CADCAM it was Africa and promises simply

This is a photo yellowed, as found in the attics of our grandparents. They pose in front of the entrance of the large wooden building. Moustache Europeans in white suit and Boater, Africans in boubou. Tropical atmosphere. In the pediment of the institution which is adjacent to the track: "French company of Western Africa". A time, one of the colonies, "French Empire" and its counters which they could sell and purchase of peanuts, palm oil, rubber, European textiles...

Detailing the terms of its introduction on the stock market yesterday in the salons of the Hotel George V, Richard Bielle, the President of the Executive Board of CAD/CAM, certainly have a thought for his distant predecessors. At a time when his own grandparents were chopping wood in Africa. A century and a half after African debut, CAD/CAM returned to the financial markets, after a break of 20 years in the fold of the Pinault group. In 1913, in full stock market bubble, CAD/CAM so liked to investors that they said: "Today, I bought 125 Africa" when they had acquired titles. CAD/CAM, it was Africa and promises, simply.

Almost 100 years after Richard Bielle said not so much something when he says that buy shares CAD/CAM, it is investing in the potential of an entire continent. It is true that it would be in sentence to find another company which symbolizes as well. Because the CAD/CAM group is an exception. By age - Charles Auguste Verminck installed its first counter to Senegal in 1845-, by his specialization on Africa and by its ability to survive out of the ordinary. All competitors, Marseilles or Bordeaux, merchants arrived in the wake of the French troops, or sometimes even before, have either disappeared (SCOA, Whitener, Compagnie Marseillaise of Madagascar), changed trades (Maurel & Prom).

The company has experienced two world wars, decolonization, the African crisis, the devaluation of the CFA franc, the redemption by Pinault, the economic crisis of 2009... And still the nugget of its origins. Its turnover rose by 12 per year for ten years (except this year) and its operational profitability close to 10. Refocused on four disciplines, the automobile, pharmacy, consumer industry and new technologies, the Group holds on average 40 of the market in its strongholds of West Africa (Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Congo...) and exceeds the 10 in his land of conquest that are countries of anglophone Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya...) and lusophone (Angola) or the Maghreb.

How to explain these exceptional longevity and prosperity Probably by a unique and paradoxical combination of caution, audacity and rigour. All this served by a powerful managerial culture. In a monumental and exciting history of the Group (1), the historian Hubert Bonin book a few keys to understanding of this culture. It identifies three precepts and two requirements. The first is a kind of coldness, rejection of enthusiasm, which dictates his prudent conduct and its constant concern to diversify its activities and its clients to avoid any deadly dependence in a continent a subscriber to the political-economic vagaries. The second precept is the rigour of the accounts, the sake of parsimony, small economies. The third is obedience, or rather the discipline. In this House of Marseilles origin, it grows any Protestant rigor, and gaps, the "glitch" of a commercial, are little appreciated. Good seller that takes risks, it will prefer the good manager even if it is more poor trader.

Requirements, the first is that of profitability. A cult of the profit margin that it always move towards the more interesting trades and abandon those that do not provide a sufficient return. The second is that of competitiveness. Since the origins, the company is a fierce advocate of free trade. What earned him severe passes weapons with French manufacturers of textiles, often supporters of protectionism. By the end of the 19th century, CAD/CAM has opened offices in Liverpool and was traded with Holland. In the same way, he soon chose to confront its competitors British (including the ancestor of Unilever) in their field, as in Nigeria. In this, the company kept the entrepreneurial spirit, where the above cited discipline is offset by high autonomy left to local teams, which operate as small.

It is this amazing mixture of ri - force and flexibility, boldness and prudence, shaped by CEOs, which allowed the company to traverse hazards with diversified activity and sound finances, and who gave him the responsiveness needed to reinvent itself several times. She was able to abandon its historic trade of agricultural raw materials such as groundnut or rubber. After war, she put the cap on the distribution in Europe (especially in supermarkets), taking advantage of the momentum of the thirty Glorieuses. It has made the daring paris, such as joining as early as 1970 with Toyota in Africa. Then, it has managed its refocusing African after its acquisition of high struggle by the Pinault group, while the black continent was in 1989 that 12 of its turnover.

Is this return to Africa, which has been the great case of the 1990s, a retreat on the origins and its beautiful annuities Richard Bielle, representative of the seventh generation of patterns, rebelled: "we are in a counter strategy."In fact, it is more to capitalize on only intimate knowledge of difficult country. The idea is now to couple this knowledge of the terrain with a professionalization of trades. With the idea to become the industrial partner by mastering all the distribution value chain, from the producer to the final customer. Besides its historic car pole, that still represents 60 of its turnover, the pharmacy (Eurapharma) pole, obtained by the purchase of its last French competitor, the Scoa, sustained growth.

The company is thus gently of the status of merchant to that of service provider. More opportunistically, it produced beer in the Congo (for Heineken), pens or razors (for BIC) and assembles of two-wheelers. His last, most recent pole is to be agent and installer of high technology products, such as elevators (for Otis) but also the hardware and Telecom. It is not prohibited to add other trades, provided that they are replicable in other countries, that they allow in the value chain and they offer the same profitability: around 10 of operating margin. Tracks are studied, as a luxury multi-brand or credit.

In sum, this venerable group married his dear Africa development in amount range in products whose potential is obvious: the car (for 20-30 growth per year), drug (around 30) or office equipment. With three engines: the organic growth of the country (the IMF provides 5 of the GDP growth), gain market share in the new countries and expanding geographic, prudent and committed as always. More that as in 1913, and never buy CAD/CAM, is buying Africa.