A hardware company trying to make software
Pros
Rockwell definitely has a solid foundation and business model for staying in operation. Its a good place to be for a steady state job. Salary and benefits are competitive with the industry. They are striving to be a technology company for automation controls.
Cons
Top Management doesn't seem to have an understanding of software development and has a primary focus on the current bottom line which is driven by hardware sales. The focus, execution model and priorities of the business do not align with progressive development practices needed to achieve the software quality levels needed to be competitive. Rockwell as a company does not seem to have figured out how to develop and retain top talent. Through a combination of lack of employee development, lack of job level growth planning, and execution on employee feedback, employees are forced into leaving the company to move up in their careers or just leaving the company to return at a later date to achieve the fundamental result of a promotion. I have heard it a number of time that you have to leave and come back in order to get a promotion. The company also does not integrate into their development systems an appropriate improvement model to empower engineers and engineering managers to collect feedback and implement changes which will drive the correct behavior and systemic solutions to benefit the company and staff. Collaboration of multiple disciplines within the sub-organizations is operationally poor at best. These functions need to be brought together under a unified direction with focused problems and be driven for sustainable results. There are way to many short term solutions and making the numbers look good to be successful.
