Pierre Gattaz (Radiall) : Son regard sans filtre sur la France, la politique et les entreprises 🔥

I learned in three years of constant crisis what ten years of running a business would have taught me. I had every problem: labor inspectors, tax inspectors, exhausted employees. It was hard. I'm a glutton for action. Reprimand in private, congratulate in public. Politicians do the opposite. We have good social benefits, but someone pays. Since the dissolution, I've been angry at political speeches—they've never worked in a private company or traveled. I feel we are not on the same planet.

Hello.

Yes, definitely. How are you?

Pierre Gattaz, born September 11, 1959. I'm an engineer by training. I went to the US a bit, then Dassault Électronique recruited me. In my thirties I turned around an electronics company for Dinaction. In 1992, my father and uncle, founders of Radiall, asked me to join because the aeronautics and military markets were struggling. We repositioned toward the US and telecoms. I had ten fantastic years surfing on GSM and cellular radio. We were making connectors for that exploding market.

This component makes me very proud. We spent 20 years developing it: a smart connector that transcodes fiber-optic photons into electrical signals. It operates in extreme environments from -50°C to +150°C for aerospace, space, and onboard radars. We are the only ones in the world to do this. It's the work of dozens of brilliant French engineers, lab technicians, and skilled workers. I've kept my five factories in France—that's my greatest pride. Thirty years ago we had four factories in France and one in the US; now we have 13. It shows French industry can succeed by moving up the value chain and motivating people.

When I was 5 or 6, my uncle Lucien would take me to the Radiall factory in Voiron. I remember a big guy in work overalls and mustache—I thought it was dangerous. But the workers were wonderful professionals. I recall the smell of cutting oil, like a madeleine. My uncle showed me components used for satellites. I was fascinated. That may have given me a taste for industry.

In Seine-Saint-Denis, Villemomble, for college and high school at Lycée du Raincy.

Yes. Then I went to MPSI, MP, and Telecom Bretagne.

Not really. I wanted to be an archaeologist or astronaut, but I was carried along. I didn't want to follow my father, so Radiall wasn't my plan. But I went to Dassault, then Dinaction asked me to turn around a company. In 1992 came the opportunity to take over Radiall.

While I was a young Telecom attaché in Washington, I served as driver and translator for Serge Dassault. We got along, he asked for my CV, and that's how I joined Dassault Électronique. I spent 3–5 years there developing international payment terminal projects. I ended up crawling on all fours in a Mexico City commercial zone to find telephone wires to connect the terminals—it was tough but exciting.

Yes, I had the virus from my father and uncle. I had a concept for an automated ski-pass dispenser with credit card payment. I had learned the technology at Dassault. But I messed up—I never built the prototype. Then Dinaction asked me to take over a failing company, Fontaine Électronique. It was 45 people that had filed for bankruptcy twice. I turned it around over three tough years. I learned more in that crisis than in ten years of normal management. It was brutal but extremely formative.

I hold breakfast meetings with employees, about 15–20 people at a time, for one to one-and-a-half hours. I answer all questions, including about salaries. I talk openly about markets—Airbus, Boeing, China, etc. I believe you must treat employees well during good times so they rally around the ship during crises. We've passed four crises this way. We reward performance: in very good years we give up to three months of profit-sharing and bonuses. It motivates everyone. Also, we learned to avoid promoting the best salesperson to sales manager or the best engineer to head of engineering—they often aren't good managers. We created a dual career path: expert (junior, confirmed, senior) and manager. We form managers and test them. Simple rules: reprimand in private, praise in public. Politicians do the opposite, which is a disaster.

In 2013. I had earlier been pushed to lead the passive components union, then the FIEEC federation, then the GFI group. Finally, after François Hollande's election, I feared for the economy and decided to run for MEDEF president. I won with 95% of the vote. I changed the statutes to serve only one five-year term. I launched the 'million jobs' campaign, which sounds crazy but it worked. We created the CICE, lowered the corporate tax rate, introduced the flat tax under Macron, simplified the labor code with the El Khomri and Pénicaud laws, and capped labor court awards. These reforms, along with many others, helped create over two million jobs. France's unemployment rate fell from 10.2% in 2013 to 7.2% in 2023. My conviction came from international experience: I traveled to China, India, the US, Germany. Politicians rarely have that. They've never worked in the private sector or traveled.

It's about cash management, people management, and value creation. If you don't have these three elements intrinsically as a boss, you don't understand. The current debate in 2025 on public spending is surreal in France. Since the dissolution, all political classes, especially the left, only think about taxing. They have no idea that we have 57% of GDP as public spending, 7 points above the EU average, 8-9 points above Germany, 22% more than Switzerland or the US. It's ideology. When I hear the new Economy Minister Eric Lombard, I fall off my chair. It's a French intellectual culture that sees the public sphere as the model. We have 5.7 million civil servants, Germany has 4.5 million with 30% more population. It's a mix of leftist intellectualism and communist inertia. The social model is too generous—retirement at 62, 18 months unemployment benefits—and it presses on net salaries. For a net salary of €2000, it costs the company €4000. We need to reform and explain the impact on purchasing power. I'm creating a think tank with Xavier Fontanet, Michel de Rosen, and others to find measures that improve daily life. Reforms should be presented for people's benefit, not for France. We need to revive social mobility. Employers fear hiring due to high labor costs. We should look at Germany, Switzerland, Sweden. My dream is for the French left to become social democratic like Sweden, pragmatic, and value the tool of work. In France, business is only discussed in terms of executive salaries, dividends, subsidies. We don't want subsidies; we want lower taxes. Innovation funding is important, but other aids should go. We need a restrictive public service—only four sovereign functions: police, justice, army, diplomacy. Everything else can be privatized or public-private. Look at Sweden. Private management can compensate for public waste. We should allow private competition in hospitals and schools.

Our main challenge is diversification. We are very focused on aerospace and military, which are doing well now, but we can't rely on only two markets. We need to find other outlets. We're working on quantum computers, nuclear, medical. We also need to stay strong in technology, automate, retain talent, and leverage AI for productivity.