Pick a few leading industrial companies. Now close your eyes and try to visualize their operations. What images come to mind? Very likely you envisioned gleaming R&D laboratories and bustling factories fed by smoothly running supply chains – in short, well–oiled industrial machines geared to delivering high–tech products of impeccable quality at competitive prices to ever–more–demanding customers. Chances are that you visualized the operations of companies such as ABB, GEC Alsthom, General Electric, Otis, Renault, Siemens, or Xerox, to name but a few.