Stéphane Richard, CEO of Orange: "The crisis does not jeopardize our projects in Africa"

Audio 18:03

Text by: Olivier Rogez Follow

Orange, a telecommunications giant, is on all fronts. The confinements have led to an explosion in the use of the Internet, particularly for teleworking. While deconfinement is approaching in France, the company is also being scrutinized because it offers to set up an application to track Covid-19 patients. Stéphane Richard, CEO of the Orange group, agreed to answer our questions.

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Will tomorrow's world look like yesterday's? Stéphane Richard does not have the answer but he notes that "  Europe must draw the consequences  " from the global pandemic, in particular concerning "  the loss of control and sovereignty  " in certain essential sectors such as health and medication. "  We have probably gone too far in the distribution of production  " on a world scale, adds the boss of Orange who would see certain production chains relocated to Europe. Is there a globalization crisis, however? Stéphane Richard doubts it. " To say that this epidemic is the consequence of globalization, I do not believe it. In 1348, there was an epidemic of black plague which affected the world, yet we were not in the current globalization. I think that men have always circulated, as have goods.  "

Liberalism is also not in question for this enarch, former financial inspector because, "  ultimately, the countries which are not in a liberal model do not fare better than the others  ". On the other hand, in the future it will be necessary to question human movements, he thinks, wondering about the future of countries that live on tourism. For him, if the next world will be different, it is above all in the way of gathering at work. While he has just experimented with 90,000 of his employees teleworking, Stéphane Richard is convinced that this practice will become widespread, as will the debate on the organization of work spaces, or even daily migrations of these employees "  who spend hours on public transport  ".

The “digitalization of the world” is obvious for Stéphane Richard, so much so that he did not wait for the recommendations of the State to work on the development of a smartphone application which would make it possible to trace the patients of Covid-19 . Traceability being one of the challenges of deconfinement, in the sense that it would make it possible to screen people who have been in contact with the sick, he has reflected with several other manufacturers on the design of this application. But faced with the outcry from a part of the French who fear a new form of "coping" or an abuse of the use of the data collected, the CEO of Orange plays on transparency and swears that all guarantees will be provided. “  All data related to contact history must be stored in a place giving all guarantees of protection. A public place under the control of the authorities . Everything will be done on the basis of "consent", he swears. "  We are respectful of the European regulatory framework, and under the authority of the CNIL [National Commission for Information Technology and Liberties, in particular responsible for ensuring that citizens' data are not used without their knowledge] .  "

If the Orange company is doing well, regardless of the continent where it operates, it nevertheless anticipates a drop in activity, which does not prevent it from paying a dividend to its shareholders this year. The French State, which directly and indirectly owns almost a quarter of the operator's capital, clearly does not complain. He gave his approval to this operation. The dividend is however reduced by a third.

In Africa, Orange will not give up any of its development projects. Africa is already the strongest growth pole of the group, and Stéphane Richard intends to maintain the pace. “  The weight of Africa continues to grow and even if there is a slowdown, it will be general and probably even more pronounced in Europe than in Africa. So the weight of Africa will not drop, on the contrary. The crisis does not call into question our objectives.  "

The fact remains that on the African markets where Orange has almost 45 million customers, the level of taxation is very high. The group's CEO fears that the economic crisis and the needs of governments will translate into new taxes. And Stéphane Richard warns: “  We must not shoot ourselves in the foot. If we want to invest a lot while keeping prices very low, we must avoid imposing additional taxes. Taxation is already very high in our sector, it must remain reasonable if we want to continue to invest.  "

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