You have said that Schneider’s deal to acquire Aveva was to “accelerate the path to deliver to our customers one data hub.” What does that look like in practice?
I see no connection. But clearly, energy is front and center for our customers nowadays. In parts of Europe, it’s due to potential shortages. And everywhere in the world, it’s due to the cost of energy, which is much higher anyway. Energy is the first factor to your emissions and your carbon footprint.
In 2019, investors really started to pay attention to sustainability with the development of ESG [Environmental, Social and Governance] investment. When investors told us, ‘you’re accountable not only for the financial, but for the non-financial,’ our customers started to move really fast. Today, you have more than 3,000 companies which have taken objectives to be net-zero. Then you had COVID, which pushed the adoption of digitization probably four to five years faster.
China is still grappling with its zero-COVID policy. I understand that your local factories were temporarily shut down and you even hadinside for six weeks. How are you planning to instill resilience into your supply chains? Our dispositive in China is for China. So, it operates like any Chinese company. Our North American dispositive is for North America, to a very large extent. For instance, our priorities in Europe facing a big energy crisis are different from our [priorities] in North America or in China or in India.Both, depending upon the situation. Most of my strategy [comes] not with consultants, but with customers. By meeting a lot of customers, we get the best insights. It all starts with people.
As a company that has been pushing digitalization for a long time, how do you feel about working from home practices that have been catalyzed by the pandemic? Are you in favor or do you value that human connection in a corporate setting?
Insightful.