In less than a year, three key companies of the French industry found themselves in a critical situation. The first, Alcatel, has been bought by a competitor, the second, Areva, has announced considerable losses and asked for the support of its shareholders, and the third, Alstom, had to sold two-thirds of its businesses. Telephone networks, nuclear power plants and turbines are not low-cost jobs destined for relocation. They have always been considered the strengths of French economy. So what happened? As surprising as it may seem, the same scenario happened in all three cases.
The combination of strategic mistakes of ...