On the Record with
Francois Lureau, CEO Aerospace, Thales

"The thing to remember is that we are not just a French company, and not simply a defense company any more," says Thales's Francois Lureau. "Of our 65,000 employees, half of them are located outside France and half of our business is now in the commercial market."

As head of the Thales aerospace business area, Lureau is keen to make the point that his company has changed, both in the way it's organized and in the way it does international business.

Thales has now been divided into three separate business areas, a distinct Defense unit, an IT & Services unit, and Lureau's own Aerospace unit-which in turn has Avionics, ATC Management and Training groups. The Aerospace division has military and civil components, and Lureau highlights it as a prime example of the company's "dual approach" to common technology development.

"Aerospace is the place where we live the dual approach every day. The technology is the same whether it's for the A380 or the Rafale," he says.

Thales also has a "multi-domestic" strategy, setting up businesses that are not centralized around a French HQ, but instead handing over full autonomy, and initiative, to regions around the world. Lureau cites the example of the Air Traffic Management section of his Aerospace unit, where recent major success in China was won by the Thales Air Traffic Management team in Australia.

"We have major ATC systems being developed in Australia by Australian engineers, and the sale of the NESACC system to China was all managed and delivered from Australia," Lureau says.

NESACC, China's Northern, Eastern and Southern Area Control Centers (based in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou) is the biggest ongoing program for Thales in China, but the company is also supplying a military air surveillance radar system to the PLA.

Until 1997 Thales was barred by French regulations from conducting any business in China and the market is now slowly re-opening.

The focus is not on military projects: "Military business needs specific programs, and as they require export licenses, all with a political dimension.

"There is nothing under consideration today," Lureau says. "However, we would be willing to support future training or transport aircraft programs, where there would be some commonality with military and civil systems."

By Robert Hewson