9 November 2020
Discover the interview of Richard LAMURE and Armand CHOQUIN published in the french magazine CAPITAL of October 2020.
With a turnover of 47 million in 2019 and eight subsidiaries worldwide, the TOPSOLID group shows French intermediate-size companies the path to international success. Since 1984, the company has been providing CAD, CAM and PDM publishing software for the Mechanical and Wood industries.
The teams develop real partnerships throughout the world and support customers in the digitalization of their industrial sites.
Interview with Richard Lamure, CEO of the TOPSOLID Group and Armand Choquin, International Director
What are the keys to your success?
Our core business is piloting numerically controlled machines, but we also provide a range of complementary tools. TOPSOLID has the richest range of publishing software for various industries. We are convinced of the industrial relocation in France. The TOPSOLID group is keen to preserve its independence and the know-how of its engineers. We are therefore continuing to strengthen our French research and development teams, in order to release new products and services for Industry 4.0. At the same time, our company exports its solutions around the world via a real support for end customers. We deeply believe in local partnership. This is why we are developing subsidiaries and relying on a high-quality distribution network (true local partners of the publisher). The TOPSOLID group meets its customers to understand their needs, provide them with resources and sometimes help them structure their businesses. The society feeds on these exchanges and can therefore develop products for the entire user community. Few SMEs have an international outlook like ours and this partly explains why the company can carry out external growth operations even in times of a health crisis! In this sense, we plan to strengthen our network of partners and subsidiaries in the months and years to come.
How do you deal with your foreign partners?
First of all, we are very rigorous in our approach to the different markets: this requires a careful choice of the right local contacts and set-up areas with potential. We are addressing regions that are already very strong industrially, such as Europe and China, or that are undergoing strong economic development, such as Latin America and the Maghreb. It is essential to understand the context of the country in which we wish to set up operations as well as the needs of the subsidiaries or partner resellers, to support them in the digitalization of the industrial sector and the integration of TOPSOLID solutions. Therefore, we are segmenting our distribution network and we have dedicated teams for each service. With the strength of the French on the international scene, it is easy to evolve in a multicultural context: we do not take our employees at face value, we listen to them and we adapt. We are therefore able to unite our teams around a single project and, thanks to the trust established, we let them manage the industrial sites independently.
In the current context, what message should be conveyed to the French industrial sector?
The crisis must not stop investments. We have to be confident and believe in our ability to bounce back and develop. This period of slowdown will also allow companies to reflect, particularly in terms of improving their process and productivity: this requires digitization. France is lagging behind at this level and we need to take advantage of this context to catch up. The TOPSOLID group is one of the major players
of this change: we support our customers during and after the crisis to help them bounce back and grow.
Media source: Magazine CAPITAL - October 2020
Need more information
