Eco's guest: Jean Pascal Tricoire, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Schneider Electric

Hello.

Well, I am an engineer by training. I am French by origin and I lived mostly in the countryside during the first 20 years of my life. From this engineering background, I continued with a business education, and then I joined almost 40 years ago — 39 years ago — Schneider Electric. So I spent my entire career in the company. What probably characterizes my journey is having worked across many countries: I lived in Italy, China, sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, and the United States, and then again in Asia, where I've lived for 15 years. And it's having led major transformations with the Schneider teams in the field of electrification. We are today the world leader in energy technologies and electrical technologies, and above all in digitalization — connecting the world of energy and enabling our clients to control all aspects of their energy use.

You can say it however you like. We are very flexible at Schneider.

The mission, the raison d'être of Schneider is energy technologies and the ability for our clients to access energy that is the safest, most reliable, most efficient, and greenest possible. Schneider is not always visible because we are in fact a partner of most companies worldwide. We hold a true global leadership position, but we operate behind the scenes to support our clients' success. You don't see us because we are inside your machines, inside your equipment. Let me give some examples. The future of energy will revolve around efficiency, which enables our clients to be both more competitive and more sustainable. We are the global leader in smart buildings, smart manufacturing — I'm using English terms but I think everyone understands — and data centers. We are at the heart of the AI revolution that is unfolding. And in smart cities, all around the world. The second particularity of Schneider is that we do this across all geographies. Our largest market globally is North America at 36% of revenue, followed by Asia at 28%, Europe at 22%, and a strong and fast-growing presence in Africa and the Middle East. In terms of figures: a company with 38 billion euros in revenue, slightly over 40 billion dollars, with 150,000 employees worldwide. A presence that is both very global and very specialized, because every time we speak with our clients, it's to energize their installations, bring them the best energy, and digitalize their facilities — giving them the means to control their buildings, factories, cities, and data centers.

First, there's a particularity at Schneider Electric: 45% of our revenue comes from what I call 'new economies' — economies in strong development. This is quite unusual for companies of Western or developed-country origin. And there's a reason for that: my own career was mainly built in these emerging countries. I lived in China when it was beginning its development. I was in sub-Saharan Africa over 25 years ago. Let's go back to fundamentals: energy is the basis of all development. Energy is the passport to a decent life for everyone and a passport to progress. But we've also discovered over time that energy is the primary driver of climate change. Climate change is essentially carbon emissions, and 80% of those come from how we produce and consume energy. So there is an obligation to find technologies that reconcile progress with sustainable development for all. Morocco lives right in the middle of this challenge — it's one of Africa's fastest-growing economies, yet it suffers every year from drought, heat waves, and very high temperatures. It is urgent and important for all of us, through technology, to find another way to produce and consume energy. The axes defined in Morocco — turning to electrification — are for good reasons. There's no fossil fuel in Morocco, just as there isn't in Europe, and renewables and electrification are the only ways to reduce the carbon intensity of the economy. So what is Schneider's role? Precisely to invent new ways to produce and consume energy, prioritizing efficiency through two vectors: electrification and digitalization — connecting everything to make it smarter and more efficient, and giving our clients access to their data so they can manage their energy in a way that is safer, more reliable, more efficient, and greener. We work with all the largest companies, from the biggest AI firms in the world down to the electrician serving your neighborhood, because we work day by day with these communities of electricians. What we've discovered in the last three years is that energy is not only the first condition for progress and sustainable development, but it has also become a fundamental pillar of strategic relevance for companies and countries. AI cannot be dissociated from energy. Today, operating a data center requires enormous amounts of electricity — it's the fastest-growing consumption segment. It is essential for every country and company to secure its energy source or best energy management for the data centers powering AI.

The first answer is that I'm not Moroccan, so I'm not the one to formulate a definitive response, but I think Morocco today is in a situation where Schneider Electric is putting all its energy into supporting development. Why? First, electrification and energy provision — Morocco is developing rapidly on multiple fronts. The well-known one is tourism. Now there's industry. Morocco is situated between Europe and Africa, making it an obvious connection point for digitalization, close to fiber optics and communication hubs that are nerve centers between the rest of the world and Africa. If you take the list — and I'm sure I'll forget some points — you have energy development and the energy transition, Morocco's commitment to electrification, particularly renewable electrification, which opens the door to very innovative applications of energy. There's industrialization and creating an industry that serves not only the kingdom but also Africa and is at the doorstep of Europe, a consumer market. There's digital — I visited this morning the extraordinary UM6P university, which for me is one of the most beautiful universities I've visited in the world, with a pedagogical team that shows not only professionalism but also great innovation, and a digital community without equal. There's the water issue — water requires energy, and you can produce that energy competitively and without carbon if you use renewables. There's agricultural development and consumer products. And there's mining, which today is undergoing a real industrial revolution using connectivity, automation, digital twins, software, and AI for greater efficiency — at a time when everyone is talking about mineral resources, Morocco has a new impetus. When you add to this the fact that Schneider Electric has been in the country for 65 years, that we manage all of West Africa from Morocco with a team that serves not only the country but the entire region — Schneider stands alongside Morocco and we are very motivated.

You cannot isolate the energy transition from the rest. The energy transition is there to serve societal transition — with more urbanization — industrial transition — with more manufacturing — and the digital transition, which is underpinned by digital infrastructure. So to summarize: Schneider is at the service of the energy transition, particularly toward electrification; the digital transition, particularly AI and all the possibilities digital offers; and the environmental transition, to achieve all this development while preserving environmental quality and the climate, to which Morocco, perhaps more than any other country, is very sensitive.

I think that in the energy domain, we need to review some of our concepts and our way of thinking. It is possible today to invest in the energy transition and have a profit from it. When you make a building more efficient, regardless of the country, the return on investment is between 3 and 5 years — meaning after 3 to 5 years, you'll be spending less than the initial investment. This is true for buildings, for industry, for electrical networks, and for data centers. Take a data center you're going to build now: the biggest cost item is electricity. If from the start you invest in efficiency and reliability — a data center cannot have downtime — you'll have a much better return on investment than with traditional techniques. So I think we need to see energy as the foundation of investment and development projects, and to see it as an investment in efficiency. Sometimes people oppose the concepts of energy and sustainability. In fact, sustainability is above all efficiency — eliminating unnecessary expenses, eliminating waste. What we see with thousands of clients worldwide is that eliminating waste through technology actually pays for the investment. Now, what are the blockers? First, thinking differently. I'll take an analogy: the internet 25 years ago. You could keep using your traditional phone and create no new value. People who thought digital — including your newspapers and many services — transformed that technology into an economic advantage. Today, in energy, we are at the moment of a double revolution. The first revolution is on the demand side: in the next 10 to 20 years, vehicles will become electric — the greatest energy migration ever known. Buildings are being equipped with electricity, air conditioning, everything is becoming connected and equipped with AI. Data centers coupled with our phones, our computers. And industry in countries without oil or gas is also becoming electric. So you have a first migration of demand toward more electrification. And at the same time, a supply-side revolution: energy was once based on fossil fuels and still largely is, but the greatest growth will be in renewables — solar and wind — which are decentralized sources. And the third revolution: everything will be connected. For the first time in the energy world, every building will be connected to where energy is produced through smart grids. The latest major deployments we've done are in Egypt and Thailand — countries in full development. This enables us to envision energy very differently: for example, saving you money by encouraging you to charge batteries or your car when energy is green and cheaper. So the first thing is to think differently — architects, urbanists, and corporate executives need to reason with a different equation. The second challenge is training. I just came back from three weeks in the United States working with clients on the largest data centers. The US is missing 500,000 to 1 million electricians for this transition. In Morocco, as everywhere else in the world, we will lack technicians, engineers, and electricians. So the second challenge is human, and it's the most important, because it's through education — and that's why we visited the university this morning — working together with the academy and training programs at all levels, that we can achieve this revolution. The third challenge is financial. But once these investments have proven returns — and we've been doing this for several years now — capital will be found and companies like ours will finance this revolution. We can be the technological partner for the finance that invests in this transition.

I hear you, and if you're talking about financing and access to financing, you should discuss it with the financing actors rather than me. But what I think is that financiers are always eager to invest in projects with proven results. Investment funds too — right now you see funds investing in data centers for AI, and you also see funds investing in decentralized energy, because there are models proving the returns. And it's up to us to work together — with our clients, with the people, with the electricity utilities, with clients implementing these new energy solutions — so that we bring the technology, the financiers bring the capital, and the operators run these systems in the years to come.

We are technology providers. What we do is enable our clients to find electrons — electricity — and bring them to their point of use. The use is, for example, your apartment, your house. Strong chances are that at the entrance to your home, in the electrical panel, it's a Schneider panel with Schneider products that enable you to secure, control, and so on. Then, one of Schneider's very large markets — about 30% of our global revenue — is buildings. In buildings, the issue is bringing reliable and efficient energy and achieving the lowest possible carbon footprint. What we do in buildings is: we go to the electrical network, bring the electron, and through our digital systems, we control to minimize consumption and help you optimize it. Our systems will close rooms that aren't occupied, reduce consumption when possible. We bring electricity to all building functions — air conditioning, IT, all technical parts, machines. And something new: the gas station is transforming into building parking lots, since more and more vehicles will be electric. In countries like China or parts of Asia, all parking lots are equipped with electricity. Schneider enables you to bring this at the best cost and most optimized way. Then you go to the factory: same approach — we bring electricity to all production processes and couple it with automation systems. We make automation systems that allow clients to automate all their production processes, from consumer products to chemistry and beyond. And when you go home, you pass through tunnels, take a train, and again electricity is needed. Schneider provides the technologies that bring electricity from the grid to train catenaries, to airports — we work on some of the world's largest airports. And again, always providing municipalities or operators with digital tools for management. And something new now, with this triple revolution — electrical, digital, and environmental — is that we are increasingly called upon by clients to create what we call microgrids: systems often based on renewables, storage, and security that enable clients to produce their own electricity. For you and me, that means producing solar electricity, storing it on batteries, and using it at the best moment — perhaps even using your vehicle's battery for security. But in larger installations or mines, these are much larger systems that give clients more reliable and cheaper electricity.

I won't use the word 'grand,' but for us it was very important — and that's particularly why I'm in Morocco this week. For us, it was an opportunity in one day to bring together in one place the entire community of people working with our technologies. Of course, the major users who have important technological, energy, digital, and efficiency challenges to solve — the large industrial companies, the major building constructors, the data center builders, the big players in computing broadly, the people managing all city infrastructure, the infrastructure for the football World Cup coming soon to Morocco — we are proud to participate in this collective effort. And even more important, something I haven't addressed: Schneider Electric has a culture of partnership. As a technology-specialized company, we work every day with partners. Who are they? Engineering firms that study all these technical facilities. The people who manufacture electrical installations — we make the technological components, but they need to be assembled into panels and electrical installations. The electrical installers in the field. The people who maintain them throughout the life of these installations. The people who program them — because more than 60% of what we do is digital, so they create the software for smart buildings and production chains. This entire ecosystem of professionals, we gathered for a day, and it allowed us to share our strategy with them, and above all — the most important thing — to listen to them. To be together on the same page for a day, talking about our sector, which we're all passionate about because we have a real role to play. Especially in a country like this, it's even more evident: we're on steep development slopes, there are important subjects to address — environmental, energy, and digital. And this whole partner ecosystem not only has challenges but a duty to succeed for the entire country. So there was everything: plenary sessions where we shared our vision more broadly, panels where people could share their practical experience including problems, an exhibition where people could see these technologies firsthand and understand how they come together, and a lot of sharing. And one thing that is very important to me, having been in this industry for a very long time, is human relationships. Things work when there's trust and when we work well together. Being together, putting things on the table, understanding where we're all trying to go, building together — that's an extremely important moment.