Playing one's cards right in a changing and competitive world

Radiall is a family business which began in a Parisian workshop in the 1950s and today has become the sole supplier of highly technical products for Boeing. Here is finally an example of a success story à la française which is noteworthy for existing in a context which at the very least is a gloomy one in terms of austerity, de-industrialisation and tax exile. Pierre Gattaz, who led Radiall’s recovery and put it on the path towards very advanced technologies, discusses his fight to keep his company in France in spite of numerous constraints and the very bureaucratic French system. He states his love for the industry, its professions and its people, as well as his attachment to France. He also mentions the frustration and anger (which was very often unjustified) which are shared by business leaders when faced with closed-mindedness and preconceptions which are based on the excesses and scandals of the financial economy. It is not an easy task to reconcile the French population with business!