Lucent Technologies in France

Best in France Case Study

April 2004 - July 2004

By: Ms Cheong, Mr Coulom, Mr Girma, Mr Moreno, Mr Remmele

Executive Overview

• What's your business?• Company products

and clients• Do company values fit

the French culture?

• Constraints in France• Adaptation to France• Key Constraint Costs• Key Benefit Numbers• Essential Advice

Lucent Technologies

• Acquisition of TRT (France) from Philips in 1996

• Telco equipment Supplier• World Sales 8.5 B$• European Market 500 M$

Company products

• No Production in France

• Production Outsourcing: Factory sold to Flextronics

• 2004 trend to outsource R&D

Company's clients

• “Top 50 operators”

• Local Support

• Sensitivity to technical local support: example of the DSL expertise center with France Telecom

Why it came to France

• France, Alcatel

• Germany, Siemens

• Local Confrontation in their home market with direct competitors

Company values

• Creative Force/Produce growth

• Awesome execution

• Unmatched customer value

• Winning environment/Winning Team

Constraints in France• No constraints• Existing Structure• Social habits different from the US• Adaptation for international teams lead

by non-French managers• Lower Adaptability/Flexibility, projects

moved to Germany/Netherlands

Adaptation to France

• What kinds of adaptations did/is the company making to its people management systems?– Recruitment/Selection– Compensation– Management Development– Performance Appraisal– Motivation – Job Design, Job Assignment– Communication Policies– International Transfers, Use of Expatriates– Training– etc.

Key Constraint Costs• What are the key costs to coming to

France that are more or less than operating in other locations?– Any or all HR type costs (hiring, paying,

training, dismissing, etc.)– Other organisation structure costs (real

estate, travel, taxes, "cultural consultants," etc.)

– Communication constraints (language)– Integration of French managers into

global organization

Key Benefit Numbers

• What are the key benefits of being in France?– Revenue/profit (revenue/profit per French

employee)– Location benefits (transport, time zone, quality

of life, employee satisfaction with France)– Government assistance– Market Potential (product penetration or growth

potential, customer demands for cultural adaptation of product(s), launch platform for other European countries, etc.)

Essential Advice

• What advice do you offer to other companies in this sector concerning use of France as a location?– Real International Culture– Local Partners– Hiring the right Person– Flexibility with the local legal

constraints

We Thank

• Manager 1: Virgine Robichon, HR Account Manager

• Manager 2: Marc Thivet, France Telecom General Account Manager

• Manager 3: Michel Muzy, CFO, Customer Group Central

Our Team

• Sze-Pei Cheong

• Vincent Coulom

• Eric Girma

• Christiano Moreno

• Claus Remmele