Brooke Sutherland, Columnist

Emerson Is Stuck in the Past. Just Ask Its New CEO.

Lal Karsanbhai has a plan to boost the company's lagging valuation, and it starts with a cultural overhaul.

August 3, 2021 at 12:36 PM UTC

Brooke Sutherland is Bloomberg News' Boston bureau chief and writes the Industrial Strength Newsletter. She was previously a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies and an M&A reporter for Bloomberg News.

“I’m not going to tell you the culture of this company is 1950 but I’m pretty sure that it’s not 2021,” Emerson CEO Lal Karsanbhai said. — “I’m not going to tell you the culture of this company is 1950 but I’m pretty sure that it’s not 2021,” Emerson CEO Lal Karsanbhai said.
Photographer: Eddie Seal/Bloomberg

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When Emerson Electric Co.’s Lal Karsanbhai was first approached about becoming a candidate to succeed longtime Chief Executive Officer Dave Farr, he said no thanks. It was 2016; he had 1-year-old twins and was finally settled in running an Emerson division in the Minneapolis area after working all over the world as an up-and-coming executive.