Randy Zwirn, President of the Westinghouse Power
Generation Business Unit, took the helm at the Westinghouse Orlando power
generation headquarters in his 21st year of management responsibility
with the company. He has been in power generation since 1982. The business
unit presidency is his peak to date in a fast track career that saw him
begin, perhaps prophetically, in the company's international operations.
Siemens acquired Westinghouse Power Generation
from CBS and renamed it Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation adding
300,000 MWs to the company's installed base.
Randy Zwirn stayed on as CEO and became a member
of the Executive Management Board.
"The power market, mainly in the US, has
seen a marked resurgence," Zwirn, a member of World Cogeneration's
Class of 2000 said as he announced contracts totaling $2.2 billion which
will add over 7,000 megawatts to the U.S. power grid.
The 50 HZ market accounted for 80 percent of
Siemens business while the 60 HZ market accounted for 90 percent of the
Westinghouse business before the merger. Zwirn sees this as complementing
the new company both geographically and technologically. Zwirn envisions
further synergies. Westinghouse has a great deal of experience in working
with Architect Engineers, he observed, while Siemens has knowledge of
turnkey construction of power plants.
"What we're doing," says Zwirn, "builds
on a base market strategy - that is, we're setting up sustainable, competitive
bases in the regions we target. We establish systems and structure, with
a strong local orientation. And we're there to stay."
Zwirn has a personal philosophy about doing
business around the world. "We don't just emphasize hardware when
we approach a customer," he says, "even though we continue to
put major resources into technology, product development and manufacturing."
Instead, he promotes solutions tailored to local requirements. "Just
about everywhere we go, customers are being driven by competitive pressures.
That's a whole new world, and we're tuned to it." In the United States,
he is convinced, the formula for customer satisfaction has changed basically.
"There are some myths in this market," he insists, offering
an example. "We keep hearing that there is too much US capacity,
but we see many places and competitive situations that could be helped
with a new plant. Particularly with advanced combustion turbines, we've
achieved such a high level of efficiency that it can be a good investment
to build a new power plant. It can make real financial sense for an owner
or investor who sees the opportunities being created by deregulation and
competition." He calls for a clean cut with the past, an imaginative
step into a new way of trying to see what his customers, and potential
customers, really need to be competitive. "The real measure of success
in the mind of today's power generator," he says, "is how many
kilowatt-hours he can sell at a profit-making price. So availability,
for example, isn't just availability, it's availability during peak periods
of demand, when the price of power is higher, and you can get a decent
margin." The old measures of success are outdated for Zwirn, and
for his organization. "Our customers are entering an extremely competitive
period in the history of this industry. We want to offer the specific
kinds of value power generators need - help them to make power to make
money. Period."
When the point is made to Zwirn that more efficient
transmission may reduce need for some new generation facilities, he just
repeats his remarks about providing solutions first and hardware second.
"You can't be successful," he says, "unless you have successful
customers."
"We're focused on excellence in every aspect
of the business," Zwirn says. "That includes the way we execute
our contracts." He makes such statements with an emphasis that leaves
little doubt about his own commitment.
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