En eerlijk is eerlijk .......... dit verkondigt hij al vanaf zijn aantreden in 2001. The Financial Times: COMPANIES & FINANCE UK & IRELAND: Staff trimmed at Invensys's Dutch unit By Martin Ottomeier in Hamburg and John Kipphoff in London Financial Times; Jan 23, 2003 Baan, the Dutch software company owned by Invensys, the diversified industrial group, quietly cut 8 per cent of its worldwide workforce during the last quarter of 2002. The move to cut an estimated 250 jobs mainly among the sales and consulting teams - bringing the total down to 3,000 - signals the difficulties Baan is encountering in fulfilling Invensys's ambitious plans for the key production management division, which contributes about a quarter of group sales. Baan, which specialises in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, is supposed to play an integral part in achieving an almost threefold rise in margins to 8-10 per cent by March 2004, in the vision of Rick Haythornthwaite, Invensys chief executive. But Ralf Othmer, managing director of Baan Deutschland, said customers' reluctance to invest meant Baan was not meeting internal targets: "At the moment we're not achieving double-digit growth." Mr Othmer said he expected only a minimal improvement in 2003. Baan confirmed it had cut 10 per cent of its consultants, reducing their numbers to 500 worldwide. The company blamed investment deferrals by customers and said it was re- focusing on its core markets, manufacturing industries and others with greater growth potential. Invensys would not comment yesterday. However, it has always defended its controversial £470m acquisition of the lossmaking Dutch software company, which Allen Yurko, chief executive at the time, admitted was in "financial melt-down". The company does not break out separate sales and profit figures for Baan, but Mr Haythornthwaite, who was appointed chief executive 16 months ago to rescue Invensys from its own melt-down, has said that Baan is breaking even. Under his care, Invensys has just completed a massive disposal programme, almost halving debt that stood at £3.2bn when Mr Haythornthwaite took over in October 2001. The company has continued to insist that Baan was not for disposal and was central to its recovery plans, which involve offering integrated production management systems. The production management division is the laggard of the group, with operating margins still only at 3.2 per cent - well behind those of its other two divisions, which both managed over 8 per cent. Given the depressed state of the IT and industrial sectors, analysts doubt the division will be able to raise margins to 8-10 per cent by March 2004. Groetjes, An