World Economy

Aug 25, 2008

world economy

The chairman of the board of Alcatel-Lucent, Serge Tchuruk, who is leaving his post in October, "assume" his record as head of the group, claiming in particular the focus on telecom merger Lucent with the U.S., he says in an interview with the Figaro on Monday.

"I assume. This is my state of mind when leaving my duties. I assume and I demand the strategy that has made Alcatel-Lucent a great world leader in information technology," said Tchuruk .

Serge Tchuruk, CEO of Alcatel from 1995 to 2006, in 2006 became chairman of the board of the new group Alcatel-Lucent after a merger with the American company Lucent Technologies, and was replaced as CEO by Patricia Russo.

Both have announced their departure in July, following sixth quarter of losses for the group and in a context of degradation accounts for the telecom equipment supplier hit by fierce competition.

For Serge Tchuruk, the "difficult period" through Alcatel-Lucent is now behind us "and" the group has been remediated. "

Recognizing have "perhaps" underestimated the difficulties of the merger, the former CEO of Alcatel stresses that, despite "difficult times", the "cultural problem" of "two systems bring different management" been resolved.

"We have emerged from the telecoms crisis with a strengthened position compared to our competitors in North America," he feels.

Questioned on possible new deletion of posts, Mr. Tchuruk believes that Alcatel-Lucent has now reached "a situation that is balanced in terms of jobs," recognizing that employees in the group had "considerable efforts" . Since the merger, Alcatel-Lucent has conducted several restructuring plans, with thousands of job cuts in the world: 16,500 in total by 2009, more than 1,800 in France.

Returning finally on the strategy of refocusing the group on telecoms, the leader said he had to "take drastic decisions because the difficulties are specified everywhere." "It was gather our forces in the central sector of telecom, which showed a strong growth potential," argued t
French » English Translate

by erectusplus at 2:05 AM |