This is the recipe that Indra prescribes itself to become a national champion
The winds blowing on the global geostrategic stage are favourable to the empowerment of the military and dual-use industry in the nations of the European Union.
Brussels and its Commissioner for the Internal Market, the Frenchman Thierry Breton, are pouring billions of euros into the aerospace and defence ecosystem of the Old Continent, where Spanish companies are making strenuous efforts to show their high level of know-how, compete and increase their market share.
One of them is the technology multinational Indra, whose chairman, Marc Murtra, stated at the General Shareholders' Meeting on 30 June that the previous management team headed by Ignacio Mataix has closed the 2022 financial year with most of the key parameters resolved in optimal conditions.
The new CEO, Jose Vicente de los Mozos, spoke in similar terms to Mataix, although he stressed that the company has transversalities and practices "that have not been properly exploited to date".
In his first speech to shareholders, he stated that Indra can become the Spanish multinational of reference in defence and technology as long as four capabilities are strengthened. These are four "priorities" that he identified and which the company must tackle with all its might if it is to achieve the position of national champion. The two pairs of concepts begin with the letter T and are Traction, Transformation, Talent and Technology.
Adding capabilities to shape the national champion
Indra's current strongman has been able to demonstrate that Indra has more than enough capabilities to lead and exert a tractor effect as a main contractor on the Spanish defence technology ecosystem. He believes that "we can achieve this from a project-country perspective and with a collaborative position with the entire value chain".
In his visits to the company's different centres and in his meetings with the senior managers of the different business areas and senior officials of the Ministries of Defence and Industry, he noted that Indra is part of a significant number of national and third-country projects and programmes. One example is that the EU's European Defence Fund has just awarded the multinational the leadership of two R+D+i projects and its participation in 12 others, totalling 500 million euros in funding and covering all the company's key technological areas.
De los Mozos affirms that his company is in a position and "must" lead the process of combining capabilities to form a national champion. In his opinion, this can be achieved through different mechanisms and "not only through purchasing". "It can also be achieved through technological agreements with third party companies in order to, subsequently, take the step to the international environment", he said.
From his point of view, "the company's spearhead should be Europe", where the company's main actions abroad should be directed. But without forgetting the North American market, which he considers "the prized ambition to be developed through acquisitions". The first step was the acquisition by the end of 2022 of the air traffic component of Selex ES, the electronics branch of the North American subsidiary of the Italian group Leonardo, which Indra has renamed Indra Air Traffic.
A second priority is the transformation of the company's business model, which Indra considers "essential". It intends to do so by means of two levers. One is to reconfigure the company's organisational structure in order to be able to play a leading role in the Spanish defence ecosystem. The other lever consists of "simplifying internal operations", with the intention of "responding to our customers in a more agile way in terms of quality, cost and deadlines", emphasises De los Mozos.
To successfully carry out the necessary transformation, he is aware that he must surround himself with talent, whether national or from beyond the Spanish borders. In this sense, it wants to implement initiatives capable of "attracting and retaining the best professionals", while creating "a differential working environment that makes them feel proud of the company in which they work".
Strategic Plan with a vision until 2030
A company like Indra cannot neglect technology, which is the foundation on which it is based. He reminded shareholders that the company "has products and services that are benchmarks in the world". Aware that technology is advancing faster and faster, he has put his finger on the sore spot by recognising that "in recent years, we have not been able to keep up with this pace". As a result, he stressed that "we must invest more in technology in a sustainable way".
He rounded off his address to the Shareholders' Meeting on 30 June with the announcement that he was going to implement "a series of specific actions", of which he has anticipated four and some of which he has already implemented. He has set up a Management Committee structured around different business areas, with end-to-end responsibility, i.e., end-to-end responsibility for the income statement.
They are veteran Indra executives together with new recruits. One is Pedro Fuster, until a few days ago deputy director general of Defence Inspection, Regulation and Industrial Strategy, who has more than 15 years of experience in the department. Another is Miguel Ángel Morell, who was the director general of TESS Defence, the consortium developing the army's 8x8 Wheeled Combat Vehicle.
A second measure is to immediately sign the first agreements with companies in the sector, with a view to helping redefine the current landscape of the national defence industrial fabric. The third is to activate what he has called the Indra 4.0 Project, whose objective is to "reposition" Indra as the digital company of reference in all the company's operational and business processes.
With his extensive background in logistics and planning as a former top executive of the Renault automotive group and under his leadership, De los Mozos has begun to outline the main lines of the multinational's roadmap as it evolves towards the future.
Indra's current Strategic Plan ends this year and the new CEO will lead its fourth pillar: the definition and implementation of a new Strategic Plan for the three-year period 2024-2026 "but with a vision until 2030". It will contain the staggering of investments to "capture external capabilities that provide answers to the needs of our customers". This is what its 57,000 employees are relying on, as well as its shareholders, who want to further expand the economic volume of Indra's business activities on five continents.
