Page 18 - Book_Artelia_10years

Compagnie Bancaire office building,
Paris - France, 1970

Ski resort, Tignes - France, 1969

Coteba,

French pioneers in project management

Coteba was founded in 1961 by Yves Tayssier. An engineer from the prestigious Ecole Centrale, Tayssier
was working for a French construction company when he realised that there was a need for a new type
of skill set in France: project management. Indeed, with projects growing in complexity, it was becoming
critical to have an overall coordinator capable of orchestrating the input of the different parties, namely
the architects, the engineers and the contractors.
I joined CO.TE.BA (Coordination Technique du Bâtiment) just after its founding. In the early days, it
was just the three of us working from a flat on the Avenue Raymond Poincaré in Paris. Coteba was a
subsidiary of the UFI (Union Française Immobilière) which was part of the Campenon Bernard group,
itself a subsidiary of the CGE (Compagnie générale des eaux). These were our first clients, but as the
commissions came in thick and fast from outside the group, business boomed. So much so that 10 years
later, there were nearly 100 of us working for the company. An early decision was to organise our
approach to project management around four key principles: draw up a programme, stay on budget,
stay on schedule and ensure quality of workmanship. All principles that are just as relevant today!

16 I ARTELIA, 10 YEARS OF EXISTENCE, 100 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE