Testimonials

Jean-Michel Fleurant

Telecommunications Satellites Program Manager | Airbus

Rachel Villain

Principal Advisor | Euroconsult

Leticia Torres

Special Projects Manager | Airbus Helicopters

Patrick Fardeau

Vice President, Global Sales and Market Development, Aerospace & Defence | Dassault Systèmes

Gregory Pradels

Innovation Expert and Project Manager | Aerospace Valley

Yuichi Takayama

CEO | Hyappen Marketing

Christophe Benaroya

Professor of Marketing & Director of the Aerospace MBA | Toulouse Business School

Michel Carzan

Vice President, Offsets & Industrial Compensations | Airbus Helicopters

Philippe Brochain

Director | Star Engineering

Major General (Air Force Retired) Serge COCAULT

Military Advisor | SEMIA

Marc HOUALLA

General Director | ENAC

Juan Carlos CACERES CASANOVA

Aeronautic systems Manager & Expert | Safran Engineering Services, Safran Group

Pavel Frelikh

Director | Russian Branch of PowerJet

Anantha Agasthya

Executive Director | Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Management Academy

Vassilis Agouridas

Senior Manager, Strategy & Development | Airbus Helicopters - Expert Consultant, Strategy & Innovation Management

Delphine Paillon-Occelli

Competence Manager | Airbus

IAS: This GPEC necessity is coming more and more famous abroad, do you have any feedback or ideas of GPEC implementation abroad?

DP: “GPEC” is indeed a very French legal aspect imposed onto medium to large size companies, however the very principles of Competence Management are vastly implemented in a rather natural manner by managers and HR specialists all around the planet. We are an international, integrated company with collaborators located all around the world and our Competence Management processes are harmonized with the view to providing all our employees with an equal treatment in terms of individual and collective development. We have conducted many benchmarks with other large international companies, within and without our industry, and Competence Management is becoming more and more part of the daily management practices, which is a really positive sign. As Peter Drucker used to say, "The basic economic resource - the means of production - is no longer capital, nor natural resources, nor labour. It is and will be knowledge." I will add to that also know-how and competencies. Developing the organisation through developing people’s Knowledge, Know-how and Competencies are at the heart of Competence Managers’ practices all around the world. Some may be more advanced than others, but a new era is definitely dawning. This is the feedback we get from these benchmarking activities.

IAS: What would you recommend to a Human resources manager in order to deal with such issue?

DP: I am not sure that I am wise enough to recommend anything to anyone, though...
However, would I have anything to say, I would advocate for HR people to work hand in hand with operational people and managers. I would in fact urge them to read an excellent book written in the 1990’s by Peter Senge: “the 5th discipline”, digging there some inspiration. The author explains how we could all be part of what he calls a “learning organization”. Human Resources should not be the only people involved in Competence Management inside a company. They could be the “guardians of the temple” and make sure the CM processes, activities, deliverables and guidelines are clear and available, yet they should adopt change agents techniques and instill Competence Management practices into daily management ones. Therefore, after a (little) while, instead of pushing for CM to happen, they would be pulled by managers and employees to support them even more in this direction.

This is what happened in our organization. It took us circa 3 years to put the whole network together and to establish a trustful relationship with managers, getting to the “pull” point. The HR Experts exported their practices into the business, creating a Competence Manager’s network which fully supported them to diffuse CM practices into the various managerial layers.

Nicolas Osorio

International Project Manager | P3 Ingénieurs

Once I finished my trainings at IAS, I performed projects as a consultant for customers in Spain, Peru, Russia, France and Germany. My missions had taken me to several countries like United States, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Salvador, Colombia, Costa Rica and soon to Saudi Arabia.

Nowadays I’m in charge of a team of 10 consultants working in Aircraft Configuration Management for Airbus. Five of my consultants are based in Toulouse and the other five based in Hamburg. Four of them are French, four are Germans, one is from Tunisia, the last one is from Poland and finally me from Colombia; it’s a very exciting task every day. I enjoy a lot the challenges of intercultural communication in my professional and personal live.

IAS: Considering your double culture and trainings in Colombia and In France, as well as your expertise in Air Transport Management, what can you tell us about Air Transport Management evolutions in Europe and in Latin America?

NO: Europe is more opened than Latin America to the idea of market liberalization, even if 15 years have passed between the liberalization in US in 1978 and the liberalization in Europe in 1993. Latin America still remains today as a Continent where liberalization has not fully arrived yet.

Thanks to the liberalization today in Europe we can talk about the “democratization of air transport” while in Latin America due to the regulations the fares are so expensive that Air Transport is a luxury rather than a right of people.

In the coming years this trend should change, Latin American Airlines are not weak anymore and therefore they don’t need the protection of regulation to be able to compete with the North American and European Airlines.

IAS: Finally, what are, on your mind, Air Transport priorities in the global environment?

NO: In the global environment the priority should remains in THE ENVIROMENT.
The years of denying Air Transport responsibility on Global Warming are over. However we should explore unified approaches. Unilateral decisions as what European Union proposes with the ETS should not be the way. I agree with the voices of airlines, industrial associations and governments saying that ICAO is the right forum to face the aviation challenges related to Global Warming.
Even though what I really like from Europe’s position is that it has forced the industry to talk about the topic.

Mickael Lesibane Kgobe

Chief Executive Officer | DENEL Aviation

Guillaume Revenu

Supply Chain & Lean Management Expert | Agiléa

These flows usually run through a very complex network. One given company may manage hundreds and sometimes thousands of suppliers. This is the physical supply. Then the company has to control its internal production or service activities thanks to a manufacturing and planning control system. And finally the products have to be delivered to the customers.
The mission of a Supply Chain and Lean expert is to coordinate the flows to provide the required level of customer service while making the best use of resources.

IAS: How a Supply Chain manager is integrating sustainable development issues in his/her strategy?

GR: Sustainability has three dimensions: economical, social and environmental.
The journey towards sustainable development requires that business takes actions such as changing consumption and production behaviours, seting policies and changing practices. Businesses have to find innovative ways to be profitable and at the same time improve the environmental performance of production processes and products. In the business community, the term “triple bottom line” was coined to explain the importance of achieving sustainability. Supply Chain management is obviously a major stakeholder to come up with new systems that cover the complete product life cycle: extraction of raw material, product design and production, packaging and distribution, use and maintenance, recycling and reuse.

Example or “RE approach”
- RE-think the product and its functions to use it more efficiently
- RE-place harmful substances with safer alternatives
- RE-duce energy consumption by innovative logistic system
- RE-cycle

For example, the A380 has been designed in order to optimise environmental performance at each stage of the aircraft life cycle. In particular, the use of new light weight materials has decreased the energy consumption per passenger dramatically. The A380 uses less than 3 litres of fuel per 100 passenger-kilometers.

IAS: What do you forecast for 2012 considering Supply chain management main challenges? What are the main trends in aeronautics industry?

GR: Designing next generation supply chains requires attention to dimensions such as configuring the right logistics network, engaging the right alliances and partnerships, developing contingency plans against uncertainties and selecting appropriate production, inventory and distribution strategies.
Main challenge in aeronautics industry is to improve the value all along the chain. Some examples:
- collaborate on New Product Introduction processes and share data on market demand;
- manage working capital;
- manage supplier performances (monitor ans share Key Performance Indicators, assess industrial maturity, define securisation processes, organize performance meeting);
- analyse and mitigate risks secure ramp up”.

Tan Boon-Keng

VP of Business Development | Singapore Technologies Aerospace Ltd

Nigel Cumberland

Founding Partner - Leadership, Executive & Talent Coach | The Silk Road Partnership

I had the great pleasure of working with IAS on a transformation project being run within Saudi Airlines’ finance department and led by a great team from IAS under the leadership on the ground in Jeddah of Ms. Monia Zaki. I created and facilitated a series of key trainings to the Saudi Arabian national carrier’s senior finance professionals and through these workshops I helped them to understand various best practices around how finance departments are organized, aligned and run in today’s global leading airlines. The participants found the workshops very transformational and helpful.

I really value my relationship as a partner of the IAS and my varied experiences combine well with the incredible expertise possessed by the team at IAS. The IAS is one of my most valuable partners and I look forward to further collaborative projects in the months and years to come both in the Middle East as well as further afield."

Christophe Roux

Vice-President Governmental Sales - Space Systems | Airbus Defence and Space

Michèle Oberto-Gerion

Managing Director | AirBusiness Academy