2023-11-23 15:54:05
François Dossa, strategy director of the Jaguar Land Rover group, returns during the “Têtu et Jaguar” evening to the future of the JLR automobile group, which is at the crossroads of sustainable development, new technologies and ‘art.
Starting from his own background and sexual orientation, he also highlights the need to further promote diversity and inclusion within companies.
Can you tell us regarding your role within Jaguar Land Rover?
My role within JLR is to be “the boss of strategy”.
It’s a fairly broad mission, as it concerns a number of important sectors: innovation, sustainable development, all new technologies as well as diversity and inclusion.
We belong to the Indian technology group Tata, with which we are building an increasingly strong relationship to support our transformation.
In relation to these technologies, how are you going to integrate them into automobiles and how is this going to be innovative?
We will start with electrification, going from a thermal car to an electric car with new battery and electric motor technologies, these are important innovations.
Then we will have to create connected vehicles.
Connectivity for young customers is essential. But it is very difficult to be in an element that moves in a tunnel, the countryside… To respond to this problem, we will have to find the necessary technologies in the “Tata communication” group, which is the world leader in connectivity.
Then there is obviously the question of the autonomy of the car where we will choose to drive or be driven.
Finally all the new “business models” arrive. So, the younger generation will not necessarily want to be owners but perhaps to rent, to make a subscription… For these new uses there will be the use of digital technologies.
You who also manage everything relating to diversification and inclusion, can you tell us what is the importance for companies today to integrate this dimension into the strategy?
Its very important. In my view, it’s “right” to have a diverse company. A company must resemble its customers, who are men, women, blacks, gays…
If the company does not reflect these populations we will not know how to talk to them.
There are statistical studies that say that the most diverse companies are the most profitable and the most innovative. Which seems obvious, because it is by highlighting differences that we create a lot of value.
I am personally attached to it too because I am gay, and for a long time I thought that the company was not made for me because I did not see gays in the executive committee, no women, no blacks… We must Let that change!
We can therefore do it because it affects us or because it is more profitable, both work. Either way, we need to work on it.
Within JLR we are implementing a quota policy. We must therefore hire and promote minorities with quotas, otherwise companies do not do it enough. We have fourteen networks within the company which represent minorities and which work by passing on information, this is the “bottom up”. For example, policies like paternity: why shouldn’t fathers be able to raise their children?
My role is to do the “top down”, so that the company’s general committee also acts. It will take time, we started firmly two years ago but it must continue because the world we live in is still a very unfair world. There are countries that are going backwards, in which we are going back on what we have achieved.
What do you think will be tomorrow’s battles?
There is one of absolute urgency: sustainable development. We saw it this summer with, for example, the fires in Greece: we can no longer breathe, everyone must understand this very quickly and change! But the difficulty is precisely change.
Within the company, the first thing we did was to inform everyone through training for all our employees on climate change. First stage: what is happening?
Second stage: how to act in everyday life to change?
I don’t know what planet we are going to leave to our children but I find it very worrying.
The future of the automobile seems to be forged with the integration of sustainable development into the strategy, such as the introduction of electric motors for example, should this go further?
Yes, that’s not enough…
Cars have electric motors but we need to find renewable energy to integrate this into the batteries. If we find energy with a coal-fired power plant, imagine what we have thrown into the atmosphere…
Once the battery has been used for around ten years, we must be able to recycle it, because we will not have enough lithium… We must therefore think regarding the circular economy. We must recycle everything we can recycle and there we will be in true green energy.
And you with the Tata group, how are you concretely developing technologies that make it possible to better integrate sustainable development?
Natarajan Chandrasekaran, “chairman” of Tata, does not give a speech without emphasizing the importance for our group to become the most eco-responsible in the world!
Which means that each company in its sector must become the most eco-responsible.
There are synergies set up between us with a company called “tata steel” which makes green steel called “green steel”, which we will use in cars, another one. is “tata chemical” which makes green chemicals that we can use. So we have a particular advantage: we belong to a group with a lot of intelligence and technology.
What should we expect for the next Jaguar models coming out in 2025?
You are in for a shock! I see a lot of cars, it’s my job, but the future cars are going to be very disruptive while being art cars.
Jaguar is art, that’s what we do with Têtu magazine by bringing in young artists during an evening to imagine creations around models that are designed in relation to Jaguar’s new DNA.
The car will be at the crossroads of all integrated technologies with a platform that will allow very pleasant driving and communication with the car.
Jaguar likes to take risks, and is not afraid to innovate!
Photo : Alan Marty
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