Company – Confined with … Eric de Seynes, President of Yamaha Motor Europe – YAMAHA Occasions

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Confined with … Eric de Seynes, President of Yamaha Motor Europe

Company - Confined with ... Eric de Seynes, president of Yamaha Motor Europe - YAMAHA Occasions

What are the main players in the motorcycle world doing during the lockdown linked to the Covid-19 pandemic? Eric de Seynes, President of Yamaha Motor Europe, spoke to Journal moto du Net.

MNC: Where are you confined ?

Eric de Seynes : I am confined in Normandy, with my family. I am lucky to have set up an office separate from the house, where I have all the necessary technologies: computer, wifi, scanner, printer, etc. This allows me to be connected with all of our different entities.

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MNC: How are your days going? ?

E. d. S. : I get up at 7:30 am and start my working day at 8:45 am. Review emails for 45 minutes with my assistant by Skype. Then a point with Japan for an hour. Then around 10:30 am, a management committee, again by Skype, with all the directors of Yamaha Motor Europe where we take stock of each division and the actions to be followed in the context of the current crisis (health status of the countries, factories, supplies, financial position, currency hedging, etc.). It takes about 3 hours. Then 30 minutes for lunch with the family. Around 2 pm, I take part in a "Skype coffee break" every day with one of our subsidiaries, which allows me to talk to our managers and employees in each country for 30 minutes and to answer their questions. Then I have two or three meetings on specific topics, always by Skype, until around 5.30 pm, then again for an hour of email processing with my assistant. Finally I end with an hour of phone call until around 7.45 p.m. There I go to do 50 minutes of sport (30 minutes of home trainer bike and 20 minutes of rowing machine). At 8:30 p.m., family dinner…

MNC: What do you miss the most? The least ?

E. d. S. : What I miss the most is ultimately direct contact with my employees, simple and direct exchange with each other, in addition to formal meetings. Then it’s the race weekends. It hurts for our drivers and our teams, condemned to standstill even though they have been preparing for months … I really miss these exchanges on the ground with our sports ambassadors as with the public.

MNC: What are you afraid of ?

E. d. S. : I’m not afraid, but I obviously have fears for the duration of this pandemic and for its health and social consequences. I fear the consequences of a recession which seems more and more inevitable, as of the time which will be necessary for the resumption of our activities as a whole. I fear the consequences on employment and on the credibility of the political apparatuses in Europe. But I also have hopes, on the awareness that this crisis will arouse in order to restore resources to medical research, hospitals and social cohesion. On the lessons that we will be able to draw from this exceptional situation in the field of the digitization of our exchanges, the reduction of travel and our CO2 emissions, the partial relocation of our production and services, the agility of our organizations, flexible working hours, etc..

MNC: A book, a film, a series, a record to recommend ?

E. d. S. : I read with great pleasure. It is written with sincerity and is full of anecdotes and strong memories about this glorious period when the Dakar was still taking place in Africa (considering Saudi Arabia as a country in the Middle East).

MNC: Your Favorite Motorcycle Video ?

E. d. S. : The intimate films of Philippe Piedelièvre on, "Et si on vivait", and on Christian Sarron.

MNC: The first thing you will do at the end of the lockdown ?

E. d. S. : Go kiss my parents and go back to the office in Amsterdam !

Interview by Eric MICHEL

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