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Fujitsu: think globally, act locally (take two)

Peter Clarke

Fujitsu: think globally, act locally (take two)

Fujitsu Services announced on Wednesday evening that David Courtley, CEO since 2004, will be leaving the company at the end of December “to take up new challenges elsewhere.”

Fujitsu's new broom reaches Europe

Richard Christou, Corporate First Senior Vice President and President of the Fujitsu Global Business Group (GBG), spoke to Ovum yesterday afternoon about his plans for the future of Fujitsu's Services and Fujitsu Siemens' businesses in Europe (to become a wholly owned Fujitsu company from 1 April 2009, a deal Christou sponsored). This was in the wake of CEO David Courtley's departure, on the same day that we had described Courtley's vision of the future in Straight Talk.

Christou said of Courtley's departure, “commenting on the past is not terribly useful. These things happen in companies every day of the week. It is the organisation which counts, not the individual. Customers will notice no difference.”

The future in Europe means gluing hardware to services

Christou explained that Fujitsu Services is delivering only “part of the solution stack”. The other part is hardware. Christou believes that hardware can deliver revenues and also leverage project and consultancy opportunities. He sees services margins under pressure in western markets and feels that “the further east you go” markets are product- not services-led.

This thinking could eventually mean a single Fujitsu company and unified Fujitsu brand selling both hardware and services in EMEA. However, despite having reorganised Fujitsu's North American and Australasian operations into one regional company, and despite the fact that Christou is now working to implement the same plan in China, he is not prescriptive about this model in Europe. Christou believes the “getting the 'glue' right is more important that the structures”.

By this he means using methodologies and expertise developed in the hardware business to move the company into applications development and marrying up TRIOLE and Sense & Respond methodologies developed by Fujitsu Services with the hardware business. “There is no point in developing separate help desk facilities for hardware when they could just as easily use the help desks within the services business.” M&A activity is on the agenda; moving into the BPO market is not ruled out.

Consensus is the key

Christou knows that success must be driven by local managers that buy into the new business model. He told Ovum, “On Wednesday I started a discussion with senior management to develop a consensus about the future shape of the business. I am not in a hurry to find a solution and no timetable has been set.” He wants consensus to emerge via collaboration. “At the moment the two businesses are learning about each other.”

Significantly, Christou is not looking for a replacement for Courtley and nor is he planning to appoint an interim CEO, believing that that is a recipe for inaction. “I can perfectly well manage Fujitsu Services myself until we decide the future shape of our European businesses.”

Potential global consequences

Christou has his work cut out delivering Fujitsu's global vision on four continents, so it is surprising that he could not find a role for Courtley. He plans to relocate some Fujitsu Services and Fujitsu Siemens resources into GBG to give it more capability. Christou did not specify what this might mean, but Fujitsu Services' Business Transformation Group, led by Roger Camrass, seems an obvious candidate for centralisation.

However, as the Fujitsu Siemens business is far larger than the Fujitsu Services business, any unified structure or glued arrangement would be dominated by product. This may have given Courtley good reason to walk away.

Is this good news for Fujitsu?

Whether the parting of Christou and Courtley was amicable or not, it leaves the way clear for a more radical reorganisation of Fujitsu's European businesses than seemed on the cards last week. Christou must be hoping that the move sparks a realignment of Fujtisu's European businesses that generates long-term positive outcomes.

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