Automotive industry expert and digital transformation thought leader Serge Yoccoz has joined Cosmo Tech to help drive adoption of the company’s game-changing 360° prescriptive simulation Simulation Digital Twin technology.
25 Years of Expertise
Serge Yoccoz will assist Cosmo Tech as a Senior Advisor after a 25 year career in the automotive industry. Beginning with Renault in France in 1994, he would serve in various management roles across the company over the next decade including three years as the director of Renault’s operations in Hungary. Recognized as an innovative talent by the Renault team, in 2008 he was asked to launch Renault’s electric vehicle strategy.
He moved to Nissan headquarters in Yokohama, Japan to direct their Global Marketing and brand repositioning before rejoining Renault, first as VP for Business Development and then as their VP for ASEAN operations based in Thailand. Serge Yoccoz would return to France in 2017 as General Manager of Renault Digital, leading a team of 350 people charged with the digital transformation of the 120 year-old automaker. Since 2019, Serge is Chief Executive Officer of DigitforHuman, supporting management committees of companies for managerial transformation using digital leverage.
“The last quarter century has been one of immense and constant change in the automotive sector. I’ve seen that change up close and worked with teams around the world to help transform a traditional industry into a smarter, more resilient industry that delivers for its customers,” said Serge Yoccoz. “Automakers are transforming their businesses and investing in new technologies to help them make the optimal decisions they need to make to sustain and grow their business.”
Simulation and Digital Twins to Dramatically increase Return on Data
A recent report from IBM revealed that half of all auto executives believe that “to succeed or even survive, they need to reinvent their organizations with digital technologies” and most of those executives believe that this reinvention is a matter or urgency. The vast majority of auto executives (83%) say that they understand the strategic value of data for their future, but Serge Yoccoz explains that data alone won’t be enough to choose optimal strategies or maximize operational efficiency.
“The auto industry has invested heavily in data, in the internet of things, sensor technologies, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. While automakers have been able to extract some value based on new insights gathered from these tools, there is still a feeling that a true return on investment hasn’t been achieved,” Serge Yoccoz explains. “This is where the combination of data-based approaches and systems simulation can add enormous value and generate a real and rapid return on that investment in data.”
Serge Yoccoz saw the power of that data and simulation combination up close during his time as General Manager of Renault Digital. Renault worked with Cosmo Tech on particularly complex challenges in its manufacturing, production, and supply chains. Cosmo Tech’s software was integrated with Renault’s existing software stack and drew on its sensor data as well as the expertise of the Renault team. Renault could then run unlimited what-if simulations and generate optimized how-to operational and strategic plans that improved the bottom line and improved resilience.
Simulation Across the Auto Industry
Serge Yoccoz sees opportunities for the auto industry to leverage simulation in many different ways with three standing out as areas to extract value most rapidly: product development, manufacturing, and budget planning.
“Simulation can add value right across the company but these three areas are where value can be generated in the near future,” he said. “Budget planning, for example, is a 3 to 4 month process that is very heavy, very slow, and usually only considers one scenario. The opportunity to adopt 360° simulation, to test unlimited scenarios against each other, and to determine an optimal budget plan is incredibly attractive and has the potential to unlock value fast.”
Serge Yoccoz will work with Cosmo Tech’s co-founders, Hugues de Bantel and Michel Morvan, in setting the scale-up’s business development strategy for the auto industry. He’ll also work closely with sales and business development teams dedicated to automotive accounts, pre-sales teams focused on use cases in the automotive and aeronautic industries, and with the simulation and machine learning experts on the Cosmo Next team.
