Automotive News Europe - Talk From The Top Supplement - December 2019 - 33

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

TALK FROM THE TOP

published by both. Neither is currently in
crisis. So, full respect to the current top
executives of the two companies -- chapeau bas (hats off), as we say in French.
[PSA-FCA would be] such a big entity, with
such a high level of things to be achieved,
that we would need all of them. The second thing is that the only rule would be
meritocracy: In the interests of everybody
in the company, in each key position you
should pick the best possible executive to
deliver results for everybody to enjoy.
Do you want to become a bigger automaker or become a mobility provider?
A bigger carmaker would be very helpful, because if you don't become larger to
dilute your r&d costs and have a volume
scale effect on the purchasing of components such as batteries you could be in
trouble. It's especially helpful with electrification, because you will have leverage to
buy kilowatt hours at the most competitive
price. Those two factors are real. That is
where it helps. And specifically, for people
working in regions where there are going
to be significant breakthroughs on CO2 objectives, scale would be a real benefit.
PSA does not have a designated chief
operating officer. How do you manage decision-making?
I am a strong believer in a matrix organization. At PSA we operate within three
axes: the regions, the brands and the functions. Even within this three-dimensional
operation, we have business units that go
through and try to boost the system. For
example, we could have the CEO of Peugeot reporting on volumes and profit, then
the European head report on total profits,
volumes, market share, quality and customer satisfaction for all brands in the
region. On the functional side, we would
look at whether we are ready to launch a
new car, are manufacturing costs being reduced? So we are constantly reviewing the
business in three dimensions.
How is this beneficial?
It's very important to let the matrix
breathe. People are human. They have
different characters, and they express
them in a personal way. If you "lock" the
matrix, it will break because you can't
force people to all act in the same way.
In the end, I don't care about the win for
the brand, for the region or for the function. I want PSA to win as a whole.

2019

In Partnership with

Tavares says PSA feels it has an ethical responsibility to reduce CO2.
To do so it will offer models such as the full-electric Peugeot e-208.

You are a big believer in agility. When
your company grows, how do you
maintain its maneuverability?
Adding Opel/Vauxhall to Peugeot, Citroen
and DS was a good learning experience.
What I'm trying to do is find the spirit in what
we want to achieve as an efficient team.
People come to me with a paper with, say,
10 bullet points. I will listen to what they are,
then say, "OK, what is the spirit of what we
want to do?" If people understand that then
they won't ask you every day what they
should or should not do. They don't have
to ask me for validation. Therefore, you will
have more time because people will have
more autonomy. It is rewarding and they
can unleash their potential in a way that is
much more fulfilling for them, and it gives
me much more time.

On Jan. 1 new EU CO2 regulations will
start to take effect and fleet emissions will have to drop sharply to
95 grams per kilometer. How will PSA
flip that switch?
We have a very precise process. I can't say
a lot about it because it's highly competitive, but it involves our production, our order book, and making our dealers actors in
what we are doing, not just followers. For
us, it's an ethical matter [to meet CO2 targets], not just a financial matter. Our employees' children might ask them someday,
"What did you do to fix the global warming
issue?" So, they want to say that despite
working at a car company, they are contributing -- and working really hard -- to address global warming.

Are you making fewer decisions now?
Certainly. But there are still topics where
people don't feel comfortable enough
to take a strong position, so they can
use their monthly one-on-one, one-hour
meetings with me to ask for guidance.

Meeting emissions targets means
electrification. Do you have any battery supply concerns, and should Europe have more battery factories?
We have secured enough battery supply
for the next three years, but in the longer
term the question will be there. That is
why we support the idea of a European
battery champion project. We understand that strategically, on a long-term
basis, we don't want to be dependent on
the Asian suppliers, despite the fact that
we have excellent relations with them.
But such a project cannot succeed if we
don't get the appropriate support as a
strategic investment from the EU. ANE

One area, however, in which both
companies are weak is China. How
would a merger with FCA help?
At least for PSA, I can recognize that we
haven't achieved very much in China. But
if we come together it could give us a lever
to get things done there. The fact that we
would be together would, perhaps, open
other doors or different doors than the
ones we could open alone.

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Automotive News Europe - Talk From The Top Supplement - December 2019

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