Interview with Christophe Athanase

Christophe Athanase (30) first heard about Yokogawa from a colleague at his former employer, and he found his colleague's description of the concern highly appealing. Consequently when he was ready for a new challenge, in march 2006, he decided to apply for a job at Yokogawa’s French branch. He was successful, and he was appointed to the post of Application Engineer in the Asset Solutions department.

“When I joined the company I was surprised by the large number of products and the range of services Yokogawa offers its customers. It was amazing. I was immediately impressed by the corporate culture: Doing everything to become number one.

I like this winning culture, because I always like to have some high level targets. I am really interested in Yokogawa’s 2010 target: To become market leader in industrial automation”.

In Christophe Athanase’s opinion Yokogawa is going to succeed, especially in view of Yokogawa’s R&D efforts. “The concern makes tremendous investments in R&D, and justifiably so, because everything pivots on innovation. The Board fully appreciates the importance of innovation to our ability to distinguish ourselves from the competition. Moreover it gives us, the personnel – and our customers – complete confidence in Yokogawa’s continuity. I’m certain that as a result of this corporate strategy – in combination with the concern’s open mind and Yokogawa’s approach to conducting business – our concern will soon become the number one in industrial automation. No doubt about it.

Yes, I always enjoy going to work. I’m in charge of the development of the asset management solutions in France. My work offers me plenty of challenges, because companies always need to make changes and improvements. There’s very little routine work, since no two companies are the same.

I also find the corporate work climate very agreeable. I am able to organize my time as I wish, and I have a great deal of freedom in deciding how I carry out my duties. Moreover, the work climate inspires me to achieve a continually improved performance – not least because I can work together with experts inside and outside the concern, and I learn from them all the time. I also make regular visits to seminars, and I follow training courses, such as a recent course in Amersfoort, the Netherlands.

I really like working for a multinational. I have contacts with people all over the world; we work together in solving problems, and that’s great! In the longer term I would like to work at another Yokogawa branch, for example in Canada. Canada appeals to me; I’ve spent a couple of months there, and I liked it very much – and not just because they also speak French”.

Christophe Athanase