Alain Pouyat - Steria

The Future Report<br />

Leadership Perspectives<br />

<strong>Alain</strong> <strong>Pouyat</strong><br />

Executive Vice-President, Information Systems<br />

and New Technologies, Bouygues<br />

Operating in over 80 countries, Bouygues is a global leader<br />

in construction and services. The business is comprised<br />

of five main business areas: construction, power and<br />

transport, roads, property, telecommunications and media.<br />

<strong>Alain</strong> <strong>Pouyat</strong> is an Executive Vice-President for<br />

Information Systems and New Technologies at<br />

Bouygues. <strong>Pouyat</strong> believes that the digital<br />

revolution is a real opportunity for organisations.<br />

But he also recognises that seizing these<br />

opportunities will take preparation, a wider<br />

view of the current business landscape and<br />

the ability to anticipate and acknowledge<br />

potential setbacks and challenges.<br />

Globalisation/Technology/<br />

Business Models<br />

Consumer mentality shift and<br />

technological innovation drive<br />

business transformation<br />

“Globalisation and the digital revolution<br />

have fundamentally changed consumer<br />

lifestyles. As a result, the things we once<br />

knew and the processes we once operated<br />

by are in a state of flux. The proliferation<br />

of mobile devices, the widespread use of<br />

the Internet and increased mobility have seen<br />

consumers transform the way they communicate<br />

with brands and those around them.

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The increasing emphasis on sustainability in light of global warming<br />

and carbon emissions has also provoked a shift in consumer mentality<br />

towards an environmentally-conscious, ‘carbon-free’ thinking,<br />

which highlights how our relationship with the world is evolving.<br />

In order to achieve sustainable growth in today’s changing<br />

marketplace, companies cannot afford to become complacent. The<br />

companies that will flourish will be the ones that are looking to<br />

the future trends predicted to transform the business landscape,<br />

and are seeking to influence social, societal and technological<br />

shifts that can be harnessed to effect business change.<br />

Thanks to increased connectivity and mobility, today’s technological<br />

innovations have brought about a new era of collaboration where<br />

individuals and business entities from across the globe meet to<br />

share the burden of business challenges and research, test and learn<br />

from new models and strategies. The pooling of skills and services,<br />

both within the organisation and externally and the outsourcing of<br />

certain aspects of business to domain experts will become essential<br />

and more commonplace in the years to come. Bouygues is a great<br />

example of how bringing together different departments of a business<br />

can help solve challenges. Combining construction and laboratory<br />

research to devise new and innovative construction procedures is at<br />

the heart of what we do. Regardless of business function or industry,<br />

it’s clear that businesses will need to collaborate to ride out the<br />

wave of the sea of change currently happening in the industry.”<br />

Energy/Technology/<br />

Population/Urbanisation<br />

New technology brings together digital<br />

and traditional industries<br />

“The digital revolution has impacted each of Bouygues’ business<br />

lines in different ways. Bouygues Telecom has played an active part<br />

in this shift, with its telecommunications business at the heart of<br />

the digital revolution. The media branch of the company, TF1, has<br />

witnessed upheaval as relationships between TV networks and<br />

viewers evolve. The advent of digital terrestrial television has led to<br />

the emergence of new channels which have completely transformed<br />

French broadcasting (the number of channels available has increased<br />

from six to a whopping 25). Connected television also brings its<br />

own revolution with access to non-linear services such as catch-up<br />

TV, video on demand and access to a plethora of online content.<br />

Digital is integral to many of the fundamental changes currently<br />

taking place in more traditional sectors such as construction. The<br />

creation of environmentally-friendly products and services that<br />

consume less energy has spurred the development of a brand new<br />

generation of buildings, neighbourhoods and even entire ‘eco-cities’.<br />

The concept behind all of these vast industry changes is<br />

convergence. Different sectors now benefit from innovations<br />

developed in previously unrelated industries since they<br />

now draw on the same digitally-led resources.<br />

Of course, there is still a long way to go. As the old adage<br />

goes – ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’. The same can be said<br />

of the society of tomorrow that is being shaped by the<br />

innovations of today. Nevertheless, it opens up tremendous<br />

opportunities for new developments for all types of business<br />

provided they can identify the new needs of clients sufficiently<br />

early on, and are capable of adapting appropriately.”