Agilent President and CEO Bill Sullivan discusses value creation and innovation...

Agilent President and CEO Bill Sullivan discusses value creation and innovation at Southeast University in China

Agilent President and CEO Bill Sullivan visited Southeast University (SEU) in Nanjing, China on Oct. 16, where he addressed the topic of value creation and innovation at Agilent to more than 1,000 students and faculty members.

Following a brief overview of Agilent, Sullivan turned his attention to Asia's importance in the company's growth goals, stating that 40 percent of the company's fiscal 2006 revenue was from the Asia Pacific region, with revenues in China and India expected to continue a strong growth pattern. Sullivan said that Agilent's global footprint offers unmatched service and support with facilities and employees in the region across manufacturing, research and development, administration, and sales and marketing disciplines.

To ensure sustainable value creation in the global technology economy, Sullivan underscored the need to constantly innovate. Dramatic shifts in regional economic growth, environmental impacts of the global human footprint, and revolutions in information, digital communications and biotechnology are just a few examples of how technology challenges continue to be impacted by changing world developments, he said. To sustain value in the market, technology professionals must continually address the changing global economy. According to Sullivan, the ability to innovate continuously is key to sustainable value creation. However, Sullivan noted, innovation is not just about products and technology. It's also about business models, customer relationships, and management processes with a balance of risk-taking and failure tolerance.

Sullivan provided his audience with several Agilent case studies that exemplify the role of various business disciplines in the creation of sustainable value. One example he noted was the development of the company's Chengdu Instrument Division (CID). Established in Jan. 2005, CID began as a joint venture between Agilent and Chengdu Qianfeng Electronics Ltd. Corp. to develop and manufacture test equipment for the China and global market. The approach was to develop high-performance Radio Frequency (RF) instrumentation from off-the-shelf components and offer a multi-language user interface to address regional market needs. This venture and subsequent development of CID enabled Agilent to re-enter the hand-held market after a 20 year hiatus.

Sullivan closed his presentation with an overview of Agilent's model for value creation which targets four key business areas:

• Teams -- Ensuring employees align with the company's strategic intent and have the appropriate environment, skills and resources to meet customer needs.
• Technology -- Focusing on differentiable and sustainable technology, not just "me too" technologies.
• Markets -- Ensuring a clear market segmentation model and strategic intent.
• Business Model -- Maintaining a well-defined business model that is consistent and disciplined.

SEU is an active participant in both the international research community and development of future wireless standards in China. During his visit at SEU, Sullivan met with Yi Hong, President of SEU, and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University, ensuring a long-time collaboration between Agilent and SEU that includes joint laboratory developments, internship programs, and collaboration in the wireless communications and Radio Frequency (RF) technology areas.