The leader speaks exclusively with Forbes India about creating three new universes, India as an innovation hub, deploying 'costly' AI for the right use-cases, and possible new sectors that the company can foray into
Pascal Daloz, CEO, Dassault Systèmes holding a 3D-printed heart. About seven years back, the life sciences sector was only 5 percent of the company's total revenue, today it is 25 percent. Image: Nishant Ratnakar for Forbes India
Pascal Daloz takes pride in calling Dassault Systèmes a “catalyst for human progress”. Daloz took over as chief executive officer of Dassault Systèmes in January after Bernard Charlès stepped down. The company creates virtual twin experiences of the real world with their our 3DEXPERIENCE platform and application.
Virtual twins are digital representations or twins of a real-world product, process or system in structure, context and behaviour. These can generatively design and manage entire product lifecycles, from past to future, enabling data and decision continuity. According to a recent report released by Dassault Systèmes and Nasscom, India is likely to see a 2x growth in virtual twin adoption.
Dassault Systèmes has been present in India since 2007. “When we launched our India operations, it was a way for us to access qualified talent at a lower cost. That is not the case anymore. We are now looking at India as an innovation hub,” says Daloz. In India, it has clients such as Havells, L&T Energy-Hydrocarbon, Dixon Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services and many more.
With a focus on manufacturing, life sciences and infrastructure, the company is present in over 150 countries, with more than 350,000 customers. Globally, the company’s annual revenue for 2023 was $6.44 billion. Going forward, Dassault Systèmes is hoping to continue development across industries. But life sciences has been a growth driver for them. “About seven years back, the sector was only 5 percent of our total revenue. Today it is 25 percent, almost equal to the auto sector,” says Daloz. The reason for doubling down on life sciences, he says was, “serving the industry that is willing to innovate, and spend the most on research and development”. For life sciences, it serves customers such as Sanofi Vaccines and Lambda Therapeutics, among others.
During his first visit to India, Daloz spoke exclusively with Forbes India about the country becoming a major revenue contributor to the global business, focus on generative AI and more. Edited excerpts: