Dassault poised for supersonic growth

Dassault is a French industrial software MNC that inked a $1 billion mega 30-year digital switchover contract with US aerospace giant Boeing at the Paris airshow last month. It also has a strong R&D footprint in India, which has been proving to be a hotbed for its digital outsourcing activities. Out of its global R&D team comprising 6,000-odd employees, one third is employed in India. 

The staff is part of a 2,500-strong workforce in the country. Samson Khaou, MD, Dassault Systèmes India is a believer in the Indian growth story. Excerpts from an interview:

When we look at India, compared to other regions, growth is still quite outstanding, especially considering its GDP. We would like to leverage our business for a longer term.  Globally, our headcount is 15,000 and given that we are 2,500-people workforce in this country, translating to 17 per cent of our overall employee base.  Our core R&D focuses on product development and software with our teams based in Bengaluru and Pune. 

Investments have been made after identifying the locations where there is potential business opportunity. We also make investments to support industry same as we do at Bengaluru. In fact, the reason for kick-starting the ‘3DExperience on wheels’ roadshow here (mobile lounge platform that will tour TN, Karnataka and Maharashtra) is because TN represents 50 per cent of our automotive business. Our key automotive customers are in Chennai. In the past, we used to have R&D for simulation products in Chennai. We decided to focus more in Pune and Bengaluru, and so we rebalanced it. The Chennai R&D activity began about 15 years ago. We are still looking at opportunities to support industries here. We have a clear objective from our Executive Committee, which is to grow double-digit for the next 5 years. 

Future proof tech 

It is only in the last three years that our double-digit growth has been possible. But, we are really ambitious to grow even faster, which is the reason for my being assigned here a year ago. Manufacturing will be one of the major growth drivers. The government launching several initiatives, including ‘Make in India’, will help us accelerate our growth in manufacturing. Automotive, aerospace and heavy machinery are among our key focus areas. 

Currently, automotive business contributes over 50 per cent of our turnover in India. The numbers in aerospace in India are still not up to our expectations. It contributes 15 per cent to our turnover. Globally, when it comes to our corporate revenue split, aerospace represents more than 20 per cent of the turnover. By 202021, we are certain that aerospace contribution will surpass the 20 per cent mark. We have both three-year and five-year business plans to achieve this target.  We also need to manage expectations and so it is not prudent to share our internal projections.  

We are looking for simplified procedures particularly at the policy level. Our main concerns revolve around taxation and the kind of investment we must make in India. This is part of the discussions that we have been having with the policymakers here.