
Morten, what were the highlights of 2024?
How did ABB perform?
This year we made good progress on many
fronts. On the performance side, our financial
results continued to improve, despite the un-
certain economic and geopolitical environment
in which we are operating. This shows that the
ABB Way is the right operating model for this
company. 2024 was a new record year for us
in many ways as we improved on most of our
financial headlines. The market for robotics
continued to be challenging but given the aging
global labor force and the trend for reshoring
and nearshoring, we are confident in the lon-
ger-term prospects of this business.
On M&A we ramped up our activities signifi-
cantly, although not all closed yet, announcing
eight acquisitions with annual revenues over
$500 million. We also launched several ground-
breaking innovations. One is a next-generation
robotics platform which increases business
productivity and flexibility through faster,
more precise and more autonomous automa-
tion; another is a new concept to improve the
energy efficiency of medium-voltage motors,
which account for 10 percent of the world’s
electricity consumption.
I am particularly proud of the improvement in
our employee engagement score, which rose for
the sixth consecutive year to 78 percent, making
ABB a best-in-class company.
You succeeded Björn Rosengren as CEO on
August 1. How were your first months in the
new role? Are you planning to make
any changes?
My first five months as CEO have been energiz-
ing. ABB is in good shape and I have the privi-
lege to partner with a great leadership team,
including the new Electrification and Motion
Presidents. What’s made the transition easier
is that I have been deeply involved in ABB’s
transformation from the start, having led the
implementation of our successful decentralized
operating model, ABB Way, in the two largest of
our four business areas.
In terms of where we go from here, the ABB Way
is here to stay. That means we will maintain
consistency in our ways of working, guided by
our purpose. We will continue to focus on ac-
countability, transparency and speed to build a
high-performance, high-integrity collaborative
culture and to actively manage our portfolio.
Given my experience at ABB, I believe I am well
positioned to challenge and guide the business
areas and divisions to reach higher and deliver
even better profitability and growth – both or-
ganic and acquired – in line with our targets.
We have also launched a new global brand posi-
tioning for ABB to increase customers’ under-
standing of what ABB does and how we create
superior value for our customers. Increasing
familiarity with what ABB does represents a
significant commercial opportunity for us and
should also help ABB attract top talent.
Driving profitable growth is a priority for you,
how do you plan to achieve that? Are you fo-
cusing on ramping up M&A?
Following our transformation, we are well po-
sitioned to capitalize on the trend towards
electrification and on the growing demand
for automation as companies seek to improve
their productivity and flexibility. We ended the
year with about 60 percent of our revenues on
a growth mandate, which early in 2025 changed
to 70 percent in growth mode. Our management
compensation and strategic priorities have
been adjusted accordingly.
We will drive organic growth by increasing
investments in R&D and capitalizing on our
technology leadership, which is based on best-
in-class hardware operated with embedded
software and control functions. Approximately
60 percent
1
of our products and services are
digitally enabled and over half
1
of our R&D pro-
fessionals are dedicated to software. At the
same time artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming
an increasingly important driver of how we cre-
ate value for the industries we serve, and we are
committed to responsible development and use.
When it comes to M&A, we have been steadily
building up a strong pipeline of acquisition
targets. With the deals announced already
we should be within our average target
range of adding 1 to 2 percent of revenues
via acquisitions.
What are your capital allocation priorities?
Our goal is profitable growth. That means our
first priority is to fund organic growth through
investments in R&D and production capacity.
Beyond that, our policy is to pay a rising, sus-
tainable dividend over time. With our remaining
free cash flow, we intend to increase our M&A
activities. And as we announced a new, larger
program of up to $1.5 billion for 2025, share
buybacks will remain on our agenda, but ulti-
mately, the utilization level of buyback programs
depends on how much we spend on M&A.
1.
Management
estimates.
21
ABB INTEGRATED REPORT 2024
Introduction
Value creation
Outputs and Outcomes
Good governance
Performance-based compensation
Appendix