What a transition manager does on a greenfield project

A greenfield project combines three disciplines rarely found in one executive: running the construction (planning permission, environmental permits, relations with the main contractors), building the entire HR structure of a site that does not yet exist (mass recruitment, training, setting up employee representation as soon as the statutory thresholds are crossed), and the industrial ramp-up to nominal output. The transition manager takes over the project as soon as the lease is signed or the land acquired, with a mandate that normally runs until nominal production is reached: not merely until the building is inaugurated.

When foreign groups call in a transition manager for a greenfield project

Three situations come up most often. Moving closer to a European market: a foreign group builds in France to cut transport costs or to meet proximity requirements from its OEM customers. Geographic diversification of production: the group wants to reduce its dependence on a single existing site (often in Asia) and picks France for a second one, usually on a timetable set by a strategic customer. Partial reshoring: production previously moved offshore comes back to France, driven by public incentives or by traceability requirements from certain prime contractors (aerospace, defence, healthcare).

The profile: who can lead a greenfield site

The profile has already led at least one plant start-up end to end: not just managed a site already running. They know the French environmental permitting procedures and can deal with the state services (regional environment authority, prefecture) without being caught out by French administrative lead times. They have done mass recruitment in a tight labour market: mobilising the public employment service, industry bodies and local training providers to build a team of several dozen to several hundred people within months. Experience of reporting to a foreign shareholder remains essential, along with the ability to present a realistic rather than optimistic ramp-up schedule: which spares head office expensive disappointment.

What head office should expect from the transition manager

The mandate opens with a detailed master schedule that builds in the French lead times you cannot compress: planning permission review (several months), the environmental permitting procedure where the site falls under it, and utility connection times. Head office has to accept that these administrative timelines are not negotiable and build them into the contractual schedule from the moment it signs with the end customer. Reporting must separate construction progress, recruitment progress and ramp-up progress clearly: three curves that never advance at the same pace. Delegated authority has to cover the ability to commit significant capital expenditure without line-by-line approval from abroad, or the site works, already constrained by permitting, will slip further.

A typical assignment

The context: a South Korean manufacturer of electric battery components decides to build a production site in France to serve a framework contract with a European carmaker, under a partial local-content clause. The stakes: the land is acquired in the Hauts-de-France region, but the group has never built a site in Europe and badly underestimates French administrative lead times, while the contract sets production start-up at 20 months with late-delivery penalties. The assignment: the transition manager is appointed site director as soon as the land is acquired, with full authority over construction, recruitment and ramp-up. How it ran: months 1 to 4, filing and review of the planning permission and the environmental permit alongside the selection of main contractors; months 5 to 12, construction of the building and recruitment of the first 60 employees (management and maintenance); months 13 to 17, installation and qualification of the production lines, recruitment of the remaining 140 operators; months 18 to 20, progressive ramp-up to nominal output. Total duration: 20 months. The outcome: production started within the contractual deadline, 200 employees at handover, and no late-delivery penalty applied by the end customer.

When to bring in a transition manager for your greenfield project

Three signals should trigger the call: a decision to build already taken but no local project director mandated, a contractual timetable with an end customer that fixes a firm start-up date, or a first French project for a group that has never built outside its home country.

The earlier the call comes (ideally before the land is even definitively acquired) the more the transition manager can secure the choice of site and anticipate the French administrative constraints. MT-Transition calls back within 2 business hours and presents 3 targeted profiles within 72 hours.

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