Why did Toshiba choose to invest in France?

The decision to invest in France was taken in the late 1980s due to the size of the market for electrical and electronic products to be sold on the European market; the French market is one of the three largest in Europe.

Toshiba has operated successfully in France thanks to the quality of the distribution channels it has been able to connect with and thanks to its ability to select good suppliers in France with the same quality standards as we could find in Japan at that time.

What also makes France attractive is the ability to build very useful relationships with other partners in the country.

Toshiba is considered to be advanced in human relations. Our partners comment positively on the quality of human relations which have been built with them. Business is not our only priority, we also need to have a good, strong relationship with people. French people appreciate this.

Is France a good place for R&D?

France is a good place for R&D, not only for proprietary R&D but especially – and this is now one of Toshiba’s priorities – for R&D through alliances with other local companies to develop an R&D ‘ecosystem’ in France. France has many small innovative companies. Increasingly now, thanks to R&D programs, innovation clusters have been started in France and it is easy for a large group investing in the country to connect with these small innovative companies to do R&D together. There is a benefit for the investors and for the local companies. We are very happy about these partnerships.

What is it like working with French people?

We started a factory as part of our operations in France. It was a challenge for us to reach the same level of productivity and quality that we had in Japan for instance. But in fact it has been a success. We found that the French technicians and operators were able to reach the same standards with more initiatives, more ability to be flexible than in Japan. As such, the result was the same level of productivity and quality with a bit more innovation, which is key for Toshiba because the motto of the group is “Leading Innovation”. So it was important to succeed in that way.

Did Toshiba receive any government support?

When Toshiba decided to start industrial operations in Normandie in 1990 the government helped it to invest in the facilities in accordance with European Union regulations.

The Invest in France Agency and its local partner Normandie Développement helped a lot when we started business in Normandy. The rules are a bit complex for foreign investors and to have the Invest in France Agency advising a foreign investor on how they can invest is very important to the success of the project.

What are your company’s future plans in France?

Our future plans are to continue to develop Toshiba’s offer in France. Today we are present in consumer electronics, technical products and office automation but the technology is changing rapidly including the internet and all the other equipment connection possibilities, such as cloud computing. Our plan is to develop new offers working closely with advanced companies in France. We have already done this in the multimedia business and we are about to do this for smart community and smart grid technology projects.