Spotlight

After studying English and obtaining a tourism diploma, I gained on-the-job experience in communication, plus more formal skills at the Media Information Center in Paris. I joined Schneider Electric in Argentina, where I lived in the early 1990's, picking up extensive international exposure along the way that would shape the rest of my career. Today, I manage communication for the new² program. After a Six Sigma green belt training in the UK, I'm leading the Communication function's first Six Sigma project.

I was hired in 1994 on Saint Valentine's Day, which I though was a good sign. In Argentina, where I was living at the time, Schneider Electric was a small local business with less than 50 employees. I saw both the business and the workforce grow exponentially. I'd like everyone to have that type of experience one day; the economy was good, we had a committed and accessible management team that was close to the front lines, and everyone was enthusiastic and motivated about winning contracts and beating the competition.
As the Chief Executive's assistant, I was quickly involved in internal and external communication projects. The most significant one was to bring 125 Argentinean distributors to France for the 1998 World Cup. I prepared a special "soccer-business-culture-tourism" agenda for their trip. In another domain, I received a training from the Quality Function in France. The subsidiary asked me to lead a dynamic quality process: the "self-assessment" far the management. Trust, responsibility, training - this was definitely the Schneider Electric way.

My manager at the time and his supervisors supported my decision to come back to France in mid-2000. They helped me land on my feet. I joined the Human Resources team at the Africa, Middle East, South Korea and Japan Division as a communication officer. I'd already worked a lot with Human Resources in Argentina and learned about mobility, training, assessment and other processes. Following changes in the organization, I became head of internal communication for the International Operating Division. I was responsible for liaising with the corporate functions and zone correspondents about corporate communication, human resources, NEW2004 company program, sustainable development, etc...for the projects' follow-up.

It's a catalyst, a function that gets things moving in the right direction. The communication is really different if you are in a country, a zone or at the corporate level. Our added value is to transform objectives and raw information from Management into communication that can be used by our "customers", i.e. managers, the communication network and all employees with whom we're in direct and indirect contact. We need to anticipate their needs and remove all roadblocks to communication. That's where international experience comes in handy. In China, for example, we spent hours decoding Our Principles of Responsibility, because it didn't correspond to their pragmatic mindset. Having an international experience, I could step back from the French way of looking at things. And that's crucial in a company like Schneider Electric today.