APC 2015 Annual Report Download - page 35

2015 REGISTRATION DOCUMENT SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC 33
OVERVIEW OF THE GROUP’S STRATEGY, MARKETS AND BUSINESSES
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ORGANIZATIONAL SIMPLICITY ANDEFFICIENCY
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6. Organizational simplicity
andefficiency
6.1 A customer- focused organization
Schneider Electric’s profi le has undergone an unprecedented transformation in the past decade to become a global
specialist in energy management.
Under the One c ompany p rogram (2009-2011), the organization was redesigned to better serve its customers. This
transformation continued with the Connect company program (2012-2014) as we refi ned our organization to improve
cohesion, while initiating our digital transformation journey. Now with the current company program, Schneider is On
(2015-2020), we will leverage these organizational simplifi cations and further empower our team members towards
growth.
Dual orientation – technologies
and end-markets
Schneider Electric is organized into four business segments. Each
business segment is responsible for specifi c technologies and
addresses targeted end-market segments. The organization was
designed in order to support our two business models: products and
solutions. Selling products requires clear technological leadership,
while selling solutions requires close customer relationships and a
deep understanding of end users’ needs.
•Buildings & Partner business technological scope is low voltage,
building automation and renewables.
•Infrastructure business scope includes medium voltage and
grid automation technologies.
•Industry business scope covers industrial automation, control
and sensors technologies.
•IT business scope is critical power and cooling technologies for
data centers as well as non-IT applications.
Each of these business segments manages its R&D, marketing and
sales teams and is responsible for its global results.
A number of back-offi ce functions such as Finance, Human
Resources, IT systems and Global Marketing are handled by the
Global Functions, which have a governance role and provide
services internally.
Rationalization and optimization of synergies
The organization is deployed in accordance with three key concepts:
specialization, mutualization and globalization. Specialization
mainly concerns sales and front-offi ce operations.
Mutualization covers local back-offi ce operations at the country and
regional level. Globalization concerns the seven support functions,
now known as Global Functions:
•Finance;
•Marketing;
•Supply chain;
•Human Resources;
•Strategy;
•Technology
•Information systems.
A substantial portion of the Global Functions’ costs are re-allocated
to the businesses using distribution keys or application bases that
are generally defi ned annually.
•Specialization: in each country, each business has its own sales
force and local leader as soon as it reaches critical mass. It also
has a specialized front offi ce in each host country to respond
more effectively to customer demand for specifi c expertise. Each
business segment is also responsible for its overall results, both
for product sales (in its business lines) and the implementation of
solutions (especially for end-market segments within its scope).
As solutions can consist of products coming from different
business segments and in order to defi ne a single point of
contact for customers, each business segment is responsible
for solutions in certain defi ned end-markets. Business efforts
have focused on implementing and strengthening existing teams
dedicated to meeting the specifi c needs of these strategic
customer segments with a strong focus on the collaboration
between the business lines, in order to ensure these customer’s
needs are met as fully as possible.
•Mutualization: the business is organized around Organizational
Regions: North America, China, France, Europe and the Rest
of World which is comprised of seven international zones
(South America, Africa, Middle East, CIS, India, SE Asia and
Asia-Pacifi c. Each of these regions have empowered Zone
Presidents and Country Presidents, which are appointed in each
country to be the custodians of four Business in their countries:
Industry, Infrastructure, Buildings & Partner and IT, including Field
Services. In addition, they are responsible for monitoring the full
transversal P&L of the country, deploying Schneider Electric’s
strategy in the country (including all local cross-functional topics
such as increasing cross-selling among businesses) and pooling
the local back-offi ce resources. These resources are gradually
brought together in each country or region under the Country
President’s supervision and can include multiple local support
functions ranging from administration to project execution,
depending on the situation. In addition, the Country President
serves as the mutualization driving force and Schneider Electric’s