Three glass ceilings to blow up to regain growth

The French economy has not been doing well for too long. For almost a decade, its growth has barely represented a third of global growth. To understand this delay, it is important to come back to the three major phenomena that have changed the rules of the game over the past fifteen years. First, the number of inhabitants of the club of rich countries has tripled (emergence of China, India, the Middle East, countries of the East and Central and South America). Then, the sudden realization that energy resources have a limit, which translates into an explosion in their cost, also highlighted the fact that our ecosystem is fragile. Finally, the "flattening" of the earth caused by the explosion of the Internet, induces a removal of commercial and political borders, which has accelerated globalization. These three phenomena are amplified by the propagation of an unprecedented financial credit crisis, which weakens the entire world economy, gradually spreading to the real economy.

To take advantage of these transformations, and no longer undergo them, France must rethink its vision of the economy around intelligent and qualitative growth, respectful of its environment and capable of playing both on its strengths (infrastructure, quality of training, social protection system, technological know-how, cultural influence), but above all to position itself in a differentiated and competitive manner in the global economy, around the actors who are its driving forces.

For thirty years, France has focused its investments and efforts on its administration, its infrastructures and its large companies, but it has forgotten the role of its SMEs, which are the key to our flexibility, our ability to innovate and to us. adapt to take advantage of the transformations and growth of the global economy. The main obstacle to our development does not lie in the weakness of demand, but in an insufficiently competitive supply, in which the essential role of entrepreneurs and SMEs is ignored. This deterioration in our growth and our competitiveness vis-à-vis our competitors is at the heart of the erosion of per capita GDP and therefore of the purchasing power of the French. And it is the system of protection and social cohesion, largely based on the taxation of labor, which is today weakened and threatened. A reality amplified by the explosion of public debt and the increasing cost of its financing. Despite our high savings rate, we have invested very little in financing growth, which is the heart of our economy. Another paradox for France, still the fifth largest economy in the world, which will find it difficult to maintain its place if it does not invest more significantly in the engines of its future.

To achieve this, our country must overcome a triple glass ceiling that has hampered its growth for thirty years.

First of all, a cultural glass ceiling, which is based on a systemic inability of our society to teach, cultivate and recognize the role of the entrepreneur in France, associated with a failing risk culture and a paralyzing fear of failure. . The result is an innovation policy that is insufficiently accessible, efficient and strategic. In addition, insufficient language skills and insufficient competitiveness lead only 4% of our SMEs to export, compared to 18% of their German counterparts. Finally, the quality of decisions and policies in favor of entrepreneurs and the growth of SMEs is severely penalized by the absence of reliable statistics, economic research, and strategic reflection on the process of creating value in this universe.

A financial glass ceiling then, which translates into considerable savings (180 billion euros in 2006) making France the fourth country in the world in terms of savings rate, but which not only is not particularly profitable (4% on average) nor very productive vis-à-vis the economy, but also very little oriented and invested in equity in SMEs (2,1 billion euros in 2007). Paradoxically, France produces an economy without capitalists, growth without entrepreneurs who can grow efficiently, payment terms that penalize SMEs, bank financing that is little or badly granted to entrepreneurs, a structural lack of long-term investors, of capital. -developers and venture capitalists.

Finally, a regulatory glass ceiling, with an extraordinarily complex and hampering legal and legal context, an institutional and social organization that penalizes the development of SMEs and a tax system seen as a brake, associated with wage charges that limit growth and employment .

The key to our economic future to get out of this stationary state will therefore be determined by our ability to put entrepreneurs back at the heart of our economic model, with unprecedented mobilization to boost the growth of our SMEs, which represent 75% of our jobs. private and 55% of our economy. They are the ones who create the jobs. Let us remember the lesson of Schumpeter: France, like any economy that wishes to remain flexible and competitive, must relearn to highlight the role of the entrepreneur and to streamline its process of creative destruction to take advantage of the economic revolution, environmental and technological environment that the world will experience in the XNUMXst century.