問(wèn)問(wèn)奎?達(dá)拉拉就知道了,。這位霍尼韋爾高管生在越南,長(zhǎng)在澳大利亞,,她的任務(wù)是構(gòu)建霍尼韋爾快速成長(zhǎng)的軟件類(lèi)業(yè)務(wù)。達(dá)拉拉指出,,霍尼韋爾可以利用自身在空氣過(guò)濾和化學(xué)消毒劑方面的專(zhuān)業(yè)能力讓機(jī)艙變得更為潔凈。她的團(tuán)隊(duì)正在探索的課題是將傳感器和霍尼韋爾的旗艦型軟件Forge結(jié)合起來(lái),,從而對(duì)機(jī)艙空氣質(zhì)量進(jìn)行監(jiān)測(cè)和管理。達(dá)拉拉說(shuō):“我們把這項(xiàng)技術(shù)用在了本地醫(yī)院的系統(tǒng)中,?!?,也就是霍尼韋爾銷(xiāo)售的制暖,、空調(diào)和空氣凈化控制系統(tǒng),“我們正在想辦法把它應(yīng)用到飛機(jī)上,。”

另外,,還有一些更大膽的想法,。其中之一是在飛機(jī)上安裝可以殺死病毒的紫外線燈,。在這批乘客下飛機(jī)后與新一批乘客登機(jī)前的間隙,,也許可以用強(qiáng)烈的紫外線照射機(jī)艙內(nèi)部,,從而消滅所有傳染源。

還不清楚這些想法中是否有能夠成為現(xiàn)實(shí)的,。但從這一系列有聲有色的主意中可以看到過(guò)去幾年霍尼韋爾是怎樣轉(zhuǎn)變思路的,或者說(shuō)它關(guān)心的主要問(wèn)題已經(jīng)從運(yùn)營(yíng)效率以及向客戶提供“沉默”但可靠的工業(yè)零部件轉(zhuǎn)向把突破性技術(shù)和自動(dòng)化軟件放在最重要的位置上,。1955年《財(cái)富》500強(qiáng)名單問(wèn)世以來(lái)霍尼韋爾一直榜上有名,,這家有著134年歷史的大型企業(yè)正在進(jìn)行全面技術(shù)革新,。

霍尼韋爾CEO杜瑞哲

杜瑞哲表示,,軟件對(duì)霍尼韋爾來(lái)說(shuō)代表著“新的肌肉”,,他還指出,,軟件對(duì)該公司今后的增長(zhǎng)而言至關(guān)重要。達(dá)拉拉更是一針見(jiàn)血地總結(jié)了其中的利害關(guān)系:“如果不能在所有工作中自然而然地想到軟件,,在某個(gè)時(shí)候我們的增長(zhǎng)動(dòng)力就會(huì)消失,,而且會(huì)變成非常沒(méi)有吸引力的公司,。”和其他一些來(lái)自煙囪工業(yè)時(shí)代的公司不同,,霍尼韋爾財(cái)力較強(qiáng),因此有賭博的資本,。它手握90億美元現(xiàn)金,可以毫無(wú)顧忌地冒更大的風(fēng)險(xiǎn),,因而也有可能獲得更大的收益。

但由于新冠疫情爆發(fā),,再加上衰退就在眼前,霍尼韋爾的這些宏偉計(jì)劃立即遇到了一個(gè)巨大障礙,。作為該公司最大客戶,飛機(jī)制造商和航空公司都在滑坡,,而且可能需要好幾年才能恢復(fù)過(guò)來(lái),。霍尼韋爾的另一主要收入來(lái)源——石油行業(yè)則因?yàn)槭蛢r(jià)格的歷史性暴跌而處于崩潰邊緣,。寫(xiě)字樓業(yè)主很難收到租金,,大型酒店空無(wú)一人,,這讓霍尼韋爾在智能建筑技術(shù)上的投入看起來(lái)不那么靠譜。

CEO杜瑞哲想為霍尼韋爾的現(xiàn)有工業(yè)產(chǎn)品注入技術(shù)元素,。圖片來(lái)源:PASCAL PERICH

當(dāng)然,以前霍尼韋爾曾成功地度過(guò)困難階段,。它走過(guò)了大蕭條和二戰(zhàn),,而且成為那個(gè)時(shí)代最出色的股票之一,這在一定程度上要?dú)w功于霍尼韋爾將業(yè)務(wù)擴(kuò)展到了B-17轟炸機(jī)的轟炸瞄準(zhǔn)器和電子自動(dòng)駕駛系統(tǒng)上,。在2008年的經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退中,,霍尼韋爾被道瓊斯工業(yè)平均指數(shù)剔除,,它鉚足了勁兒繼續(xù)投資,,并在危機(jī)過(guò)后變得比以前更強(qiáng)大。

然而,,霍尼韋爾在全球性停滯引發(fā)“休克”之際進(jìn)入了競(jìng)爭(zhēng)白熱化的科技世界,這也許會(huì)讓它遇到歷史上最大的挑戰(zhàn),。霍尼韋爾創(chuàng)立時(shí)許多人還靠馬匹或馬車(chē)出行,,沒(méi)人會(huì)說(shuō)重新塑造這家公司會(huì)輕而易舉,。

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所有的一切都始于1885年的一個(gè)冷天。

阿爾伯特?布茨真的受夠了,。在明尼阿波利斯的家中,這位瑞士移民向往常一樣走下樓梯,,然后打開(kāi)煤爐子的風(fēng)門(mén)。外面的冷空氣吹進(jìn)爐內(nèi),,爐火燒的更旺了。他的家也暖和了起來(lái),。但不可避免的,,過(guò)了一會(huì)兒他又遇到了相反的問(wèn)題,。屋里太熱了。他又走下樓去關(guān)上風(fēng)門(mén),,以便切斷空氣流動(dòng)并控制爐火。

這就是19世紀(jì)的生活,。要想在家里過(guò)的舒服,你就得不斷地自行調(diào)節(jié),。上樓,,下樓,。打開(kāi),關(guān)上,。變熱,變冷,。因此,,布茨設(shè)計(jì)出了一個(gè)精巧的裝置,,它以電池為動(dòng)力,由馬達(dá)控制,,可以根據(jù)溫度自動(dòng)開(kāi)啟和關(guān)閉煤爐子的風(fēng)門(mén),。布茨為這種裝置申請(qǐng)了專(zhuān)利,,他將其稱(chēng)為“風(fēng)門(mén)節(jié)流器”。他還建立了一家公司來(lái)推廣這種產(chǎn)品,,而這就是如今的霍尼韋爾最早的實(shí)體。

從那時(shí)起,,這家公司就一直以自動(dòng)化為重點(diǎn),。只是現(xiàn)在它以巨大的工業(yè)規(guī)模開(kāi)展這項(xiàng)工作,,而且已經(jīng)不再生產(chǎn)家庭恒溫器了——兩年前霍尼韋爾剝離了這項(xiàng)業(yè)務(wù)。

在哈利法塔,,也就是全球最高摩天大樓上可以看到霍尼韋爾的技術(shù),其作用是為這幢巨大建筑動(dòng)態(tài)供熱或供冷,。該公司的航空電子技術(shù)可用在自動(dòng)飛行系統(tǒng)上,見(jiàn)諸于商業(yè)飛機(jī),、宇宙飛船和衛(wèi)星,。

UPS首席信息和工程官胡安?佩雷斯說(shuō)霍尼韋爾是非常關(guān)鍵的合作伙伴,,所以兩家公司經(jīng)常在研發(fā)方面進(jìn)行合作。目前,,他們正在探索用聲音助手來(lái)引導(dǎo)廂式貨車(chē)維修工,從而在維修期間解放他們的雙手,,同時(shí)用人工智能來(lái)告訴員工怎樣最高效地把箱子放進(jìn)印有UPS標(biāo)識(shí)的棕色卡車(chē)?yán)?,就像一款無(wú)休止的俄羅斯方塊游戲,。

杜瑞哲的目標(biāo)是讓霍尼韋爾的產(chǎn)品變得更有用,,途徑則是賦予它們收集和處理客戶信息的能力。這些設(shè)備以及所有與之相連的裝置都能更高效地自動(dòng)運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn),,從而給客戶帶來(lái)更強(qiáng)的性能和更低的成本,。

霍尼韋爾向航空航天,、能源和物流等行業(yè)提供帶有傳感器的設(shè)備,因此它非常熟悉這些行業(yè),,并且能專(zhuān)門(mén)為它們量身定制軟件。理論上,,這是相對(duì)于微軟,、甲骨文和SAP等科技巨頭的一項(xiàng)優(yōu)勢(shì),,因?yàn)檫@些科技龍頭公司缺乏與工業(yè)客戶的深度交流,其軟件也大多是通用型產(chǎn)品,。

霍尼韋爾在科技方面的努力已經(jīng)有了回報(bào)。兩年前設(shè)立以軟件為主的“互聯(lián)企業(yè)”部門(mén)以來(lái),,該公司軟件年銷(xiāo)售額一直保持著兩位數(shù)增速,超過(guò)了其他所有部門(mén),。盡管沒(méi)有披露過(guò)軟件年收入,但基于杜瑞哲接受CNBC采訪時(shí)透露的信息,,這個(gè)數(shù)字約為40億美元,。其中近15億美元可以劃歸新型“物聯(lián)網(wǎng)”軟件,,這是霍尼韋爾為連接互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的工業(yè)機(jī)器配備的數(shù)字產(chǎn)品,達(dá)拉拉銷(xiāo)售的那些就屬于此類(lèi),。杜瑞哲說(shuō)霍尼韋爾的目標(biāo)是讓“互聯(lián)企業(yè)”業(yè)務(wù)每年都增長(zhǎng)20%。

對(duì)一項(xiàng)如此年輕的業(yè)務(wù)來(lái)說(shuō),,這種增長(zhǎng)速度令人側(cè)目,但軟件仍然只是霍尼韋爾整體業(yè)務(wù)的一小部分,。去年該公司的總銷(xiāo)售額為367億美元,。

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歷史回眸

在134年的歷史中,,霍尼韋爾曾進(jìn)行過(guò)重大調(diào)整。以下是一些關(guān)鍵里程碑,。

1886年 | 世界你好:

阿爾伯特?布茨創(chuàng)立恒溫器公司。1927年,,布茨的公司和水暖行業(yè)先行者馬克?霍尼韋爾1906年建立的水暖公司合并為一家新企業(yè),。圖片來(lái)源:COURTESY OF HONEYWELL

1932-1954年 | 早期發(fā)展:

憑借從恒溫器到轟炸瞄準(zhǔn)器等一系列產(chǎn)品,,霍尼韋爾度過(guò)了大蕭條和二戰(zhàn),,而且成為這一時(shí)期表現(xiàn)最好的股票之一。圖片來(lái)源:COURTESY OF HONEYWELL

20世紀(jì)70年代 | 混亂時(shí)期:

霍尼韋爾向軍方提供武器,,引發(fā)了反戰(zhàn)人士長(zhǎng)達(dá)幾十年的抗議。圖片來(lái)源:COURTESY OF HONEYWELL

1966年 | 計(jì)算機(jī)時(shí)代:

霍尼韋爾從雷神公司手中收購(gòu)了一家計(jì)算機(jī)制造商,,后者生產(chǎn)的計(jì)算機(jī)后來(lái)構(gòu)成了阿帕網(wǎng),也就是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的前身,。圖片來(lái)源:COURTESY OF HONEYWELL

1970年 | 無(wú)所不能的技術(shù):

霍尼韋爾收購(gòu)了通用電氣的大型機(jī)業(yè)務(wù),旨在和IBM展開(kāi)競(jìng)爭(zhēng),。圖片來(lái)源:COURTESY OF HONEYWELL

1986年 | 停機(jī):

霍尼韋爾將陷入困境的計(jì)算機(jī)業(yè)務(wù)的80%轉(zhuǎn)讓給了Compagnie des Machines Bull和NEC組建的合資公司。圖片來(lái)源:JEAN-LOUP GAUTREAU—AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

1999年 | 新老板駕到:

航空航天巨頭AlliedSignal收購(gòu)了比自己小得多的霍尼韋爾,,但采用了后者的名稱(chēng),因?yàn)樗雀摺?/font>圖片來(lái)源:RICK MAIMAN—SYGMA VIA GETTY IMAGES

2008年 | 遭華爾街冷對(duì):

被道瓊斯工業(yè)評(píng)級(jí)指數(shù)剔除后,,霍尼韋爾失去了一些可以吹噓的資本。圖片來(lái)源:STAN HONDA—AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

2018年 | 再見(jiàn):

霍尼韋爾剝離了頗有歷史的恒溫器業(yè)務(wù),,也就是如今的域適都,,從而結(jié)束了一個(gè)時(shí)代,。圖片來(lái)源:DAN SAELINGER

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杜瑞哲對(duì)霍尼韋爾的科技業(yè)務(wù)非常堅(jiān)定,,他甚至堅(jiān)持說(shuō)霍尼韋爾再也不是真正的工業(yè)企業(yè)了,。他雄心勃勃地把霍尼韋爾定義為軟件工業(yè)企業(yè),說(shuō)它就像一條摸索著登上陸地的可怕大魚(yú),,已經(jīng)為下一階段的進(jìn)化做好了準(zhǔn)備。

對(duì)霍尼韋爾這樣的巨無(wú)霸來(lái)說(shuō),,可以效仿的科技改組范例寥寥無(wú)幾。達(dá)拉拉說(shuō),,這條路上有“長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的一串尸體和失敗案例”,。通用電氣就是一個(gè)突出的例子,,幾年前嘗試類(lèi)似轉(zhuǎn)型時(shí)通用電氣載了跟頭,此事人人皆知,,現(xiàn)在的通用電氣已經(jīng)變成了往日光輝下的殘影。它的問(wèn)題包括貸款業(yè)務(wù)的不良信用以及在錯(cuò)誤的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下以孤注一擲的方式收購(gòu)了法國(guó)工業(yè)巨頭阿爾斯通,,所有這些都注定通用電氣會(huì)失敗。

德意志銀行分析師妮可?德布拉斯說(shuō),,霍尼韋爾的科技轉(zhuǎn)型面臨的最大挑戰(zhàn)是它打算跟完全以軟件為核心的公司展開(kāi)競(jìng)爭(zhēng),。此外,,她提到幾年前通用電氣曾努力銷(xiāo)售預(yù)測(cè)客戶設(shè)備何時(shí)需要維護(hù)的軟件,但注定要失敗,。德布拉斯說(shuō):“我們都看到了通用電氣的數(shù)字化戰(zhàn)略的結(jié)果,所以我們對(duì)想成為軟件公司的工業(yè)企業(yè)有非常多的疑問(wèn),?!被裟犴f爾也不是軟件行業(yè)出身,和已經(jīng)投入多年時(shí)間的專(zhuān)家相比,,它搞出來(lái)的數(shù)字工具真的會(huì)更好嗎,?

杜瑞哲從未想過(guò)要加入霍尼韋爾,。

他不喜歡條條框框,不喜歡一絲一毫的微觀管理氣息,也不喜歡公司老板鼻子里的熱氣噴到自己脖子上的感覺(jué),。2008年霍尼韋爾斥資7.20億美元收購(gòu)了他的條形碼掃描器公司Metrologic,當(dāng)時(shí)他遲遲不愿進(jìn)入霍尼韋爾董事會(huì),。如果不是霍尼韋爾用“金手銬”鎖住了他,迫使他為了賣(mài)掉一半的股票期權(quán)等待了一年,,杜瑞哲也許永遠(yuǎn)也不會(huì)邁進(jìn)霍尼韋爾的大門(mén),。

但進(jìn)了霍尼韋爾后,,杜瑞哲身上的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)精神占據(jù)了上風(fēng)。他成了霍尼韋爾手持掃描器業(yè)務(wù)負(fù)責(zé)人,,而且業(yè)績(jī)卓著。他彼時(shí)的上司羅福鼎說(shuō):“抱歉我是說(shuō)法語(yǔ)的,,但我們擊敗了摩托羅拉?!?007年摩托羅拉收購(gòu)了Metrologic的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手Symbol Technologies,,收購(gòu)價(jià)接近40億美元,。

漸漸地,杜瑞哲想讓自己變的非常有價(jià)值,。他告訴時(shí)任CEO的高德威:“把公司最差勁的業(yè)務(wù)給我,讓我試試能不能把它搞好,?!?對(duì)于杜瑞哲的業(yè)績(jī),,包括讓UPS成為公司大客戶,高德威很滿意,。他把加工解決方案業(yè)務(wù)交給了杜瑞哲。這個(gè)部門(mén)表現(xiàn)落后,,其業(yè)務(wù)是向制造企業(yè)和煉油廠提供笨重的控制設(shè)備,。高德威說(shuō):“好的,如果你能融入其中并讓它重回正軌,,那么,你就能做很多事,?!?

現(xiàn)年54歲的杜瑞哲以前也遇到過(guò)逆境,。1977年他11歲時(shí)隨父母從當(dāng)時(shí)共產(chǎn)黨掌權(quán)的波蘭移民到了美國(guó),那時(shí)他一句英語(yǔ)也不會(huì)說(shuō),。他上了7年級(jí),而他說(shuō)自己當(dāng)時(shí)的閱讀能力是幼兒園級(jí)別的,。杜瑞哲說(shuō):“回過(guò)頭來(lái)看,那很可能幫了我,。它把我推進(jìn)了不舒適區(qū),?!?

他用同樣的勇氣接受了在霍尼韋爾的新任務(wù)。他加大了新產(chǎn)品開(kāi)發(fā)投入,,并參與設(shè)立了網(wǎng)絡(luò)安全軟件部門(mén),現(xiàn)在這個(gè)部門(mén)的年銷(xiāo)售額為1億美元,。接下來(lái),,在2015-2016年油價(jià)滑坡期間,,他又成功地領(lǐng)導(dǎo)了霍尼韋爾的汽油相關(guān)化學(xué)品和催化劑業(yè)務(wù)。

在霍尼韋爾的整個(gè)升遷過(guò)程中,,杜瑞哲在各個(gè)崗位上一直都采用類(lèi)似的策略,那就是用嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)?shù)姆治鰜?lái)尋找有增長(zhǎng)潛力的領(lǐng)域,,砍掉累贅,,并且涉足軟件和自動(dòng)化,。正是這些方法,,再加上保持頭腦清醒的能力幫助他在2017年的繼任爭(zhēng)奪中勝出,從而成為霍尼韋爾的CEO,。對(duì)于杜瑞哲對(duì)計(jì)算機(jī)的認(rèn)知,,高德威說(shuō):“和他對(duì)這個(gè)領(lǐng)域的理解相比,我再研究10年可能也趕不上,?!?

就算面對(duì)新冠疫情,杜瑞哲也沒(méi)有慌亂,。他說(shuō):“這是我的第四支舞或者黑天鵝事件,,或者其他東西,無(wú)論你們想叫它什么,?!彼林卦诿苄萘⒋髮W(xué)——也就是他母校的咖啡杯上抿了一口咖啡說(shuō),得益于以往經(jīng)歷的危機(jī),,“我覺(jué)得自己準(zhǔn)備的非常充分”,。

沒(méi)人知道航空業(yè)什么時(shí)候能復(fù)蘇。沃倫?巴菲特被視為最明智,、最有耐心的投資者之一,,而他也已經(jīng)拋掉了所有的航空股。這讓他的公司伯克希爾?哈撒韋蒙受了數(shù)十億美元損失,,并且進(jìn)一步打消了經(jīng)濟(jì)迅速?gòu)?fù)蘇的希望,。

受全球不利局勢(shì)影響,今年第一季度霍尼韋爾的銷(xiāo)售額同比下降了5%,。不過(guò),,在股票回購(gòu)和印度稅收政策的有利變化支撐下,第一季度每股收益從上年同期的1.92美元增至2.21美元,。

幾乎可以肯定,,本季度霍尼韋爾的業(yè)績(jī)會(huì)更糟。該公司預(yù)計(jì)銷(xiāo)售額將同比驟降15%以上,。此外,,由于局勢(shì)如此不明朗,霍尼韋爾已經(jīng)撤回了今年全年的業(yè)績(jī)展望,。杜瑞哲在5月1日的投資者電話會(huì)議上說(shuō):“今后幾個(gè)季度有可能是我們經(jīng)歷過(guò)的最難以預(yù)測(cè)的階段,。”

他已經(jīng)開(kāi)始通過(guò)讓員工放假和高管降薪10%來(lái)削減成本,,總成本降幅可達(dá)13億美元,,而且預(yù)計(jì)今后幾個(gè)季度還會(huì)有更多的降成本措施。

至少,,直到最近杜瑞哲的策略看來(lái)都是有效的,。從2017年4月杜瑞哲開(kāi)始擔(dān)任CEO到今年年初,,霍尼韋爾的股價(jià)上漲了近50%。但今年該公司股價(jià)一直隨著大盤(pán)直線下滑,。

盡管受到了新冠疫情的影響,,但霍尼韋爾仍有一些亮點(diǎn)。其中之一就是安全設(shè)備,。為填補(bǔ)醫(yī)院和一線工作人員的防護(hù)用品缺口,,霍尼韋爾已經(jīng)將好幾個(gè)工廠改造成了N95口罩生產(chǎn)廠,其中最出名的是美國(guó)總統(tǒng)特朗普最近參觀的鳳凰城口罩廠,,當(dāng)時(shí)特朗普沒(méi)有戴口罩,。

新冠疫情爆發(fā)后,,霍尼韋爾迅速改造了幾家工廠,以便后者可以生產(chǎn)防護(hù)性口罩,。圖片來(lái)源:COURTESY OF HONEYWELL

在羅德島Smithfield的一家工廠,霍尼韋爾清空了一個(gè)倉(cāng)庫(kù),,改造了流水線,,并培訓(xùn)員工操作新的口罩機(jī),。工廠經(jīng)理進(jìn)行遠(yuǎn)程招聘,并在工廠大門(mén)口擺放了紅外線測(cè)溫儀,,以便發(fā)現(xiàn)可能發(fā)燒的員工。同時(shí),,為了遵守保持社交距離政策,,他們?cè)诠S各處都擺放了六英尺長(zhǎng)的桿子,,這樣員工就能確定他們之間的距離是否足夠遠(yuǎn)。這家工廠的負(fù)責(zé)人康納?萊恩說(shuō):“我們?cè)O(shè)法在五個(gè)星期內(nèi)完成了通常需要九個(gè)月的工作,?!?

他說(shuō),生產(chǎn)口罩并非臨時(shí)措施,。霍尼韋爾預(yù)計(jì)即使新冠疫情過(guò)后口罩需求也會(huì)上升,,因此計(jì)劃在可預(yù)見(jiàn)的時(shí)間里繼續(xù)生產(chǎn)口罩,。

其他一些因素也讓人感到樂(lè)觀,。

3月3日上午,也就是居家令生效前,,霍尼韋爾量子解決方案業(yè)務(wù)總裁烏特利來(lái)到了紐約《財(cái)富》雜志出版社,他的衣兜里放著一款原型產(chǎn)品,。

當(dāng)天早些時(shí)候,,霍尼韋爾發(fā)布了它隱藏已久的項(xiàng)目,,也就是由烏特利領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的量子計(jì)算機(jī)工作,后者的超高速處理器可以和當(dāng)今最快的超級(jí)計(jì)算機(jī)媲美,。烏特利用手指夾著一塊金屬片說(shuō):“我們簽了非常嚴(yán)格的保密協(xié)議,,就連我們的家人都不知道我們?cè)谧鍪裁?。?

在他手中的就是量子計(jì)算機(jī)的心臟——一個(gè)大拇指指甲大小的東西,,其邊緣的電極就像微小的鋼琴鍵,。通常,這個(gè)處理器會(huì)放在一個(gè)真空容器中,。量子計(jì)算機(jī)運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)時(shí),,激光束會(huì)射向貼著處理器表面運(yùn)動(dòng)的原子。

霍尼韋爾打算今年6月發(fā)布世界上“最強(qiáng)大”的量子計(jì)算機(jī),。他們的期望是量子計(jì)算機(jī)最終可以執(zhí)行常規(guī)計(jì)算機(jī)無(wú)法重復(fù)的計(jì)算任務(wù),。

對(duì)霍尼韋爾來(lái)說(shuō),量子計(jì)算機(jī)是一次進(jìn)行救贖的機(jī)會(huì),。在上世紀(jì)的數(shù)字革命期間,,霍尼韋爾在計(jì)算機(jī)領(lǐng)域幾乎占據(jù)了主導(dǎo)位置。1963年,,霍尼韋爾推出了Liberator,,后者可以將IBM的軟件轉(zhuǎn)換為可在霍尼韋爾的電腦上閱讀的格式,,從而讓人們擺脫IBM的約束。隨后,,霍尼韋爾收購(gòu)了雷神公司和通用電氣的計(jì)算機(jī)部門(mén),,再次向IBM發(fā)起沖擊。

但最終,,霍尼韋爾承認(rèn)自己落敗,并在20世紀(jì)80年代剝離了計(jì)算機(jī)業(yè)務(wù),。在量子計(jì)算領(lǐng)域,,霍尼韋爾發(fā)現(xiàn)自己再次和IBM面對(duì)面抗衡,,因?yàn)楹笳咭苍谕七M(jìn)同樣的量子計(jì)算項(xiàng)目。谷歌和英特爾等科技巨頭也在這個(gè)新興領(lǐng)域投入了大量資源,。和它們一樣,霍尼韋爾也可以讓其他公司租用自己的量子計(jì)算機(jī),。量子計(jì)算機(jī)的強(qiáng)大數(shù)據(jù)處理能力有可能幫助航空公司找到更高效的線路,,為大型制藥企業(yè)發(fā)現(xiàn)新藥鋪平道路,并幫助華爾街更好地管理風(fēng)險(xiǎn),。

即便是在新冠疫情期間,,即使疫情造成銷(xiāo)售額急劇下降,,杜瑞哲仍堅(jiān)信從量子計(jì)算機(jī)到面向各類(lèi)工業(yè)客戶的軟件,為他的技術(shù)愿景投資將為今后的成功打下基礎(chǔ),。他說(shuō):“我們不能放棄增長(zhǎng),,絕對(duì)不能,。”

不過(guò),,在霍尼韋爾能夠騰飛之前,,它需要我們重新升空,。

霍尼韋爾無(wú)處不在的產(chǎn)品

霍尼韋爾服務(wù)的行業(yè)名單很長(zhǎng),。以下僅是它生產(chǎn)的一部分產(chǎn)品,。

圖片來(lái)源:ZABELIN—GETTY IMAGES

? 條形碼掃描器

? 噴氣式飛機(jī)發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)

? N95口罩

? 工業(yè)分析軟件

? 倉(cāng)儲(chǔ)機(jī)器人

? 智能建筑技術(shù)

? 取代工業(yè)冰柜使用的氫氟烴的化合物

? 宇宙飛船飛行系統(tǒng)

? 商用飛機(jī)系統(tǒng),包括雷達(dá),、駕駛艙報(bào)警技術(shù)和后備電源

? 軍用飛機(jī)系統(tǒng)

? 防彈衣

本文另一版本登載于《財(cái)富》雜志2020年6/7月刊。

(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng))

譯者:Charlie

要怎樣你才愿意坐飛機(jī)去出個(gè)差呢,?

差不多所有渴望經(jīng)濟(jì)復(fù)蘇的公司、政府以及受市場(chǎng)驅(qū)策的個(gè)人的心頭都?jí)褐@個(gè)問(wèn)題,。除了航空公司和飛機(jī)制造商,,最不顧一切地要找到答案的可能就是霍尼韋爾了,,因?yàn)楹娇蘸教焓腔裟犴f爾最大的業(yè)務(wù)。從飛機(jī)發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)到后備電力系統(tǒng),,再到駕駛艙操縱裝置,,霍尼韋爾的產(chǎn)品無(wú)所不包,,現(xiàn)在它正在積極開(kāi)動(dòng)腦筋,尋找讓人們重新登上飛機(jī)的辦法,。

霍尼韋爾首席執(zhí)行官杜瑞哲認(rèn)為當(dāng)前的局勢(shì)和9.11恐怖襲擊后的情況很像,當(dāng)時(shí)也有許多人覺(jué)得航空客運(yùn)再也不會(huì)反彈了,。杜瑞哲在北卡羅來(lái)納州夏洛特市的辦公室召開(kāi)了視頻會(huì)議,,身邊還放了一瓶普瑞來(lái)洗手液,,他說(shuō)自己的團(tuán)隊(duì)已經(jīng)有了一些主意。杜瑞哲堅(jiān)定地表示:“在我看來(lái),,人們會(huì)去坐飛機(jī)的,?!?

霍尼韋爾已經(jīng)在為美國(guó)國(guó)家儲(chǔ)備提供口罩、手套和其他防護(hù)物資。該公司對(duì)羅德島一家護(hù)目鏡制造廠進(jìn)行了部分改造,,以便滿足迅猛增長(zhǎng)的N95口罩需求,?;裟犴f爾設(shè)在亞利桑那州的一家工廠也進(jìn)行了同樣的改造。只要醫(yī)療服務(wù)機(jī)構(gòu)和其他“必不可少”的部門(mén)獲得了充足供應(yīng),,霍尼韋爾也許就可以開(kāi)始為航空公司的員工以及乘客提供防護(hù)物品了。

這是第一階段的方案,。但杜瑞哲認(rèn)為霍尼韋爾還可以做更多工作,。

問(wèn)問(wèn)奎?達(dá)拉拉就知道了。這位霍尼韋爾高管生在越南,,長(zhǎng)在澳大利亞,她的任務(wù)是構(gòu)建霍尼韋爾快速成長(zhǎng)的軟件類(lèi)業(yè)務(wù),。達(dá)拉拉指出,,霍尼韋爾可以利用自身在空氣過(guò)濾和化學(xué)消毒劑方面的專(zhuān)業(yè)能力讓機(jī)艙變得更為潔凈,。她的團(tuán)隊(duì)正在探索的課題是將傳感器和霍尼韋爾的旗艦型軟件Forge結(jié)合起來(lái),從而對(duì)機(jī)艙空氣質(zhì)量進(jìn)行監(jiān)測(cè)和管理,。達(dá)拉拉說(shuō):“我們把這項(xiàng)技術(shù)用在了本地醫(yī)院的系統(tǒng)中?!?,也就是霍尼韋爾銷(xiāo)售的制暖,、空調(diào)和空氣凈化控制系統(tǒng),,“我們正在想辦法把它應(yīng)用到飛機(jī)上?!?

另外,,還有一些更大膽的想法,。其中之一是在飛機(jī)上安裝可以殺死病毒的紫外線燈。在這批乘客下飛機(jī)后與新一批乘客登機(jī)前的間隙,也許可以用強(qiáng)烈的紫外線照射機(jī)艙內(nèi)部,,從而消滅所有傳染源。

還不清楚這些想法中是否有能夠成為現(xiàn)實(shí)的,。但從這一系列有聲有色的主意中可以看到過(guò)去幾年霍尼韋爾是怎樣轉(zhuǎn)變思路的,,或者說(shuō)它關(guān)心的主要問(wèn)題已經(jīng)從運(yùn)營(yíng)效率以及向客戶提供“沉默”但可靠的工業(yè)零部件轉(zhuǎn)向把突破性技術(shù)和自動(dòng)化軟件放在最重要的位置上,。1955年《財(cái)富》500強(qiáng)名單問(wèn)世以來(lái)霍尼韋爾一直榜上有名,這家有著134年歷史的大型企業(yè)正在進(jìn)行全面技術(shù)革新,。

霍尼韋爾CEO杜瑞哲

杜瑞哲表示,軟件對(duì)霍尼韋爾來(lái)說(shuō)代表著“新的肌肉”,,他還指出,,軟件對(duì)該公司今后的增長(zhǎng)而言至關(guān)重要。達(dá)拉拉更是一針見(jiàn)血地總結(jié)了其中的利害關(guān)系:“如果不能在所有工作中自然而然地想到軟件,,在某個(gè)時(shí)候我們的增長(zhǎng)動(dòng)力就會(huì)消失,而且會(huì)變成非常沒(méi)有吸引力的公司,。”和其他一些來(lái)自煙囪工業(yè)時(shí)代的公司不同,,霍尼韋爾財(cái)力較強(qiáng),,因此有賭博的資本,。它手握90億美元現(xiàn)金,可以毫無(wú)顧忌地冒更大的風(fēng)險(xiǎn),,因而也有可能獲得更大的收益,。

但由于新冠疫情爆發(fā),,再加上衰退就在眼前,霍尼韋爾的這些宏偉計(jì)劃立即遇到了一個(gè)巨大障礙,。作為該公司最大客戶,,飛機(jī)制造商和航空公司都在滑坡,,而且可能需要好幾年才能恢復(fù)過(guò)來(lái),?;裟犴f爾的另一主要收入來(lái)源——石油行業(yè)則因?yàn)槭蛢r(jià)格的歷史性暴跌而處于崩潰邊緣。寫(xiě)字樓業(yè)主很難收到租金,,大型酒店空無(wú)一人,,這讓霍尼韋爾在智能建筑技術(shù)上的投入看起來(lái)不那么靠譜,。

當(dāng)然,以前霍尼韋爾曾成功地度過(guò)困難階段,。它走過(guò)了大蕭條和二戰(zhàn),,而且成為那個(gè)時(shí)代最出色的股票之一,,這在一定程度上要?dú)w功于霍尼韋爾將業(yè)務(wù)擴(kuò)展到了B-17轟炸機(jī)的轟炸瞄準(zhǔn)器和電子自動(dòng)駕駛系統(tǒng)上。在2008年的經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退中,,霍尼韋爾被道瓊斯工業(yè)平均指數(shù)剔除,,它鉚足了勁兒繼續(xù)投資,,并在危機(jī)過(guò)后變得比以前更強(qiáng)大。

然而,,霍尼韋爾在全球性停滯引發(fā)“休克”之際進(jìn)入了競(jìng)爭(zhēng)白熱化的科技世界,這也許會(huì)讓它遇到歷史上最大的挑戰(zhàn),?;裟犴f爾創(chuàng)立時(shí)許多人還靠馬匹或馬車(chē)出行,,沒(méi)人會(huì)說(shuō)重新塑造這家公司會(huì)輕而易舉。

所有的一切都始于1885年的一個(gè)冷天,。

阿爾伯特?布茨真的受夠了。在明尼阿波利斯的家中,,這位瑞士移民向往常一樣走下樓梯,然后打開(kāi)煤爐子的風(fēng)門(mén),。外面的冷空氣吹進(jìn)爐內(nèi),爐火燒的更旺了。他的家也暖和了起來(lái),。但不可避免的,,過(guò)了一會(huì)兒他又遇到了相反的問(wèn)題。屋里太熱了,。他又走下樓去關(guān)上風(fēng)門(mén),以便切斷空氣流動(dòng)并控制爐火,。

這就是19世紀(jì)的生活,。要想在家里過(guò)的舒服,,你就得不斷地自行調(diào)節(jié)。上樓,,下樓,。打開(kāi),,關(guān)上。變熱,,變冷。因此,,布茨設(shè)計(jì)出了一個(gè)精巧的裝置,,它以電池為動(dòng)力,,由馬達(dá)控制,可以根據(jù)溫度自動(dòng)開(kāi)啟和關(guān)閉煤爐子的風(fēng)門(mén),。布茨為這種裝置申請(qǐng)了專(zhuān)利,,他將其稱(chēng)為“風(fēng)門(mén)節(jié)流器”,。他還建立了一家公司來(lái)推廣這種產(chǎn)品,而這就是如今的霍尼韋爾最早的實(shí)體,。

從那時(shí)起,,這家公司就一直以自動(dòng)化為重點(diǎn),。只是現(xiàn)在它以巨大的工業(yè)規(guī)模開(kāi)展這項(xiàng)工作,,而且已經(jīng)不再生產(chǎn)家庭恒溫器了——兩年前霍尼韋爾剝離了這項(xiàng)業(yè)務(wù)。

在哈利法塔,,也就是全球最高摩天大樓上可以看到霍尼韋爾的技術(shù),其作用是為這幢巨大建筑動(dòng)態(tài)供熱或供冷,。該公司的航空電子技術(shù)可用在自動(dòng)飛行系統(tǒng)上,,見(jiàn)諸于商業(yè)飛機(jī),、宇宙飛船和衛(wèi)星,。

UPS首席信息和工程官胡安?佩雷斯說(shuō)霍尼韋爾是非常關(guān)鍵的合作伙伴,所以兩家公司經(jīng)常在研發(fā)方面進(jìn)行合作,。目前,他們正在探索用聲音助手來(lái)引導(dǎo)廂式貨車(chē)維修工,,從而在維修期間解放他們的雙手,,同時(shí)用人工智能來(lái)告訴員工怎樣最高效地把箱子放進(jìn)印有UPS標(biāo)識(shí)的棕色卡車(chē)?yán)?,就像一款無(wú)休止的俄羅斯方塊游戲。

杜瑞哲的目標(biāo)是讓霍尼韋爾的產(chǎn)品變得更有用,,途徑則是賦予它們收集和處理客戶信息的能力,。這些設(shè)備以及所有與之相連的裝置都能更高效地自動(dòng)運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn),,從而給客戶帶來(lái)更強(qiáng)的性能和更低的成本,。

霍尼韋爾向航空航天、能源和物流等行業(yè)提供帶有傳感器的設(shè)備,,因此它非常熟悉這些行業(yè),并且能專(zhuān)門(mén)為它們量身定制軟件,。理論上,,這是相對(duì)于微軟、甲骨文和SAP等科技巨頭的一項(xiàng)優(yōu)勢(shì),,因?yàn)檫@些科技龍頭公司缺乏與工業(yè)客戶的深度交流,其軟件也大多是通用型產(chǎn)品,。

霍尼韋爾在科技方面的努力已經(jīng)有了回報(bào),。兩年前設(shè)立以軟件為主的“互聯(lián)企業(yè)”部門(mén)以來(lái),該公司軟件年銷(xiāo)售額一直保持著兩位數(shù)增速,,超過(guò)了其他所有部門(mén)。盡管沒(méi)有披露過(guò)軟件年收入,,但基于杜瑞哲接受CNBC采訪時(shí)透露的信息,這個(gè)數(shù)字約為40億美元,。其中近15億美元可以劃歸新型“物聯(lián)網(wǎng)”軟件,,這是霍尼韋爾為連接互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的工業(yè)機(jī)器配備的數(shù)字產(chǎn)品,達(dá)拉拉銷(xiāo)售的那些就屬于此類(lèi),。杜瑞哲說(shuō)霍尼韋爾的目標(biāo)是讓“互聯(lián)企業(yè)”業(yè)務(wù)每年都增長(zhǎng)20%。

對(duì)一項(xiàng)如此年輕的業(yè)務(wù)來(lái)說(shuō),,這種增長(zhǎng)速度令人側(cè)目,,但軟件仍然只是霍尼韋爾整體業(yè)務(wù)的一小部分,。去年該公司的總銷(xiāo)售額為367億美元。

歷史回眸

在134年的歷史中,,霍尼韋爾曾進(jìn)行過(guò)重大調(diào)整,。以下是一些關(guān)鍵里程碑,。

杜瑞哲對(duì)霍尼韋爾的科技業(yè)務(wù)非常堅(jiān)定,他甚至堅(jiān)持說(shuō)霍尼韋爾再也不是真正的工業(yè)企業(yè)了,。他雄心勃勃地把霍尼韋爾定義為軟件工業(yè)企業(yè),,說(shuō)它就像一條摸索著登上陸地的可怕大魚(yú),,已經(jīng)為下一階段的進(jìn)化做好了準(zhǔn)備。

對(duì)霍尼韋爾這樣的巨無(wú)霸來(lái)說(shuō),,可以效仿的科技改組范例寥寥無(wú)幾,。達(dá)拉拉說(shuō),這條路上有“長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的一串尸體和失敗案例”,。通用電氣就是一個(gè)突出的例子,幾年前嘗試類(lèi)似轉(zhuǎn)型時(shí)通用電氣載了跟頭,,此事人人皆知,,現(xiàn)在的通用電氣已經(jīng)變成了往日光輝下的殘影。它的問(wèn)題包括貸款業(yè)務(wù)的不良信用以及在錯(cuò)誤的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下以孤注一擲的方式收購(gòu)了法國(guó)工業(yè)巨頭阿爾斯通,,所有這些都注定通用電氣會(huì)失敗,。

德意志銀行分析師妮可?德布拉斯說(shuō),,霍尼韋爾的科技轉(zhuǎn)型面臨的最大挑戰(zhàn)是它打算跟完全以軟件為核心的公司展開(kāi)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。此外,,她提到幾年前通用電氣曾努力銷(xiāo)售預(yù)測(cè)客戶設(shè)備何時(shí)需要維護(hù)的軟件,,但注定要失敗。德布拉斯說(shuō):“我們都看到了通用電氣的數(shù)字化戰(zhàn)略的結(jié)果,,所以我們對(duì)想成為軟件公司的工業(yè)企業(yè)有非常多的疑問(wèn)?!被裟犴f爾也不是軟件行業(yè)出身,,和已經(jīng)投入多年時(shí)間的專(zhuān)家相比,,它搞出來(lái)的數(shù)字工具真的會(huì)更好嗎?

杜瑞哲從未想過(guò)要加入霍尼韋爾,。

他不喜歡條條框框,,不喜歡一絲一毫的微觀管理氣息,也不喜歡公司老板鼻子里的熱氣噴到自己脖子上的感覺(jué),。2008年霍尼韋爾斥資7.20億美元收購(gòu)了他的條形碼掃描器公司Metrologic,,當(dāng)時(shí)他遲遲不愿進(jìn)入霍尼韋爾董事會(huì)。如果不是霍尼韋爾用“金手銬”鎖住了他,,迫使他為了賣(mài)掉一半的股票期權(quán)等待了一年,杜瑞哲也許永遠(yuǎn)也不會(huì)邁進(jìn)霍尼韋爾的大門(mén),。

但進(jìn)了霍尼韋爾后,,杜瑞哲身上的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)精神占據(jù)了上風(fēng)。他成了霍尼韋爾手持掃描器業(yè)務(wù)負(fù)責(zé)人,,而且業(yè)績(jī)卓著。他彼時(shí)的上司羅福鼎說(shuō):“抱歉我是說(shuō)法語(yǔ)的,,但我們擊敗了摩托羅拉,。”2007年摩托羅拉收購(gòu)了Metrologic的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手Symbol Technologies,,收購(gòu)價(jià)接近40億美元。

漸漸地,,杜瑞哲想讓自己變的非常有價(jià)值,。他告訴時(shí)任CEO的高德威:“把公司最差勁的業(yè)務(wù)給我,讓我試試能不能把它搞好,。” 對(duì)于杜瑞哲的業(yè)績(jī),,包括讓UPS成為公司大客戶,高德威很滿意,。他把加工解決方案業(yè)務(wù)交給了杜瑞哲。這個(gè)部門(mén)表現(xiàn)落后,,其業(yè)務(wù)是向制造企業(yè)和煉油廠提供笨重的控制設(shè)備,。高德威說(shuō):“好的,如果你能融入其中并讓它重回正軌,,那么,你就能做很多事,?!?

現(xiàn)年54歲的杜瑞哲以前也遇到過(guò)逆境,。1977年他11歲時(shí)隨父母從當(dāng)時(shí)共產(chǎn)黨掌權(quán)的波蘭移民到了美國(guó),那時(shí)他一句英語(yǔ)也不會(huì)說(shuō),。他上了7年級(jí),而他說(shuō)自己當(dāng)時(shí)的閱讀能力是幼兒園級(jí)別的,。杜瑞哲說(shuō):“回過(guò)頭來(lái)看,,那很可能幫了我,。它把我推進(jìn)了不舒適區(qū)?!?

他用同樣的勇氣接受了在霍尼韋爾的新任務(wù),。他加大了新產(chǎn)品開(kāi)發(fā)投入,,并參與設(shè)立了網(wǎng)絡(luò)安全軟件部門(mén),,現(xiàn)在這個(gè)部門(mén)的年銷(xiāo)售額為1億美元。接下來(lái),,在2015-2016年油價(jià)滑坡期間,,他又成功地領(lǐng)導(dǎo)了霍尼韋爾的汽油相關(guān)化學(xué)品和催化劑業(yè)務(wù),。

在霍尼韋爾的整個(gè)升遷過(guò)程中,杜瑞哲在各個(gè)崗位上一直都采用類(lèi)似的策略,,那就是用嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)?shù)姆治鰜?lái)尋找有增長(zhǎng)潛力的領(lǐng)域,,砍掉累贅,,并且涉足軟件和自動(dòng)化。正是這些方法,,再加上保持頭腦清醒的能力幫助他在2017年的繼任爭(zhēng)奪中勝出,,從而成為霍尼韋爾的CEO。對(duì)于杜瑞哲對(duì)計(jì)算機(jī)的認(rèn)知,,高德威說(shuō):“和他對(duì)這個(gè)領(lǐng)域的理解相比,我再研究10年可能也趕不上,?!?

就算面對(duì)新冠疫情,,杜瑞哲也沒(méi)有慌亂。他說(shuō):“這是我的第四支舞或者黑天鵝事件,,或者其他東西,,無(wú)論你們想叫它什么?!彼林卦诿苄萘⒋髮W(xué)——也就是他母校的咖啡杯上抿了一口咖啡說(shuō),得益于以往經(jīng)歷的危機(jī),,“我覺(jué)得自己準(zhǔn)備的非常充分”,。

沒(méi)人知道航空業(yè)什么時(shí)候能復(fù)蘇,。沃倫?巴菲特被視為最明智、最有耐心的投資者之一,而他也已經(jīng)拋掉了所有的航空股,。這讓他的公司伯克希爾?哈撒韋蒙受了數(shù)十億美元損失,,并且進(jìn)一步打消了經(jīng)濟(jì)迅速?gòu)?fù)蘇的希望。

受全球不利局勢(shì)影響,,今年第一季度霍尼韋爾的銷(xiāo)售額同比下降了5%。不過(guò),,在股票回購(gòu)和印度稅收政策的有利變化支撐下,,第一季度每股收益從上年同期的1.92美元增至2.21美元,。

幾乎可以肯定,本季度霍尼韋爾的業(yè)績(jī)會(huì)更糟,。該公司預(yù)計(jì)銷(xiāo)售額將同比驟降15%以上,。此外,由于局勢(shì)如此不明朗,,霍尼韋爾已經(jīng)撤回了今年全年的業(yè)績(jī)展望,。杜瑞哲在5月1日的投資者電話會(huì)議上說(shuō):“今后幾個(gè)季度有可能是我們經(jīng)歷過(guò)的最難以預(yù)測(cè)的階段?!?

他已經(jīng)開(kāi)始通過(guò)讓員工放假和高管降薪10%來(lái)削減成本,,總成本降幅可達(dá)13億美元,,而且預(yù)計(jì)今后幾個(gè)季度還會(huì)有更多的降成本措施。

至少,,直到最近杜瑞哲的策略看來(lái)都是有效的,。從2017年4月杜瑞哲開(kāi)始擔(dān)任CEO到今年年初,霍尼韋爾的股價(jià)上漲了近50%,。但今年該公司股價(jià)一直隨著大盤(pán)直線下滑。

盡管受到了新冠疫情的影響,,但霍尼韋爾仍有一些亮點(diǎn),。其中之一就是安全設(shè)備,。為填補(bǔ)醫(yī)院和一線工作人員的防護(hù)用品缺口,霍尼韋爾已經(jīng)將好幾個(gè)工廠改造成了N95口罩生產(chǎn)廠,其中最出名的是美國(guó)總統(tǒng)特朗普最近參觀的鳳凰城口罩廠,,當(dāng)時(shí)特朗普沒(méi)有戴口罩,。

在羅德島Smithfield的一家工廠,,霍尼韋爾清空了一個(gè)倉(cāng)庫(kù),改造了流水線,,并培訓(xùn)員工操作新的口罩機(jī),。工廠經(jīng)理進(jìn)行遠(yuǎn)程招聘,并在工廠大門(mén)口擺放了紅外線測(cè)溫儀,,以便發(fā)現(xiàn)可能發(fā)燒的員工。同時(shí),,為了遵守保持社交距離政策,,他們?cè)诠S各處都擺放了六英尺長(zhǎng)的桿子,,這樣員工就能確定他們之間的距離是否足夠遠(yuǎn)。這家工廠的負(fù)責(zé)人康納?萊恩說(shuō):“我們?cè)O(shè)法在五個(gè)星期內(nèi)完成了通常需要九個(gè)月的工作,?!?

他說(shuō),,生產(chǎn)口罩并非臨時(shí)措施?;裟犴f爾預(yù)計(jì)即使新冠疫情過(guò)后口罩需求也會(huì)上升,,因此計(jì)劃在可預(yù)見(jiàn)的時(shí)間里繼續(xù)生產(chǎn)口罩。

其他一些因素也讓人感到樂(lè)觀,。

3月3日上午,也就是居家令生效前,,霍尼韋爾量子解決方案業(yè)務(wù)總裁烏特利來(lái)到了紐約《財(cái)富》雜志出版社,,他的衣兜里放著一款原型產(chǎn)品,。

當(dāng)天早些時(shí)候,霍尼韋爾發(fā)布了它隱藏已久的項(xiàng)目,,也就是由烏特利領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的量子計(jì)算機(jī)工作,,后者的超高速處理器可以和當(dāng)今最快的超級(jí)計(jì)算機(jī)媲美,。烏特利用手指夾著一塊金屬片說(shuō):“我們簽了非常嚴(yán)格的保密協(xié)議,,就連我們的家人都不知道我們?cè)谧鍪裁础,!?

在他手中的就是量子計(jì)算機(jī)的心臟——一個(gè)大拇指指甲大小的東西,,其邊緣的電極就像微小的鋼琴鍵,。通常,這個(gè)處理器會(huì)放在一個(gè)真空容器中,。量子計(jì)算機(jī)運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)時(shí),,激光束會(huì)射向貼著處理器表面運(yùn)動(dòng)的原子,。

霍尼韋爾打算今年6月發(fā)布世界上“最強(qiáng)大”的量子計(jì)算機(jī)。他們的期望是量子計(jì)算機(jī)最終可以執(zhí)行常規(guī)計(jì)算機(jī)無(wú)法重復(fù)的計(jì)算任務(wù),。

對(duì)霍尼韋爾來(lái)說(shuō),,量子計(jì)算機(jī)是一次進(jìn)行救贖的機(jī)會(huì),。在上世紀(jì)的數(shù)字革命期間,霍尼韋爾在計(jì)算機(jī)領(lǐng)域幾乎占據(jù)了主導(dǎo)位置,。1963年,霍尼韋爾推出了Liberator,,后者可以將IBM的軟件轉(zhuǎn)換為可在霍尼韋爾的電腦上閱讀的格式,從而讓人們擺脫IBM的約束,。隨后,,霍尼韋爾收購(gòu)了雷神公司和通用電氣的計(jì)算機(jī)部門(mén),再次向IBM發(fā)起沖擊,。

但最終,霍尼韋爾承認(rèn)自己落敗,,并在20世紀(jì)80年代剝離了計(jì)算機(jī)業(yè)務(wù),。在量子計(jì)算領(lǐng)域,,霍尼韋爾發(fā)現(xiàn)自己再次和IBM面對(duì)面抗衡,,因?yàn)楹笳咭苍谕七M(jìn)同樣的量子計(jì)算項(xiàng)目。谷歌和英特爾等科技巨頭也在這個(gè)新興領(lǐng)域投入了大量資源,。和它們一樣,霍尼韋爾也可以讓其他公司租用自己的量子計(jì)算機(jī),。量子計(jì)算機(jī)的強(qiáng)大數(shù)據(jù)處理能力有可能幫助航空公司找到更高效的線路,,為大型制藥企業(yè)發(fā)現(xiàn)新藥鋪平道路,并幫助華爾街更好地管理風(fēng)險(xiǎn),。

即便是在新冠疫情期間,即使疫情造成銷(xiāo)售額急劇下降,,杜瑞哲仍堅(jiān)信從量子計(jì)算機(jī)到面向各類(lèi)工業(yè)客戶的軟件,,為他的技術(shù)愿景投資將為今后的成功打下基礎(chǔ),。他說(shuō):“我們不能放棄增長(zhǎng),絕對(duì)不能,?!?

不過(guò),在霍尼韋爾能夠騰飛之前,,它需要我們重新升空。

霍尼韋爾無(wú)處不在的產(chǎn)品

霍尼韋爾服務(wù)的行業(yè)名單很長(zhǎng),。以下僅是它生產(chǎn)的一部分產(chǎn)品,。

? 條形碼掃描器

? 噴氣式飛機(jī)發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)

? N95口罩

? 工業(yè)分析軟件

? 倉(cāng)儲(chǔ)機(jī)器人

? 智能建筑技術(shù)

? 取代工業(yè)冰柜使用的氫氟烴的化合物

? 宇宙飛船飛行系統(tǒng)

? 商用飛機(jī)系統(tǒng),,包括雷達(dá)、駕駛艙報(bào)警技術(shù)和后備電源

? 軍用飛機(jī)系統(tǒng)

? 防彈衣

本文另一版本登載于《財(cái)富》雜志2020年6/7月刊,。

(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng))

譯者:Charlie

What would it take for you to fly again?

That question weighs on nearly every business, government, and market-whiplashed citizen eager for economic recovery. Airlines and aircraft manufacturers aside, perhaps no other company is as hell-bent on finding an answer as Honeywell, whose aerospace division is its largest. A maker of everything from aircraft engines and backup power systems to cockpit controls, Honeywell is zealously brainstorming ways to get the public back in the air.

Darius Adamczyk, Honeywell’s CEO, compares the situation to the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, when many people felt air travel would never rebound. Speaking via a video call from his office in Charlotte, N.C., beside a bottle of Purell, Adamczyk (pronounced “a-DAHM-check”) says his team already has some ideas in mind. “In my opinion, people will fly,” he says, determinedly.

Already, Honeywell is supplying masks, gloves, and other protective gear to the national stockpile. It converted part of a goggle-making factory in Rhode Island to meet the soaring demand for N95 masks, and it has done the same at a plant in Arizona. Once health care providers and other “essentials” have enough supplies, Honeywell could begin providing airlines with protective gear for staff as well as passengers.

That’s phase 1. But Adamczyk thinks Honeywell can do more.

Just ask Que Dallara, the Vietnamese-born and Aussie-raised Honeywell executive tasked with building its fast-growing software-focused branch. She notes that Honeywell can lend its expertise in air filtration and chemical sanitizers to make plane cabins cleaner. Her own brigade is exploring the use of sensors coupled with Honeywell’s flagship Forge software to monitor and manage air quality on planes. “We do that in local hospital systems,” Dallara says, alluding to the heating, air conditioning, and air-purification control systems Honeywell sells. “We’re trying to figure out how do we do that within the aircraft.”

Then there are wilder ideas. One involves installing virus-zapping ultraviolet lights on planes. Between one set of passengers deplaning and another embarking, the intense rays could automatically irradiate the interior, killing any contagions.

Whether any of these ideas become reality is unclear. But the impressive mix reflects how Honeywell has, over the past few years, switched its thinking from one primarily concerned with operational efficiency, supplying “dumb,” if reliable, industrial parts to customers, to one that puts groundbreaking technology and automation-oriented software front and center. A member of the Fortune 500 since the list’s inception in 1955, the 134-year-old titan is in the midst of a major tech overhaul.

HONEYWELL CEO DARIUS ADAMCZYK

Software represents a “new set of muscles” for Honeywell, Adamczyk acknowledges, but he adds that it’s essential to the company’s future growth. Dallara sums up the stakes in even starker terms: “We will run out of steam, at some point, and be a very uninteresting company, if we don’t think about software inherently in everything we do.” Unlike some other smokestack-era companies, Honeywell can afford to gamble because of its relatively strong financial position. With $9 billion in cash, it has the freedom to take bigger risks and, potentially, reap bigger rewards.

But with the coronavirus pandemic, and a looming recession, Honeywell faces a huge and immediate obstacle to its lofty plans. The company’s biggest customers, airplane makers and airlines, are in a spiral that could take years to reverse. The petroleum industry, another huge source of revenue, is on the verge of collapse because of a historic drop in oil prices. And the company’s bet on “smart” building technology is looking shaky as office landlords struggle to collect rent and big hotels sit empty.

Of course, Honeywell has managed through troubled times before. The company zoomed through the Great Depression and World War II as one of the era’s most successful stocks, thanks in part to an expansion into bombsights for B-17s and electronic autopilot systems. And in the 2008 recession, during which the com?pany’s stock was booted from the Dow Jones industrial average, Honeywell hunkered down, continued investing, and emerged from the crisis stronger than ever.

But as Honeywell pushes into the hypercompetitive world of tech amid an induced coma of global shutdowns, it may be facing its greatest challenge yet. No one ever said that reinventing a company founded when many people still traveled by horse and buggy would be easy.

It all started on one chilly day in 1885.

Albert Butz had had enough. At home in Minneapolis, the Swiss immigrant headed downstairs, as he did routinely, to his coal-powered furnace and opened the damper. Cool air flowed in from the outside, and the fire burned stronger. His home warmed. But inevitably, a while later, he had the opposite problem. It got too hot. He headed back downstairs to close the vent, cutting off the airflow and taming the flames.

Such was life in the 19th century. If you wanted to be comfortable at home, you constantly had to manage it yourself. Up, down. Open, closed. Hot, cold. So Butz devised an ingenious hack: a battery-powered, motor-operated device that automatically opened and closed the furnace’s damper based on a temperature reading. He filed a patent for the gadget, which he called a “damper flapper,” and created a company—the earliest forerunner to today’s Honeywell—to market the product.

Ever since then, that company has focused on automation. Only now it does so on a huge industrial scale—minus home thermostats, a business spun out two years ago.

Honeywell’s tech can be found in buildings like the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper, where it dynamically heats and cools the massive structure. Its avionics, which help automate flight systems, are in commercial jets, spacecraft, and satellites. And UPS and FedEx equip their delivery people with its handheld scanners, while Amazon uses its conveyor belts to sort packages.

Juan Perez, chief information and engineering officer at UPS, says Honeywell is such a key partner that the two companies often collaborate on research and development. Currently, they’re exploring the use of voice assistants to guide van mechanics, freeing their hands during repairs, and artificial intelligence to tell workers how most efficiently to pack boxes into their signature brown trucks, a perpetual game of Tetris.

Adamczyk’s goal is to make Honeywell’s products more useful by giving them the ability to collect and crunch data for customers. Those devices, and any machines connected to them, would be able to operate more efficiently and autonomously, providing clients with better performance for less cost.

Because Honeywell supplies the sensor-laden equipment for industries like aerospace, energy, and logistics, it knows these businesses intimately and can build its software specifically tailored for them. In theory, it’s an advantage over tech giants like Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP, which lack the deep experience with industrial customers and whose software is mostly one-size-fits-all.

Already Honeywell’s tech push is paying off. Its software sales have undergone double-digit annual growth since the creation of a software-?focused “connected enterprise” unit two years ago—faster than in any of the company’s other divisions. Although Honeywell does not disclose its software revenue, the amount is about $4 billion annually, based on remarks Adamczyk made in an interview on CNBC. Nearly $1.5 billion of that total can be attributed to new “Internet of things” software, Honeywell’s digital glue for Internet-?connected industrial machinery, such as the type Dallara sells. The executives say the goal is to grow that segment at 20% annually.

That kind of growth is impressive for such a young initiative, but software is still just a small part of Honeywell’s overall business. Last year the company had $36.7 billion in total sales. (Story continues below.)

A trip through history

The 134-year-old company has undergone big changes over the years. Here are some key milestones.

Adamczyk is so adamant about the tech vision that he insists Honeywell isn’t really an industrial company, not anymore. He identifies the business, aspirationally, as a software-industrial company, a monstrous fish groping onto land, ready for its next phase of evolution.

Few models exist for a big whale like Honeywell to follow for its techie revamp. The path is littered with “a litany of dead bodies and failures,” Dallara says. One notable example is General Electric, now a ghost of its former glory after it famously face-planted a few years ago while attempting a similar metamorphosis. Problems including bad credit in its lending unit, plus a misguided, bet-the-farm–style acquisition of French industrial giant Alstom, all but assured failure.

Nicole DeBlase, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, says the biggest challenge to Honeywell’s tech makeover is in trying to compete against companies that focus entirely on software. Moreover, she pointed to General Electric’s doomed effort several years ago to sell software that predicted when customer machinery needed maintenance. “We all saw what happened with GE digital strategy, so we have a lot of skepticism around industrial companies that try to become software companies,” says DeBlase. Can Honeywell, with its lack of software pedigree, really create better digital tools than specialists that have been at it for years?

Darius Adamczyk never wanted to join Honeywell.

He disliked bureaucracy, any whiff of micromanagement, the feeling of a corporate overlord’s hot breath tickling his neck. He had reluctantly climbed aboard when, in 2008, the company bought his bar-code-scanner business, Metrologic, for $720 million. If Honeywell had not slapped him with “golden handcuffs,” forcing him to wait at least a year for half of his equity stock options to vest, he would never have stepped foot inside.

Once inside though, Adamczyk’s competitive spirit got the better of him. He led Honeywell’s handheld-scanner business, and he excelled. “Pardon my French, but we kicked Motorola’s ass,” says Roger Fradin, Adam?czyk’s boss at the time. Motorola had bought a Metrologic competitor in 2007, Symbol Technologies, for nearly $4 billion.

In time, Adamczyk sought to make himself invaluable. He told then-CEO Dave Cote, “Give me the most broken business you have in the portfolio, and I’ll see if I can fix it.” Pleased with Adamczyk’s performance, which included landing UPS as a major customer, Cote handed him the process solutions business, a laggard unit that sold lumbering control equipment for plants, factories, and refineries. “Okay, if you can go in and fix that,” Cote said, “well, then, there’s a lot of things you can do.”

Adamczyk, now 54, had faced adversity before. In 1977, when he emigrated at age 11 with his parents from Communist-controlled Poland to the U.S., he didn’t speak a lick of English. He was dropped into seventh grade at a self-described kindergarten reading level. “In retrospect, it probably helped me,” Adamczyk says. “It pushed me into the uncomfortable.”

He took that same gumption to the new assignment. He doubled down on new product development and helped build up a cybersecurity software unit that now brings in $100 million in annual sales. Next he successfully steered a division that produced petrol-related chemicals and catalysts through the turmoil of a 2015 to ’16 oil downturn.

Throughout his rise at Honeywell, Adamczyk used a similar strategy in his various roles: apply analytical rigor to identify areas of potential growth, chop deadweight, and lean into software and automation. It’s these tricks, plus his ability to keep a cool head, that helped him win the succession race to become Honeywell’s CEO in 2017. About Adam?czyk’s computer chops, Cote says, “He understands this in a way that I could probably study for the next 10 years and not have the same kind of grasp he does of it."

Even the pandemic leaves Adamczyk unruffled. “This is my fourth dance or black swan event or whatever you want to call it,” he says, coolly sipping from a Michigan State coffee mug, in honor of his alma mater. Thanks to his past crisis experiences, he says, “I feel much more ready for it.”

No one knows when the airline industry may recover. Warren Buffett, considered among the savviest and most patient investors, has bailed on all of his airline investments, netting billions of dollars in losses for his firm, Berkshire Hathaway, and further dashing hopes for a quick economic recovery.

Because of the global upheaval, Honeywell’s sales fell 5% during the quarter ended March 31 compared to the same period a year prior. Profits, however, rose to $2.21 per share from $1.92 with the help of share buybacks and a favorable tax change in India.

Honeywell’s results are almost certain to be worse in the current quarter. The company expects sales to plummet more than 15% from the year prior, and beyond that, the situation is so uncertain that it has withdrawn its financial outlook for the year. “The next few quarters are likely to be among the most unpredictable we have ever experienced,” Adamczyk said during an investor call on May 1.

Already, he has started slashing costs by furloughing workers and reducing executive salaries by 10%, for a total savings of $1.3 billion. More cuts are expected in the next few weeks.

Until recently, at least, Adam?czyk’s strategy seemed to be working. Honeywell’s stock had gained nearly 50% from the start of his tenure as CEO in April 2017, to the beginning of this year. But since then, the company’s shares have nose-dived, along with the rest of the market.

Despite the pandemic’s impact, there are some bright spots. One is safety equipment. To fill the shortage of protective gear required by hospitals and first responders, the company has retooled several factories to produce N95 masks—highlighted by President Trump’s recent mask-free visit to one such facility in Phoenix.

At a plant in Smithfield, R.I., Honeywell cleared out a warehouse, revamped an assembly line, and trained workers on new mask-?making machines. Plant managers hired people virtually and set up thermal scanners at factory entrances to identify potentially feverish employees. And to comply with social distancing directives, they placed six-foot poles around the facility, so staff could make sure that they’re far enough apart. “We were trying to get something done in five weeks that normally takes nine months,” says Conor Ryan, the plant’s director.

The mask production is not a temporary initiative, he says. The company expects higher demand for masks, even post-pandemic, so it plans to continue producing them for the foreseeable future.

There are other reasons for optimism too.

On the morning of March 3, before shelter-at-home orders took hold, Honeywell’s Tony Uttley dropped by Fortune’s offices in New York with a prototype in his pocket.

Earlier that day the company unveiled to the world its long-shrouded work, led by Uttley, on a quantum computer, a superfast successor to today’s zippiest supercomputers. “We kept it under NDAs so strong that not even our families knew what we were doing,” he says, holding a metal square aloft between his fingers.

What Uttley grasped was the heart of the quantum computer: a thumbnail-size device, with tiny -piano-key-like electrodes on its length. Normally it would be installed inside a vacuum chamber. As the computer operates, lasers shoot at atoms hovering just above the device’s surface.

In June, Honeywell expects to introduce the world’s “most powerful” quantum computer. The hope is that the device will, eventually, perform calculations no ordinary computer can replicate.

For Honeywell, the quantum computer represents a chance at redemption; the company almost dominated computing during the last century’s digital revolution. In 1963, Honeywell debuted the Liberator, a program meant to free people from the stranglehold of IBM by translating Big Blue software into a format readable on Honeywell machines. Later, in another challenge to IBM, Honeywell acquired computing divisions from Raytheon and GE.

Ultimately, Honeywell admitted defeat and spun out its computing business in the ’80s. But with quantum computing, Honeywell finds itself again facing off against IBM, which has a rival quantum project in progress. Tech giants like Google and Intel are also betting big on the nascent field. Like the others, Honeywell would rent use of its quantum computers to other companies. The powerful data crunching they provide could help airlines create more efficient routes, pave the way for Big Pharma to discover new drugs, and help Wall Street better manage risk.

Even in the midst of the pandemic, and the resulting steep decline in sales, Adamczyk is adamant that investing in his technology vision, from quantum computers to software for industrial customers of all stripes, will lay the groundwork for future successes. “You can’t give up on growth, ever,” he says.

Before Honeywell can fly, though, it needs us back in the sky.?

Honeywell's omnipresent portfolio

The company supplies a long list of industries. The following represents just some of what it produces.

? Bar-code scanners

? Jet engines

? N95 masks

? Industrial analytics software

? Warehouse robots

? Smart-building technology

? Compounds that replace hydrofluorocarbons in industrial refrigerators

? Spacecraft flight systems

? Commercial aircraft systems including radar, cockpit warning technology, and backup power

? Military aircraft systems

? Body armor

A version of this article appears in the June/July 2020 issue of Fortune.

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