Serge Tchuruk, the new chief at Alcatel Alsthom SA, was expected yesterday to unveil a new corporate structure and strategy designed to improve its market performance, which was expected to be announced as again on the decline in first-half results. Les Echos said the results would show total revenues down 3%, while telecommunications revenues dropped 5% in the first half. As a result, press reports said Tchuruk would reorganise the Alcatel NV telecommunications division, which represents two thirds of company revenues, into worldwide vertical units dedicated to specific product lines. Les Echos said the division, renamed Alcatel Telecom SA, would comprise eight product line profit centres – switching systems, transmission systems, access products, wide-band products, mobile communications, business communications, aerospace and defence, and components. To sell the products, Les Echos said he will also create nine geographical zones, the nine directors of which will sit on a management committee with Tchuruk. The heads of the product units will comprise an executive committee, the paper said. Liberation said the new chief might also move Alcatel Telecom’s headquarters from the Netherlands back to France. Expectations are running high for the ex-president of Total, who has acquired a sterling reputation as a highly intelligent, clear- and quick-thinking, serious manager and turnaround artist. Marc Vienot, the Societe Generale chief executive and Alcatel Alsthom board member given the task of finding Pierre Suard’s replacement, says I never wanted anyone but him. A schoolmate says He has an incredible facility for dissecting problems and reducing them to simple equations. Tchuruk surprised his fellow Polytechnicians in 1960 when, after marrying a Polish woman, he quit France for the US because he thought he was being spied on. It’s hard to be sure, he says, it was the height of the Cold War. It was not pleasant to feel that you had been singled out. I said so long and thanks. His background is in the chemical and petroleum industry; he learned his management technique during 16 years at Mobil Inc, where he worked in everything from data processing to personnel. I learned a lot about business relations and American management. I met fascinating people. There is nothing worse than to work for a cretin. I hope no one here [at Alcatel] is telling themselves that, Tchuruk says.
