Last week, Virginie and I came back from a road trip to Avoriaz where we joined our friends of Croissance +. As usual, Frederic and his team had prepared things beautifully. The theme, this year was “Towards Full Employment” which seemed a bit esoteric, because basically I do not believe in it! For some time now, I believe that France has chosen the option of a society of unemployment. I do believe that societies which are too highly protective, will eventually accumulate high labor costs, which in turn will drive core employment outside their borders, and this is hardly avoidable. Of course, no one has ever looked at it from this point of view, but it takes quite a degree of productive innovation to afford the costs of integrating the best health system in the world, the best pension system, and one of the shortest work weeks. When you sell a satellite or a fighter plane (and you still must sell them), it’s ok. For automotive production and tee-shirts… it’s another matter.

Therefore, what have I learnt? First, I realized how our business leaders are experts in the French administrative system and that I am personally overwhelmed when it comes to these matters. I even wonder if this knowledge is healthy? Wouldn’t it better, if they could concentrate completely on their business model and the development of their business?

Secondly, and this represents one of the competitive advantages of Pentalog, I got well aware of all the difficulties that some are having, whether, it’s the legal work week, employee motivation, the amount of social costs or taxation. There is too much money being paid out to the different financial advisors and fiscal lawyers, to optimize this or that, in short, wasting time, resources, money, which is being taken away from their business development and the creation of wealth. These “system optimizers” are just parasites. Everyone is asking for more clarity, and simplification. Less aid, grants and more freedom, please! I learned, would you believe, that the amount of grants to French companies is greater than that of the sum of corporate taxes collected? How and why have we reached such a level of absurdity?
I must admit when I arrived in Avoriaz, in the back of my mind, I had the idea of finally relocating Pentalog Labs to France… but the debates of last week left me a little cold concerning this idea!!

Moreover, having lived in many developing economies, I had lost sight of the economic issues taking place in Europe and the U.S… Nicolas Bouzou, Jean-Marc Daniel (colorful!), Michelle?, in the discussions led by the extraordinary Nicolas Dauze of BFM and Frederic Bedin, President of Croissance +, put into perspective what it is meant by the word innovation in companies, gradually moving the cursor from “to have” to “to be.” A quick example taken from the public bike rental system, as a personal service, we have come to understand that beyond the bike itself, and the innovation and economic exploitation… what is more important, is the concept of the liberty to chose, this idea is more important than the bike. The bicycle I bought at Decathlon created no jobs, and generated no economy and is not there when I need it. Even MIT is studying this concept. It is the same for housekeeping services, child care or looking after the garden. I can not take care of everything, however, there are managers and tools, which in turn will generate innovation, management teams and skills and at the same time will ensure good quality services for the best prices.

This has ultimately nothing to do with sustainable development, and nothing to do with Grenelle, but there is no doubt that the economic crisis which is hitting the mature economies is also a crisis of “to have” instead of “to be”. It is clearly understood by our friends and customers from Nekoé, in Orleans… but also our co-workers in People Centric, who have already sold their time and skills management solutions and are advancing quickly in this sector. The worst, is that I have spent a great deal of time over the past 10 years looking for new means to optimize the Pentalog resources and expertise and I overlooked the needs of these new sectors which are ultimately very close to us… in terms of management issues. We need to accelerate faster in this direction because the innovations of the group might well be of interest to them!

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