ABB B&R China: Designing an Organization for Sustainable Innovation

Founded in Austria in 1979, B&R was an industrial automation company, providing cutting-edge technologies and solutions for machine and factory automation, motion control, and related fields to diverse industries. B&R entered the Chinese market in 1996, and in 2017 it was acquired by ABB Group. Under the leadership of Dr. Xiao Weirong, through nearly three decades of development, ABB B&R Industrial Automation (China) Co. Ltd. (B&R China) had grown into a major player in multiple industries. By 2020, China had become B&R’s second largest market. Now, in October 2023, with new opportunities arising from China’s national carbon neutrality strategy and new technologies such as artificial intelligence and intelligent manufacturing, B&R China needed to strategically design its organization to replicate past success while adapting to a changing business landscape.