APC 2014 Annual Report Download - page 33

OVERVIEW OF THE GROUP’S STRATEGY, MARKETS AND BUSINESSES
ORGANIZATIONAL SIMPLICITY AND EFFICIENCY
Identifying emerging trends and technologies
An innovative element introduced this year is that the Aster Capital
teams have made a dedicated web platform available to all
and delivering relevant inputs 1
Schneider Electric employees, which gives them even easier
Aster Capital is in touch with start-ups on a daily basis. This gives access to all of these resources, information and databases.
Aster Capital a unique perspective on emerging technologies,
Developing business opportunities
customer needs and new market segments. The work is shared at
three levels:
indatacenters
by identifying emerging trends and weak signals which may
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have an impact on markets, customers and/or future Schneider Schneider Electric decided to invest EUR50million in the TMT
Electric business, and sharing them on a regular basis with the (Technology, Media and Telecommunications) sector in China, with
leaders within Schneider Electric; a particular interest in the development of data centers. In late
October2014, Aster Capital created an investment fund that
by introducing about 300 start-ups each year to Schneider
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guarantees the good governance of this project in coordination
Electric teams within relevant countries, businesses and
with local Schneider teams.
corporate departments;and
by publishing market analyses that are presented to Schneider
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Electric teams. Again this year, ten topics related to the energy
and environment sectors have been covered and shared within
Schneider Electric.
Organizational simplicity 6.
andefficiency
Schneider Electric’s profile has undergone an unprecedented transformation in the past decade to become a global
specialist in energy management.
Under the One company program (2009-2011), the organization was redesigned to better serve its customers. This
transformation continued with the Connect company program (2012-2014) to organize our diverse businesses for
more cohesiveness to address in a differentiated manner the specific needs of our customers. Now with the current
company program, Schneider is On (2015-2020), we will leverage these organizational simplifications and further
empower our team members towards growth.
A customer focused organization 6.1
Dual orientation – technologies and
Buildings & Partner business is the merger of the Buildings
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business and Partner business. Its technological scope covers
end-markets
low voltage, building automation and renewables.
Schneider Electric is organized in four business segments. Each Infrastructure business scope covers medium voltage and grid
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business segment is responsible for specific technologies and automation technologies.
adresses targeted end-market segments. This organization was Industry business scope covers industrial automation, control
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designed in order to support our two business models: products and sensors technologies.
and solutions. Selling products requires clear technological IT business scope covers critical power and cooling
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leadership, while selling solutions requires close customer
technologies for data centers as well as non-IT applications.
relationships and a deep understanding of end users’ needs.
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2014 REGISTRATION DOCUMENT SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC