Rapportdestage

Thales
09/09/09 GuillaumeE.

Thanks
I would like to thanks: David Silvestre for having given me the opportunity to come into the programme management department at Thales Training & Simulation in UK. I would like to thanks him for the autonomy, the responsibilities and the trust he put into me. Jon Steele: Head of team upgrades, for having listened to what I had to say and for allowing me to come here. Roger Cox: Group Manager Upgrades, for according me so much time and for sharing his knowledge with me. Cheryl Gibson: Secretary, for her availability and kindness. The members of the programme management department and all the people I met: -Brian Mouser -Mike Power -Mike Wallace -David Head -Sean Storey -Brian Hagan -Mark Gasson -Maud Renaud -Etienne Clerc -Christina Watts -John Cook -Kelly Moreno -Dave Spooner -Peter Baron

Summary

Thanks....................................................................................................... Page 1 Introduction Objectives........................................................................ Page 2 My Mission ............................................................................................... Page 3 Learning and Assumptions ..................................................................... Page 4 Conclusion ................................................................................................ Page 5

Introduction Objectives
I had three main objectives for my placement: Improve my English through a work experience in an English environment Develop my autonomy and work experience in a different and not known environment Improve my open mind ness by living in an economic, social and cultural environment of a foreign country. I chose Thales first of all because I only had this opportunity but also because I have never worked in a big international company.

My Mission
I was committed to think about how we could increase the foreign military upgrades sales. After dialoguing with David we found out three axis of brainstorming: 1) Business Development This part was set to think about our goals, I also studied on a business plan. I wrote an executive summary. 2) Marketing What potential market? Assess the current market What operational marketing action could be launched? 3) Team Building Think about who could be involved in the project? What to do to increase efficiency in intern? During the placement there were two major deadlines: The first one was a presentation to Jon Steele, Head of Team Upgrades and to Roger Cox, Group Manager Upgrades. The aim of this presentation was to show our way of working and present our objectives for approval. The second major deadline was a presentation to the Sales and Marketing department in order to find out how to better work with them. This presentation ended more as a dialogue because things changed a lot just at the period we wanted to do it. A new department especially for the Foreign Military Upgrades was created with at its head: Dave Spooner.

Learning and Assumption

Thales was really a great experience for me. I learned a lot in three different fields. Thirst of all Ive learned a lot in terms of technical skills. To be efficient I had to learn quite quickly all about simulators and its technical component. What helped me a lot was the flight on an A320 simulator that I did with a trainer. The second field I learned on was how a big company as Thales worked. I remembered not understanding during my school lessons how a matrix structure worked and here with Thales I found out where the authority came from, the advantages and disadvantages. The third field I learned on was more personal, I think I gained maturity during this internship. By observing and paying attention to how decision where made by the upper hierarchy. I also see some possibilities of gained even more skills in this field: David told me it was a good thing to try to anticipate the others behaviour, but the next step is lead them where you want by focusing more on your own speech.

Feedback
First of all I was a little bit nervous because I had to learn a lot in a little amount of time. I had to analyse all the information I got in order to find out solutions to our different problems. So what I did is try to understand the best I could the market and how it works. I also tried to understand the relation between the different departments. I tried to understand the relation with the customer. By doing all this background work, quickly, some weaknesses and opportunities appeared. My goal was to try to transform them into strength. As weaknesses I noticed a lack of communication with the customer. This observation was confirmed by a survey which said that Thales didnt anticipate enough the customers needs and werent enough proactive. In order to solve this problem, I proposed some issues. My idea was to increase our marketing portfolio in order to better communicate on our products and strategies. What I proposed is a news brief draft that would be sent quarterly to the customer. I also proposed a leaflet draft that S&M people would have when they meet the customer. These projects were submitted and approved by the mangers. With David we also noticed that too few programmes were in hand. The question was how could we be more aggressive? Several answers came up to my mind: What about entering new markets? No its too risky and we dont even manage secure our own market. So we decided after assessing our market by a top down approach to have a bottom up approach (take each simulator one by one and see what evolution could be done). David settled a meeting every Monday with Roger Cox, the Group Manager.

Conclusion
After a market study and an internal analysis of TTS, some weaknesses and opportunities appeared. To change or to catch respectively these points, TTS needs concrete actions to become more competitive. The first action was to increase our marketing products portfolio. I designed a new leaflet which will be used for every customers meeting. The second marketing product was made in order to reinforce the relationship with the customer. This product is a Newsletter which will be published quarterly to every customer. There are four main subjects in this news brief: Focus on Whats ahead? Recent achievement A word on While my stay here, I noticed a lack of internal communication. I remember having trouble gathering some information in order to achieve my objectives. One of my regret was the shortness of my internship. We settled a schedule with David and even though we launched some actions we didnt really have time to think about the team building part and how we could improve the communication between the different departments. I will also not see the evolution of the projects I proposed. Ill make sure for the next months to inform myself on how the actions are launched by keeping in touch with some people in Thales.