Alstom is a prolific multinational conglomerate with over 85,000 employees worldwide, operating in 70 countries. Founded in 1928, Alstom has since become a global leader in transport, power generation, and transmission. Operating in Tianjin since 1995, Alstom Hydro China (AHC) has led the way in creating clean energy in the country. They have supplied hydro power generator units for large, prestigious energy projects such as the Three Gorges Project, Guanyinyan, Liyuan, and Xiangjiaba. Currently, AHC is in the process of relocating their facilities to a new site in the Tianjin Airport Economic Zone. The new site will be completely carbon-neutral utilising many high-tech and innovative designs such as double insulation, heat recovery systems, geothermal heating and cooling systems, rain water recycling, and photovoltaic panels. 

 

Business Tianjin recently had an opportunity to meet with the General Manager of AHC, Yves Rannou. Mr. Rannou has worked for Alstom, in various positions around the world, during the past 15 years. When we met him, he had just arrived back from a ceremony for the Three Gorges Project.

 

I first came to China in 2001 for a short business trip to subcontract some engineering activities. The first time I came to live here was in 2005 and I stayed for two years. I have been living in Tianjin for just over a year now.  

 

The challenge we face in China are not unique ones. They are similar to the challenges we have in other parts of the world. I see the most important is to help our employees understand the impact that they are creating; not only in China but outside China as well. We are working in a company that exports worldwide, for example to North and Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia. It is vital for the management to convey these messages to our employees so that they are proud and motivated, realizing that their job is not just to weld two steel plates together, but to deliver a finished product to [for instance] our Canadian customers. My goal is to have our employees understand and evolve whilst transforming their mindsets and ultimately, the way they approach their jobs. 

 

The second challenge is to have our employees adapt their speed to that of the company. What I mean is their mindset towards the speed of development. They want to develop extremely quickly in China but the company cannot follow the same pace as their expectations- simply because the market is not developing as quickly. So the challenges are a lot about the mindset that we shape for our employees.

 

The turnover rate of our company is well below the market. To me, the reason is not money. It is the atmosphere, the working environment, the management style, and the ability of the managers to inspire their employees. So if I base my assessment on the way we have managed to keep our people, then I think we have made a significant step towards what we want to achieve. Furthermore, the feedback from our customers has been positive. They have been satisfied with the attitudes and the behaviour of our employees. I suspect we are on the right track. 

 

I want to emphasise that we are building a complete industrial site. It’s not only a factory, it's also a research and development site as well as an office where we will have 600 to 700 people. Alstom has not developed a big container where they put 2000 people inside and they weld for 8 hours a day. We started the joint-venture in 1995 with just a factory but then expanded the added value. So yes, we have the factory and while it is the most visible part of the iceberg it's only 50% of our head count. 

 

In 2008 the municipality decided to relocate the industrial activity to the east side of Tianjin- closer to the Binhai area and Tianjin Binhai International Airport. At that time, Alstom was looking to expand its footprint in Tianjin. So we started construction on the new site and completed the Phase I in November 2010. In early July we will have a cornerstone ceremony for our technology centre and in the summer 2013 a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the full project. The new site will be the largest of Alstom Hydro worldwide. It is on a plot of land 250,000m2 and will have 150,000m2 of constructed buildings, workshops and so on. 

 

The biggest impact, amongst others,  is social responsibility. By moving to the new site we will drastically change the working conditions and the working environment of our employees. We will have proper facilities. This may not sound extremely important, but in French we say “if you want to win a battle, you start by feeding your soldiers.” So if I want to ensure that our employees are happy, then I have to ensure they have the proper working environment. This starts with a good canteen, good showers, and good shuttle buses. Secondly, the new project will improve the quality of our finished products because we will streamline the production and have completely refurbished machine tools. Lastly, the new site will be completely CO2 free. In terms of market, we will continue to address China, Asia, and the rest of the world. 

 

This Global Technology Centre will be the fifth of its kind for Alstom Hydro as we already have such sites in India, Canada, France, Switzerland, and we are currently building centres in Brazil and China. The primary reason for building this centre is to get closer to our markets and to have proximity with our customers. The closer we get to the decision makers of the hydro market, the better we can address their needs and expectations. Secondly, we want to develop local competencies. So inside this GTC we will have maybe 1 or 2 expatriates and the rest will all be Chinese engineers.   

 

Hydro is stable, renewable, and storable. In terms of stability, you don't have to depend on the wind, the sun, or the tides. I don't think I really need to explain the renewability aspect. In terms of storability, this is the only form of electricity that you can store for later and you can store it in large quantities. So based on these facts, it is safe to say that hydro has a bright future. 

 

For me, competition is always good because it's forcing you to innovate, to create, to question yourself, and to challenge you to think outside of the box. I'm looking for competition, as long as the rules of the game are clear and the same for everyone. One advantage that we have is that we are both a global and local company. We bring almost 100 years of experience and expertise, and have over 8,000 employees worldwide with five major sites. We capture all the feedback from these factories, supply chains, engineers, and the technology centres and use it here in the local market. We also have the ability to balance the load of our machines. So, if we have a problem of capacity here in China we can very easily manufacture in Brazil and then ship the product to China. A further advantage we have is social responsibility. At Alstom, all employees are treated equally. Whether they are from China, Brazil, or Canada, they all go through the same HR and training process. I really insist that we promote social responsibility in our operations here in China because over time this will become a greater competitive advantage. The way we treat and care for our employees and their level of satisfaction will have an impact on the quality of our product. 

 

We have agreements with several renowned universities in China- such as Tsinghua in Beijing where we will regularly visit and hold on-campus recruitment events. We are trying to increase our recruitment of freshly graduated engineers and business people. We also do this with apprenticeships for welding, machining and so on. In doing so, we really address the different layers of society. At Alstom, we are not an engineering firm that is only looking for white collar workers with a very high educational background, but also manual labourers who in the end produce the same added value as an engineer. 

 

What is “large” for me is the number of employees and the social responsibility that I have. Everyday when I wake up, I wake up for 2000 employees. And how do I feel about this? A lot of pressure. We are talking about 2000 people, their families, and their social networks.

 

I am still married after 15 years [laughs loudly]! What I mean is that my wife has managed to go through all of my professional challenges with me and I think that is a success. To keep it short, I graduated in 1997 and joined Alstom immediately. I spent four years in Thailand, one year in Paris, two years in Switzerland, another year in Paris, two years in China, three years in Spain, a further year in Switzerland, and now one year in China [Tianjin]. 


  

Finally, what are your personal and professional goals for the near future?

My main objective at the moment is to successfully manage the transfer from here to the new site 60km away. This is the first time Alstom will have made such a move and it will be a significant challenge.  Moreover, my mission is to deploy a competitive business model in AHC. This means finding the proper balance between quality, cost, and the on-time delivery of our products in order to satisfy our customers. On a personal level, I am aiming to work for another fifteen years and to eventually end up back in Paris.