best in france: altis semiconductor may 2004 interviews of franck bermon, hr director pascal louis,...

Best in France:Best in France:Altis SemiconductorAltis Semiconductor

May 2004May 2004

Interviews ofInterviews of

Franck Bermon, HR DirectorFranck Bermon, HR Director

Pascal Louis, R&D Director Pascal Louis, R&D Director

Marcus Reisinger, Financial DirectorMarcus Reisinger, Financial Director

Vincent MAHEO

Thibaud MOULIN

Louis POULAIN

HEC

Master in Large Projects

Management

Best in France - HEC - May 2004 MAHEO – MOULIN - POULAIN

MAP OF ALTIS CASE

1. Presentation of Altis and its challengers

2. Interviewed People

3. France, factors of (un)success• HR• R&D• Social and Laws• Finance• Logistic• Quality of life

4. Multiculture in Altis

Conclusion : Why does Altis stay in France ?

PRESENTATION of ALTIS and its CHALLENGERS


Presentation People France Multiculture Conclusion

• IBM on the site of Corbeil-Essonnes in 1941

• IBM Microelectronics is created there in 1964, first advanced components manufacture in Europe

• in the early 90’s, Siemens works on a technical project in the site of Corbeil

• the financial sky of IBM Microelect. looks stormy and to save the company, a 50/50 joint-venture between IBM and Infineon (Siemens) is created in July 1999. Altis Semiconductor was born.

2500 people Logics

a revolutionary R&D project:

MRAM

40% sales in Europe

Flash memory578 M€ (gross income 2001)

15% of mobile phones use Altis components

PRESENTATION of ALTIS and its CHALLENGERS



in Europe: Siemens and their famous semiconductor center in Dresden (Germany)

the twin manufacture of Altis

in Asia: Taïwan, China, Korea...many foundries with low costs but not a so

high technology and IP issues

in the USA: not so many on Altis’ sector

INTERVIEWED PEOPLE



• Franck Bermon, HR & Communication Director

Social & Laws aspects Operating and managing qualities Subsidies

• Pascal Louis, New Technologies Director

Research in France Operating and managing qualities State structure

• Marcus Reisinger, Financial Director

Managing in France, Germany and the USA Taxes and salaries Investment policy

HUMAN RESSOURCES


Presentation People France MulticultureConclusion

• to work 24h a day, Altis needs 5 teams whereas US and Asian need only 4 (vacation, work time)

• Asian salaries are not comparable to French

• in this sector, investments are huge so the impact of higher salaries is reduced: 15 to 20% of costs

20 to 25% less for competitiveness

• French engineers have a general education and are creative

• French need a strong boss who takes final decisions on his own and do not appreciate to find a consensus (≠ German)

• Not enough technicians in France

RESEARCH & DEVELOPPMENT



• Partnership with high level Universities (Orsay)

• IBM has decided to give a revolutionary R&D projet, MRAM to Altis, why ?

pre-existing R&D engineering

close from Orsay Univ. (the creators of MRAM)

state subsidies

SOCIAL and LAWS



• Laws:

Intellectual property well protected (≠ Asia) Flexibility hardly possible (≠ world)

• Syndicates: embarrassing partners...

• Important role of politics: the mayor of Corbeil, Serge Dassault, very close from the current government has put pressure to get important subsidies from MRAM project

• To handle with all complex administrative issues, foreign companies have to hire French specialists (≠ USA)

• Government structure not appropriate to companies: Research and Industry administrations do not walk the same way

FINANCE



• Subsidies: in France, the system is very complex (many actors from the State down to the city), they are low and only dedicated to projects (≠ China, rusty sites: Dresden)

• Taxes: very high (≠ USA) and complex (≠ Germany) for the company and its employees. But the SC sector is in crisis, and a company does not pay taxes if it looses money...

• Banks: only international banks can deal with this amount of investment, so no specially French banking behaviour

• Investment: French think more on a long run (≠ USA, IBM’s demand for ROI=6 months !) and take less risks (=Europe)

LOGISTIC



• the proximity of the two Parisian airports is important: all products are delivered by air and 60% are sent out of Europe

QUALITY of LIFE



• the French way of life is an advantage to convince foreigners to work in France

• Paris and its prestige is well appreciated by singles

• the Parisian suburbs are a good location for families with their international schools

MULTICULTURE in ALTIS



• triple culture: French, German and American (advantage for managers)

• 15 nationalities (~40 German)

• languages problems

• less cultural differences between a French and a German than between an engineer and a commercial

CONCLUSION:

WHY DOES ALTIS STAY IN FRANCE ?



• now, on Altis’ sector, engineering is more important than costs

• Intellectual Property is a major issue

• an important part of Altis’ clients are European

France keeps its leading position, but until when ?

China developps their engineering education

With high level engineering and low costs, there will last only one point to prevent Altis from relocating in China: IP

best in france: altis semiconductor may 2004 interviews of franck bermon, hr director pascal louis,...

Documents

france hec

france slide

presentation of altis

altis semiconductor

altis sector slide

altis components

altis conclusion

laws best