By Oh Young-jin
It was an unfair fight from the start.
Seated on the one side of a rectangular conference table were three journalists plus one photographer.
Facing them was a lone Frenchman together with two Korean assistants. Of course, he had a home court advantage of sort since the battlefield was where he usually meets his lieutenants and discusses strategies.
To sum up the one-hour interview at the Renault Samsung Motors building in downtown Seoul, last week, Francois Provost, CEO of the auto firm since past September, fought a gallant fight sometimes as if he were a prize fighter who didn’t know how to retreat and at other times as a peacemaker using his sheepish smile.
By the tone of our conversation, Provost could be confrontational when push came to shove but boasted of patience, a characteristic regarded as a virtue for CEOs.
One of the close calls came when our team of three reporters took turns asking about rationalization plans.
He once uttered, “A tricky question,” and, when pressed for an answer, he clammed up, saying that he wouldn’t answer.
It was quite possible that he might be tempted to think that the strategy of questioning ― a combination of a good-cop-bad-cop tactic with a stubborn character ― was planned in advance but the truth was that it was the result of inadvertent competition to get new facts out of a subject during an interview.
That tough moment was not instantly resolved and the tension lasted for the following couple of questions.
The resolution came over a passing remark that caused all present to pounce up and laugh together as if they had been waiting.
That was a tough side of the Renault Samsung chief that one would believe the Parisian didn’t have because he has, among other things, a disarming smile whose effect was often magnified by his glasses.
Thus, he may use this showdown to let the other side know of the boundaries during an interview, negotiations and other interactions.
But judging from the interview, his core competencies lie not in these behavioral characteristics but in his two principles.
One is what has become of the Renault spirit.
Occasionally, he talked about the family-like close-knit society that is Renault.
This familial spirit was made apparent when he was asked about labor flexibility in Korea and his rationalization plans.
He was quite reluctant as expected of any conscionable CEO to talk about reducing payrolls but, interestingly enough, he said that his firm’s Busan factory is one of the highest manufacturing facilities for the French automaker that has Samsung as its stakeholder. In a way, it was understandable that he didn’t rattle the labor union when he doesn’t have a firm plan.
He insisted on his words being taken at face value, warning against no arbitrary interpretations.
It was only possible to guess that he wanted to raise output to its full capacity or increase efficiency to lower costs without slashing manpower.
He looked determined to trickle the Renault spirit down the ranks and files of Renault Samsung, referring to his employees as part of the big Renault family.
Then, he also fit some stereotypes about Frenchmen ― being French.
Asked whether he was willing to drop Samsung from Renault Samsung, its present name, he answered with a firm, `no. ‘
It was a conspicuous trend for big foreign firms that rechristened themselves and gave them their own distinctive flavor of their mother firms. For instance, GM Daewoo Auto and Technology was renamed as GM Korea. Daewoo was a leftover bit from the Korean firm GM took over. SC First Bank is now called Standard Chartered Bank (in Korea), giving up the First from the Korea First Bank, the Korean bank that the British banking group took over.
Of course, in Renault Samsung’s case, the Korean conglomerate still holds a significant stake. Thus, Provost’s flat no indicates Renault has no immediate plans to buy out the Samsung stake.
Besides, he said that the name bears a sense of tradition of Renault’s presence in Korea and that tradition should be respected.
But if the firm thrives under Provost’s leadership, one big factor would be what often causes foreign firms to fall ― narrowing cultural differences between the employees and mother firms. He said that it can’t be overstated, introducing it as one of his two key operating principles ― the other being building loyalty among the workforce.