International – Internship – Iteem – #interteem

For this third article, I will talk about the new company where I work: Decathlon. I am sure you know this famous French sport retailer! If you don’t, I will just give you some information to refresh your memory.

The story of Decathlon begins in 1976 when Michel Leclerq decided to establish the first supermarket of sporting self-service. The concept of the company is clear: all athletes, whether they are beginners or passionate, can be equipped at the best price.

So now Decathlon has 600 stores worldwide and half of the turnover is made in France. In those stores, 251 are in France and after 93 in Spain, 77 in Italy… and the forth country is China, with 41 stores!

China has already been targeted before by Decathlon. The company owns its production since 1986, and after 3 years they realize that launching the production abroad can help to save money. And so, Decathlon bought some factories in China and found new Chinese supplier. Even if they have factories in China, the research and development is still in France.

Oxylane is in China since 2004, and have now 41 stores. The objective is to grow and have more and more stores.

Concept

• 65 sports represented in the store, organized by 9 sports universes
• On average, 35 000 products referenced, from major international brands to Passion Brand exclusivities
• Quick purchasing thanks to free access to products
• Sales teams composed of sportsmen and women that are competent in their sport
• Exclusive services (reparation, racket stringing, rentals…)
• 3 selling floor sizes :
  • 2.000, 4.000 and 10.000 m²
  • (average surface : 4.000 m²)

If you want more historic details, just go on this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decathlon_Group

Oxylane in China

In China, Oxylane has 4 major activities :

Ox’IT

I am working in the IT department of Oxylane, in Shanghai. The office is based in a huge tower of 27 floors, but we only are at the 8^th. The IT finance department is also in this building, but at the 20^th floor (I am quite a bit jealous of the wonderful view they have!)

 

The IT department supports all the other activities of Oxylane in China. So they have to create good tools, to manage them to work between each department, and to innovate on technical services.

The management in Ox’IT is in 4 points:

1. Human
2. Quality
3. Added value
4. Innovation

Human and quality are both the first objective of Ox’IT. Their services have to work, and the employees should feel comfortable at work. That’s why some employees try to organize some sport activities during lunch or after work, like dance classes, football, badminton, ping pong… It just transforms the way you see the office!

In the same time, the IT department creates new projects to innovate their tools. Technologic sector is constantly moving, so it is necessary to explore new technologies every time. When a good way to earn time in inventory is discovered, it is a lot of money saved!

The management inside the team is oriented like “be your own manager”. You have a project to work on, so you work and you only have one meeting per month with your superior to discuss about it. You can choose to have others if you need it, but it’s not an obligation. During this meeting, you talk about what you’ve done and, more precisely, what you want to do after in the project, what are your perspectives for the future. When the decisions are approved (or not), the discussion can turn to something more personal like some talks about your own professional project, your expectations in the company for the future.

Everything in the management is made to make the employees feel good and work efficiently.

 

Sarah Caruel

 

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