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FERGUSON — Last year, the CEO of Emerson issued a call to arms to civic and business leaders to invest in education, jobs and public safety or risk losing more businesses to other cities.

Now, he's saying Emerson has walked the walk — and he's renewing his call for action.

Lal Karsanbhai, in an exclusive interview with the Post-Dispatch, reflected on the future of Emerson, on his decision to keep the company in the region and on his strident op-ed that shook the region's leaders.

Emerson, he says, has followed his advice: The company is increasing its charitable spending here to $30 million a year from from $20 million, including the launch of a new literacy effort. Karsanbhai meets quarterly with Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ police Chief Robert Tracy at a roundtable with six other leaders. And he's throwing his support behind Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ Lambert International Airport's $2.8 billion plan to consolidate its two terminals into a single new passenger concourse.

Change is also afoot at the 134-year-old Emerson. 

The Fortune 500 company is transitioning from an old-school industrial company to a technology-forward firm focused on automation. It's a new strategy that follows what Karsanbhai said is Emerson's long tradition of "making a great company better." 

"This is a company that relies on mathematics more so than it does on gut to make decisions," Karsanbhai said in the interview last week. "That element of our culture has translated into a very solid, consistent operating performance."

The company also is nearing a historic relocation from its longtime headquarters on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson to the top floors of a new Clayton high-rise. It was a fraught decision that took the company months to come to and one that kept the region in limbo over whether Emerson would leave town altogether.

Karsanbhai said supporting Tracy as well as Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore and the airport's leadership team and their goals are critical and long-term initiatives for the betterment of the region. 

But it's not clear how many leaders have taken Karsanbhai's op-ed to heart, nor if their work has been successful.

The region is just starting to see demonstrative job growth. Test scores across the region's schools have stagnated. And downtown Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ is still grappling with lawlessness and office vacancy. Emerson itself bypassed moving its headquarters to downtown, and its longtime public relations firm, FleishmanHillard, recently said it too is moving to Clayton, after 70 years downtown. 

"Part of the opportunity for business leaders is to simplify things," Karsanbhai said, "to bring it down to to the least common denominator, where we can have the most impact in the community."

'I wanted to live here'

Karsanbhai can similarly simplify Emerson's investment into automation.

For decades, Emerson was known as an industrial manufacturer and for consumer products such as air conditioning compressors, garbage disposals and ceiling fans. In recent years, the company began pivoting toward automation. By the time Karsanbhai became CEO in 2021, automations — a division he ran — represented two-thirds of the company's revenue. 

He believes most of Emerson's customers over the next 20-30 years will be spending heavily in sustainability, digital transformation, energy security and nearshoring, or the relocation of operations closer to a company's headquarters.

Emerson has divested some aspects of its business — like its air conditioning and refrigeration business now known as Copeland — and acquired other businesses to further its automation gains, such as its takeover of Texas-based National Instruments that gives Emerson access into markets like semiconductors, electric vehicles, aerospace and defense.

"I painted a vision for a new Emerson, an Emerson that would be focused around automation, and not just for the sake of automation," he said. 

That vision prompted a rethinking of its Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ presence, Karsanbhai said. 

The company employs about 400 people locally. But it has thousands of workers in Austin, Texas; Boulder, Colorado; Minneapolis and Boston.

And when it compared each city on key metrics, like public safety and airport connectivity, Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ came in last. Management spent months debating the pros and cons.

Karsanbhai ultimately chose Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ. 

He credited his daughter's enthusiasm for the region — her love for the Cardinals, Forest Park, the Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ Art Museum, among others — for persuading him.

And he said data, showing that companies don't see incremental value when they move, confirmed it. 

"These companies move where management wants to live and where there are tax advantages," Karsanbhai said. "I wanted to live here. I wanted to raise my kids here, and the data supported my decision."

Partnerships need to improve

The experience of weighing a new headquarters prompted Karsanbhai to pen an op-ed challenging the region's civic and business leaders to take action to improve education, jobs and public safety here. 

"Words are no longer enough," he wrote. "Handwringing is getting us nowhere. Business leaders must come together to build a stronger community that leaves no question of its viability as a great place to grow a company."

"While the barren streets of downtown tempt us to scapegoat this as a city problem, that conclusion is an easy way to shrug off the need for widespread action," he continued. 

By spring, Emerson will have moved into its new Clayton headquarters at Forsyth and Brentwood boulevards.

It's closer to where Emerson employees live, Karsanbhai said. And he disagrees that moving there — instead of downtown — contradicts his call to action. Emerson, he said, invests in many ways. 

"Moving to Clayton was the right decision for our employees," he said. "After the op-ed, a number of business leaders in the community came to see me, and we made commitments around public safety and investment in public safety." 

Crime and policing are complex issues that require complex solutions, he said. But the region is on the right track with Tracy and Gore's focus on prevention and intervention in policing. 

Emerson is helping with prevention through its focus on education, Karsanbhai said. 

The company committed to spending $200 million over the next 10 years on K-6 education. Last month, it launched a $1 million literacy program with The Opportunity Trust, which funds charter schools. That program will work with two charter schools and the University City and Ferguson-Florissant school districts.

Emerson also tripled its donations to the Urban League of Metropolitan Ó£ÌÒÊÓƵ, which works heavily in Ferguson, to $1.5 million a year, from $500,000. 

More investment in the region is coming, Karsanbhai said. 

But he said more change needs to happen. 

"Without leaning either way politically on this," he said, "I think certainly public-private partnerships need to continue to improve. I think those conversations are critical."

Editor's Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported the name of The Opportunity Trust. Job growth also was updated in the story.