How expertise guides Renault Group’s decisions in a rapidly changing world
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Article summary
In a world where technological, energy and regulatory disruptions are accelerating at an unprecedented pace, the ability to anticipate has become a decisive advantage. For Renault Group, this foresight is built on a key asset: expertise. In this opinion piece, Patrick Bastard, Director of Technologies and Regulations, explains how the Expertise function structures, informs and secures the Group’s strategic decisions at the heart of an ecosystem in constant transformation. A deep dive at the intersection of innovation, collective performance and responsibility.
The pace of technological, industrial and regulatory change has become a real challenge for any organisation. Even for teams closely monitoring these transformations, their sheer scale is striking. Whether we look at computing power, artificial intelligence, the energy transition or critical materials (and the list goes on), all indicators point in the same direction: change is accelerating, and the stakes are becoming increasingly strategic.
“Anticipating these transformations and translating them into concrete, informed decisions, has become essential to steering our strategy responsibly and effectively.”
Taken individually, each of these signals is significant. But viewed together, they highlight a simple reality: anticipating these transformations, and translating them into concrete, informed decisions, has become essential to steering our strategy responsibly and effectively.
Over the past twenty years, the combined computing power of the world’s largest supercomputers has increased by a factor of 10,000. Today’s cars embed an impressive amount of software, far more than most people realise. Artificial intelligence has moved from an “experimental” stage to an operational one in the day-to-day activities of most organisations. Humanoid robotics is progressing faster than our mental models would suggest. Critical materials are becoming both politically and industrially strategic. Energy resources are more than ever a major issue. Electrification is emerging as a key lever for decarbonisation at a time when climate indicators, unfortunately, remain off track.
We are entering an era in which anticipating change is no longer a luxury. It is a prerequisite for staying ahead responsibly: identifying what creates value for our customers, what can contribute to corporate social responsibility, innovating, accelerating development, mastering quality, and more.
That is precisely why the Renault Group Expert Community exists, and why it is more essential than ever.
A structured network of experts, with clear missions in service of performance
“Our Expertise Community was created in 2010. Today, it brings together nearly 1,000 specialists from engineering, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, customer insight, after-sales, and beyond.”
Renault Group’s Expertise Community was created in 2010. Today, it brings together nearly 1,000 specialists, primarily from engineering (our historic engine of innovation), but also from manufacturing, quality, supply chain, customer insight, after-sales, and beyond.
This matters, because the challenges we face are no longer confined to a single discipline, and company performance is, above all, a collective endeavour.
Progress happens at the intersections. And it is precisely at these intersections that expertise becomes decisive.
The Expert Community is not just a network of talented individuals. It is a structured community with clear missions and deliverables, which can broadly be summarised in five areas:
- Preparing the future (innovation),
- Securing the present (projects under development),
- Taking responsibility for the past (serial life),
- Capitalising on knowledge,
- Ensuring vehicle compliance.
Clear missions, shared methods, a common culture, collective commitment and transversal management: the Expertise Community serves the company and its performance, while also creating the conditions for rewarding and recognised technical career paths within Renault Group.
When we think of expertise, we often picture someone who “knows a lot.” That is true, but incomplete. That knowledge must be put at the service of unwavering operational commitment.
“Expertise is valuable because it reduces uncertainty before decisions become costly, risky or irreversible. It helps us make better choices, and make them earlier.”
In our world, expertise is valuable because it reduces uncertainty before decisions become costly, risky or irreversible. It helps us make better choices and make them earlier.
Each year, our 50 Expert Leaders update the strategic roadmaps for their respective technology domains.
What does that mean in practice?
It means identifying signals before they become headlines:
- the next shift in usage (what customers will expect without even asking),
- the next technological leap (and what it changes in the real world),
- the next risk (technical, industrial, geopolitical or related to supply),
- the next regulatory development (often complex).
Anticipation is what enables Renault Group to remain sovereign and clear‑sighted in its choices. This is how we prepare, today, the technologies that will equip our vehicles tomorrow.
Expertise does not just pave the way: it is also embodied where it matters most on a daily basis: in vehicle design and development.
Our Experts are therefore fully engaged in projects under development, particularly to keep innovation quality and robustness under control and to resolve critical issues. They do not act as advisors on the sidelines: they take and assume robust, well-documented decisions.
In short, and since a company’s value is also measured by the competence and commitment of its people, the Expertise Community is more than ever a lever for collective performance and a source of individual motivation across the entire Group.
