Abaco 2.0: A New Way of Working

23 August 2017
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A somewhat momentous event occurred for us at Abaco a couple of weeks back when we severed our last operational ties with GE. 18 months on, we are now fully capable of standing alone. We truly appreciate our customers support and understanding as we navigated a complex process affecting every function in our company.  

Over those 18 months, we’ve learned many things - and achieved even more. We’ve established a brand in the marketplace that is visible and recognizable. We’ve hired some great talent: we’re now 150 people more than when we started out on our journey. We’ve created a whole new infrastructure from scratch – one that’s designed to support the way our customers expect us to support them. We’ve also augmented our capabilities with new product introductions and acquisitions. And: we’re profitable and stable.

But all that is in the past. That was what we think of as “Abaco 1.0”. Now, it’s time for Abaco 2.0.

Abaco 2.0 is all about how we transform ourselves to best deliver growth for our customers, our investors and each other. Our customers have trusted us with new business when we were at our most challenged, and that inspires us to do much more to help them succeed. We’ve reflected this in our updated mission statement:  “To partner with customers to support their success by solving their most complex embedded computing challenges”.

There are two key things here. The first is the notion of partnering with customers to support their success. The second is that this is about more than technology. Partnering for success covers every aspect of our relationship with customers.

Definition of success

Our definition of success is captured in our updated vision statement. It is our aspiration “to lead the next generation of rugged embedded computing solutions and our responsibility is to ensure the safety and security of those that rely on them”.

Again, there are two key points. “Next generation” implies that we innovate and deliver for the next set of needs. By including “responsibility”, we acknowledge that our products go into critical applications, and we are responsible for their quality and performance.

The key transformation in Abaco 2.0, though, has to do with how we work. Our emphasis, now more than ever, is on teamwork – and teamwork between teams. Our goal is to deliver great outcomes all day, every day. We have teams today that are delivering great outcomes by coming together with a focus on solving problems for our customers – and we want that way of working to become the norm in every corner of our company - a process we are reinforcing with a fresh approach to how we organize ourselves.

I’m very enthusiastic and excited about the potential of Abaco 2.0. It represents a new way of thinking and working together to help us achieve our next set of objectives. With the carve-out process behind us, we are redoubling our focus on our customers’ success – because we know we can only succeed if our customers succeed.

And Abaco 3.0? Let’s succeed at Abaco 2.0 first…

Bernie Anger

I am accountable for the overall performance of our company – to investors, to our employees and most importantly to our customers. Prior to Abaco I spent 18 years in a progression of technology and business leadership roles at General Electric, most recently as General Manager of GE Intelligent Platforms, from where Abaco was spun off. I am proud of a successful track record as an innovator.