Larry Alexandre, recently named CEO of Sagem Avionics after five years as COO for Turbomeca USA, acknowledges that he has much to learn about avionics but he insists that the engines and instrumentation businesses have one vital common element–concern for the customer.

His goal, as it was at the Safran Group engine manufacturer, is “to instill customer awareness at every level of our organization, so it becomes part of our DNA.” The Ohio State alumnus says he hopes to convince every employee at Sagem Avionics’s Grand Prairie, Texas headquarters and throughout the organization “to start the day by asking, ‘Am I adding value for my customer?’” Customer support, Alexandre observed, is so essential to success yet so easily overlooked.

He noted that the helicopter industry is uniquely composed of individual customers, all with their own set of missions, needs and preferences. “We need to provide the same quality of service to an operator with a hundred or so helicopters and to the guy up in the Northwest who has a one-man firefighting operation.”

Sagem Avionics is part of the Safran Group exhibit (Booth Nos. 2829-2837) in the Heli-Expo 2010 hall.