Some organisations achieve greatness, others have greatness thrust upon them and - with apologies to Shakespeare - some grow greatness through mergers, acquisitions and sheer hard work.
In the small Connecticut, US town of Windsor Locks, an aerospace giant is coming out of its shell.
Hamilton Sundstrand (Hall 5, Stand B19-20)), the product of a 1999 merger between Hamilton Standard and Sundstrand, is standing on its own two feet. Part of United Technologies, its business performance has historically been rolled in to the figures of sister company Sikorsky.
David Hess, the new president of the company, says this transparency is all good news for Hamilton Sundstrand (HS).
Hess took over the top job in January this year. With 25 years under his belt at HS, there was nothing about the company that was going to shock him.
"I joined straight from graduate school so I have really grown up with this business. There was no culture shock, no steep learning curve. Ron McKenna did a great job in blending the talent to create a single unified organisation and I'm proud to be carrying on that work."
'That work' is an incredible list of products and services that reads like an index to an encyclopaedia of the aerospace industry: Its aerospace business provides electric power generating, distribution, management and control systems; fuel and special fluid pumps; engine control systems; gearboxes; primary and secondary flight controls and actuation systems; ram air turbine emergency systems; auxiliary power units; environmental control systems; propeller systems; torpedo propulsion systems; launch vehicle hydraulic power units; and electronic controls and components.
The company is also the prime contractor for NASA's space suit/life support system and produces environmental control, life support, mechanical systems and thermal control systems for international space programs.
It is this breadth and the ability to integrate these systems that Hess believes is giving HS the edge.
"Offering the breadth that we do gives us an advantage that is unmatched in the industry. We compete with Goodrich on some things, with Honeywell on others but nobody else has the strength or ability to offer the entire suite of systems.
"We have seen this with Boeing who realise we can manage the integration of systems that allows us to take out weight and take out costs."
This has seen HS pick up the majority of the systems content on the Boeing 787 with 92% of the bids it made accepted by the manufacturer. "We want to leverage the capability for systems integration and win more content on other programmes," says Hess.
"We have already achieved major wins on the most important new aircraft programmes for our customers. These include the US military's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Airbus 380 and A400M military transport, and the Embraer 170/190 family of regional jets."
The unified business achieved sales of $3.9 billion in 2004 and Hess is confident of continued growth - "our space business will grow by 25% this year" - as the company rides the horse of a recovering industry.
Hess is urging his people to recognise that growth puts strain on production systems but that the company's commitment to operational excellence cannot diminish.
"The term 'operational excellence' applies to all of our office and factory processes. It means achieving all of our internal company objectives, from financial targets to ACE (Achieving Competitive Excellence) goals to compliance with the UTC Code of Ethics to protecting the health and safety of employees and minimising our impact on the environment.
"With operational excellence, we will perform in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible in all areas throughout our entire end-to-end value chain, from suppliers to internal activities to our customers."
There has been a huge focus on cost reduction - described by Hess as an Operations Transformation initiative. "We have taken action to eliminate excess capacity, consolidate core work in the lower-cost HS plants and obtain non-core products and services from other companies able to supply them at the lowest cost with the quality we require."
And now with 16,000 employees worldwide the company is developing into a major global player.
With businesses right across Europe (see panel) China, Russia and Southeast Asia, Hamilton Sundstrand is keen to develop this global position.
"We see partnership as the way ahead for us," says Hess. "In-country partnerships give us access to markets and to local knowledge. It has worked for our industrial business and is working for aerospace too. We are seeing success in our after-market business where we joint-venture with an airline. We are working with China Eastern, Malaysia and in Singapore in this way."
Hess sees continued expansion and new partnerships as a key strategy.
"We have reasons to be optimistic about our future. Our systems integration strategy is working. We are winning more work on new aircraft and increasing our aftermarket business. And we are a strong part of the President's commitment to expand the US presence in space."
Source: Flight Daily News