In his first visible cutting of costs, new Compagnie des Machines Bull SA chief executive Bernard Pache has ordered that Bull corporate management abandon its offices in at Avenue Malakoff in central Paris next May for the company’s tower at windswept La Defense. An unnamed union official, quoted in the business journal Les Echos, said that he saw this as management setting the example but added that the move is likely to end in new lay-offs and job reclassifications. Les Echos said that Pache, charged by Bull’s dominant shareholder, the French government, to tighten up management, has increased the number of meetings, both internal and external, with the aim of getting the most precise picture possible of the group’s condition. It said that he has asked each member of the executive committee to come up with a plan of action in 10 areas, including marketing, logistics, and customer relations, and their conclusions are wanted in about one month – in time to impact the business plan being completed for next year: Bull operates on a calendar year. Pache has also set up a group to study the redeployment of Bull staff, and to reappraise its activities in Europe. A Bull spokesman had no comment concerning the alleged move or lay-offs except to say that Les Echos was reporting a highly confidential executive meeting.
