A new identity for a new group: Thomson-CSF becomes THALES
08 December 2000
Thomson-CSF, the international defence and commercial electronics group, today announces the rebranding of its global operations, with a new corporate identity and a new name: THALES (pron. ta'les).
The move follows a wide-ranging strategic review, which revealed that Thomson-CSF's former corporate identity no longer adequately reflected the reality of the group today.
THALES today is a global business, with operations in nearly 30 countries and over 65,000 employees worldwide - half of them based outside France.
The group's strategy is to leverage its expertise in dual technologies - where military applications can take advantage of advances made in response to the civil market and vice-versa - to achieve balanced growth in both the commercial and military markets.
THALES is positioned to become a market leader in several new commercial technologies and already serves the defence community as a prime contractor in a number of geographical markets.
2000 was a year of fundamental structural change for THALES, with the acquisition of Racal in the UK and the realignment of the group around three clearly-defined businesses corresponding to the group's main markets: aerospace, defence, and information technology & services.
This restructuring has been accompanied by radical changes in the group's culture and management as acquisitions have been integrated in the UK, the Netherlands, South Africa and Korea.
Denis Ranque, chairman of Thales, comments: "We have changed significantly since the days when we were known simply as a French defence company. Today, we are a global dual-technology group with substantial businesses in the aerospace, defence and IT & Services markets. By assuming a new name and identity at this important point in our history, we are clearly signalling the scale of that change."
The group's new Internet address is : www.thalesgroup.com
Into the third millennium
A new identity for Thomson-CSF
Thomson-CSF becomes
THALES
A logical and strategic decision
The decision to adopt a new identity is based on Thomson-CSF's desire to give maximum visibility to the radical change that the Group has experienced in recent years:
It has become even more international.
It has developed in new areas of business, leveraging its competencies in dual technologies.
It has modernised its business processes, organisation and management.
A new international dimension
* The Group has always been a major exporter.
* The Group now has industrial operations in nearly 30 countries.
* Half of all Group employees are based outside France.
Businesses that have radically changed
* Businesses that draw on a common platform of technologies, the bedrock of the Group's excellence.
* The Group has proven its ability to harness dual technologies.
A new corporate culture
* A Group with a new spirit.
* A Group with a rich heritage of corporate cultures.
* A Group with shared values.
* A Group focusing on customers, service, performance and profitability.
* A Group with innovative management methods: PeopleFirst, a people management programme suited to the Group's international dimension.
2000 has been a crucial year for Thomson-CSF, in which the pace of change has accelerated in all these areas:
Acquisition of Racal, doubling the Group's presence in the UK.
Identification of three business areas: Aerospace, Defence, Information Technologies & Services.
Launch of innovative management programmes.
A significant move
For Thomson-CSF to become THALES is thus a significant move that is a natural extension of the changes the Group has seen in recent years.
Clarification
The change in identity is also a way for Thomson-CSF to achieve greater clarity:
It makes the Group's identity easier to understand.
It simplifies and strengthens the brand strategy of the Group and its subsidiaries.
It ends co-existence with all the other Thomson brands in the world.
The need for clarification
There was a significant mismatch between the image and the reality of the Group:
* It was perceived as too French.
* It was seen as being primarily a defence company.
* It was wrongly perceived as a "conservative" company.
The old name was hard to use
The Thomson brand does not belong to Thomson-CSF.
It actually belongs to Thomson SA and may only be used by its subsidiary Thomson Multimedia, for which it is a flagship commercial brand in many countries.
As a result, the Thomson brand can only be used by Thomson-CSF with the CSF or the word Defence attached.
Because of this legal constraint, the names of the Group's subsidiaries have tended to become longer and more complicated.
Brand confusion
Thomson is a common brand name.
Thomson-CSF shares the Thomson brand with many other international companies and groups.
The best known is Thomson Multimedia, which is a listed company and part of the CAC 40 index.
Many other international companies, especially in the English-speaking world, are called Thomson.
For all these reasons -- need for a new identity, desire for overall consistency, etc. -- it became essential to seek a new identity to make the brand more easily identifiable and simplify the names of subsidiaries, which were so complicated that they were not contributing to a consistent Group image.
A considered choice
The strategic decision to adopt a new identity for Thomson-CSF was first mooted at the very beginning of 2000, which has been a year of accelerated change for the Group: the continuing international expansion strategy and the integration of Racal have given the Group a whole new dimension.
Milestones
13 January 2000
Announcement of friendly takeover bid for Racal
19 April
Thomson-CSF launches offer to Racal shareholders, once competition requirements have been met
end April
Launch of audit and corporate image review with EuroRSCG Corporate to provide new strategic guidelines for communication about Thomson-CSF as it prepared for Racal integration
10 May
Initial results of bid: Thomson-CSF acquires a 62.7% stake in Racal
15 June
Racal acquisition finalised. Operation creates a "new" Thomson-CSF that is more international, has 50% of its employees outside France, and is more closely oriented towards commercial markets, new technologies and services.
mid-July
Results of audit and image review. Launch of feasibility study on possible change of identity.
28 July
New organisation for Thomson-CSF reflecting the Group's increasingly international dimension. Three business areas are identified.
early September
The decision to change the Group's identity is taken by Chairman and CEO Denis Ranque and his management committee as a logical consequence of the strategically important changes of the preceding months.
September
Brief drawn up to define the reference points for the future name: ambition, institutional stature, modernity, international dimension, universal relevance and unity between the Group's three business areas.
Three agencies specialising in name searches and changes are consulted.
September-October
Legal and linguistic testing in all the Group's languages.
A total of 1,000 names are proposed by the three agencies.
early November
The name THALES is put forward by the Nomen agency. It is approved by Denis Ranque and the Thomson-CSF management committee.
14 November
Approval by the Thomson-CSF Board of Directors of the principle of the change of identity.
2nd half November
Definition of the THALES logo, typeface and graphic standards
5 December
Announcement to Group employees
6 December
Announcement to the press (Paris, London)
8 December
Launch of new corporate advertising campaign
An identity of our own
Who was Thales?
A mathematician and philosopher, Thales was one of the most original and fertile thinkers of Antiquity.
Thales was born in the Greek city of Miletus on what is now the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, probably around 625 BC, and died around 547 BC.
After learning mathematics from the Egyptians and Chaldeans, Thales demonstrated an exceptionally original talent for analysing the properties of lines, angles and circles.
Astronomer, historian, geographer, Thales was a member of the Ionian or Milesian School (a pre-Socratic school of philosophy and science in the 6th and 5th centuries BC), and was considered one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. He excelled in two major disciplines, mathematics and philosophy.
His experiments with the charges generated when amber (elektron in Greek) is rubbed ultimately gave us the word electronics.
He is credited with five theorems relating to triangles. The one that bears his name states, "any parallel to one side of a triangle divides the other two sides into proportionate segments".
Apart from his talents as a mathematician, Thales was recognised in his own lifetime as an original thinker, one of the first to turn away from tradition and propose a rational, rather than mythological, explanation of the universe.
He is said to have invented a device for measuring the distance of ships at sea, and to have measured the height of the Pyramids from the length of their shadows. He even used his skills to engage in forward trading in olive oil.
A reference to the Group's technological world and culture
With this reference to the Greek mathematician and philosopher, the new name and new identity highlight the world of science in which the Group operates.
An identity that refers to our technological world through the name of a widely recognised scientific thinker.
An identity that has roots in Europe and influence worldwide.
An identity symbolic of innovation.
A new graphical concept
A name that is a logo in itself, with a modern sound and shape.
New Group colours -- midnight blue (space) and turquoise (air, sea) -- that are elegant, powerful and innovative.
A new communication strategy
An advertising campaign in France, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world, beginning on 8 December 2000 until 19 December, then starting again from 4-15 January 2001.
A new Internet address: www.thalesgroup.com.
A stockmarket listing under the name "THALES (ex-Thomson-CSF)" as of 18 December 2000.
Press Contact :
Caroline Harvey-Gutierrez
T : 01 53 77 86 26
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