Building the Next Chapter of EMI Group
A conversation with Julien Anglade, Group Managing Director
After his first months at EMI Group, Julien Anglade has spent time visiting companies, meeting teams and understanding what makes the Group work beyond the numbers and structure.
In this conversation, he shares his perspective on the strengths already present across EMI Group, the opportunities ahead, and the challenge of building a stronger European platform without losing the entrepreneurial spirit and local expertise that define the Group today.
After your first months at EMI Group, what has surprised you most positively?
Jullien Anglade: What has impressed me most is the entrepreneurial energy across the Group.
EMI is not a centralized organization where everything comes from the top. It is a Group built around strong local companies, experienced teams and people who are very close to their customers and operational realities.
Across the companies, I have seen a high level of ownership, pragmatism and resilience. People do not wait for perfect conditions to move forward. They adapt, they solve problems, they support customers and they take responsibility.
This is extremely valuable in our industry. Industrial access is a hands-on business where responsiveness, technical expertise and proximity to the customer make a real difference every day.
And these qualities already exist strongly across the Group.
What do you think already works very well within EMI Group and should absolutely be preserved as the Group grows?
J.A.: One of EMI Group’s biggest strengths is the local autonomy of its companies.
Each company understands its market, its customers, its technicians and its operational reality extremely well. That local knowledge is critical and should never be lost as the Group grows.
Our objective should not be to replace local entrepreneurship with heavy centralized processes. On the contrary, we need to build a Group that gives local teams more tools, more support and more leverage while preserving their agility and accountability.
Another key strength is EMI’s technical culture.
We are a very operational business. Our credibility comes from our ability to install, maintain, repair and solve complex access challenges in real-life conditions. This technical DNA is one of the Group’s strongest assets.
Growth should strengthen that expertise, not dilute it.
Where do you see the biggest opportunities for improvement in the coming years?
J.A.: The opportunity today is to transform EMI Group from a network of strong local companies into a more connected and structured European platform, while preserving what makes each company successful.
Several areas are particularly important.
First, maintenance and recurring services. We have a significant opportunity to make maintenance a stronger and more systematic growth engine across the Group. Maintenance should become the natural continuation of every installation, supported by stronger service structures, better visibility on the installed base and a more structured commercial approach.
Second, commercial and marketing excellence.
EMI has strong technical capabilities, but we need to make them more visible. We can improve the way we position the Group, structure lead generation, use CRM tools and support local sales teams with more consistent commercial processes.
Another important area is integration and synergies between companies.
As the Group grows, we need to accelerate the sharing of best practices, improve collaboration between teams, create common standards where they make sense and leverage the Group’s scale more efficiently.
For me, becoming more structured does not mean creating bureaucracy. It means giving teams clearer tools, clearer priorities and better support to perform.
How would you describe EMI Group’s culture after these first months?
J.A.: I would describe the culture as entrepreneurial, pragmatic and very close to the field.
People are highly operational. They focus on customers, projects, technicians and solving issues quickly. There is a strong sense of responsibility and also a strong attachment to the identity of each local company.
At the same time, I have noticed a real willingness across the Group to collaborate more.
The companies have different histories, different cultures and different ways of working, but there is a growing understanding that we can become stronger by sharing more and working more closely together.
The next step is to create more bridges between teams:
sharing best practices,
supporting each other commercially,
sharing technical expertise and installation capacity when relevant,
and learning faster from what works in each country.
The foundations are already there. Our role now is to connect them more effectively at Group level.
In your opinion, what is the most important step for EMI Group to reach the next level as a European platform?
J.A.: The next step is to build a stronger common operating model across the Group.
Not a rigid model where every company becomes identical, but a clear framework around the areas that create long-term value: maintenance, sales, pricing, reporting, digital tools, purchasing, technician development, and integration of new companies.
To grow successfully, EMI Group must combine two things: local agility and Group standards.
Local agility keeps us close to customers and markets. Group standards help us scale, improve recurring revenues, strengthen margins, increase operational consistency and reinforce the attractiveness of EMI Group as a European platform.
The challenge is to preserve the entrepreneurial mindset while becoming more connected, more disciplined and more data-driven as a Group.
That balance will make the difference in the years ahead.
If you could send one message to the teams across EMI Group after these first months, what would it be?
J.A.: My message would simply be: thank you, and let’s build the next chapter together.
During these first months, I have met teams that genuinely care about customers, quality and the work they deliver every day. I have seen commitment, professionalism and a strong sense of responsibility across the Group.
EMI already has very solid foundations: strong local companies, technical expertise, talented people, and a market with significant long-term opportunities.
Now the objective is to move forward together with ambition, discipline and collaboration.
We need to continue sharing more across countries, improving our tools, investing in maintenance and recurring services, using data better and supporting each other more closely as a Group.
The goal is not to become a large impersonal organization.
The goal is to become a stronger European Group while keeping the entrepreneurial, human and customer-focused spirit that makes EMI Group unique.
