Rockwell Automation is an American company that was founded in 1903. The company is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and it is also a Fortune 500 company. It is a publicly-traded company that specializes in industrial automation and information technology. The founding story of the company dates back to the early 1900s and the formation of the Compression Rheostat Company. The founders of Rockwell Automation are Lynde Bradley and Dr. Stanton Allen. Rockwell Automation is operational in more than 100 countries and employs 23,000 people globally. In 2019, the annual global sales of the company reached $6.69 billion.
Founding Story Of Rockwell Automation
Lynde Bradley and Dr. Stanton Allen started the company with an initial investment of $1000 in 1903. After a year, the brother of Lynde Bradley, Harry Bradley joined the company. The same year, the company launched its first product which was a carbon disc compression-type motor controller. This crane controller was first demonstrated at the St. Louis World’s Fair. In 1909, the founders decided to rename the company to Allen-Bradley Company and the company started expanding rapidly during World War I. The company took up contract work from the government and some of the new products included automatic starters, circuit breakers, relays, and many other electric types of equipment.
After serving for years in collaboration with the government, it opened its first sales office in New York in 1914. After a couple of years, the company witnessed the unfortunate death of Stanton Allen. After this incident, Lynde Bradley became the President and Harry Bradley became the Vice President. The company made a progressive achievement in 1918 as it hired its first female worker, Julia Polczynski. During the 1920s, the company expanded its radio business and by the end of the decade reached a total sales of $3 million. The company suffered losses during the Great Depression and made lay-offs and reduced wages but eventually started offering stocks to compensate for the wages and it gave fruitful results.
During The 20th Century
During the 1900s, Lynde Bradley hugely invested in R&D so that the company can revolver the losses during the depression period. In 1942, Harry Bradley became the new President of the company as Lynde passed away and with his assets, The Lynde Bradley Foundation was established. Soon the company was again invested in producing wartime machinery during World War II. The rate of production was again escalated to unexpected levels as the company produced different types of electrical components and military equipment. To meet the production needs during the war, the plant facilities were expanded in a two-year expansion project.
The company eventually came under a new leadership team during the 1970s (Harry Bradley passed away in 1965) and entered the global market. In the early 1980s, the company introduced a new product line of programmable logic controllers. Allen-Bradley reached the $1 billion sales mark in 1985 and the same year Rockwell International decided to purchase the company for $1.65 billion. After this massive merger in the history of Wisconsin, the new business arm of the merged company was formed including Rockwell Software in 1994 and the Logix control platform in 1997. During this decade, the company also acquired several businesses including a power system business composed of Reliance Electric and Dodge.
Present Days
In 2001, Rockwell International was divided into companies namely, Rockwell Automation and Rockwell Collins. New executive members were brought on board and the company sold its Power Systems division to Baldor Electric Company for $1.8 billion. In 2007, the company acquired ICS Triplex, and recently it has acquired two new companies, Avnet Data Security and Kalypso L.P. In 2019, the company also launched its Digital Partner Program to contribute more significantly towards digital transformation.
Blake Moret – CEO And Chairman Of Rockwell Automation
Blake Moret joined Rockwell Automation in 1985 as a sales trainee. He has served in several leadership positions in the company since then. Before he became the CEO of the company in 2016, he was the Senior Vice President of Control Products and Solutions in the company. Currently, he also serves as the Chairman of the Board as well. Blake graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in mechanical engineering.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more