While the general population places purchasing power as a priority of its concerns, business leaders place it on the same level as the climate issue.
This is what emerges from the latest BVA-BCG study, carried out for the City of Success on June 25 and entitled “
Living in times of emergency
”.
In view of past events and current crises, 67% of French people consider "
that the crises facing society today are more serious than 20 years ago
", while 60% find them more urgent.
Faced with the conjunction and complexity of all these phenomena, the feelings of powerlessness and anxiety are those that come up most frequently in the study;
respectively in 37% and 26% of French people.
"
The more substantial media coverage and easier access to information over the past two decades have accentuated the feeling of powerlessness in the face of multiple emergencies but also of impatience among the French
", indicates, in the study, Dominique Lévy-Saragossi,
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In addition to these global emergencies, 60% of French people, like 60% of business leaders, feel that they are facing more and more daily and professional problems.
However, the distinction between these two groups is made, according to the BVA-BCG study, at the level of the apprehension, even the prioritization of these daily and global issues.
Indeed, the French would focus mainly on the issues that concern them directly on a daily basis, to the detriment of those considered to be more "
distant ".
".
Thus, while 31% of French people see climate change as the most important issue of the moment, 53% place purchasing power first.
For their part, business leaders place purchasing power (36%) and global warming (33%) at equivalent levels on the scale of priorities.
Business leaders ready to act?
But how can this discrepancy be explained?
According to BVA, the need to prepare and anticipate the future partly explains this desire - on the part of business leaders - to take into consideration more "
long
-term " issues, such as the climate.
For my part, I do not find this very surprising because as business leaders we know that we have both a share of responsibility and a certain legitimacy to act
"says Raymond, manager of a small business construction industry with 28 employees in the Var.
"
I may be an entrepreneur who gives priority to the growth of his activity, but I am also a father who thinks about the world that we will leave to his children.
I therefore consider that it is my duty to succeed in reconciling, as best as I can, my economic activity with the protection of the planet
” he declares.
Thus, 26% of leaders say they are "
ready to act in the face of societal crises
" against 17% for all French people.
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However, the study itself qualifies the ability, or in any case, the will of business leaders to focus on this issue.
Indeed, “
customer satisfaction
”, “
improving economic performance
” and “
recruitment issues
” are the three priorities of business leaders.
On the "
ranking of the 12 main issues set by level of urgency according to the leaders
" in the study, "
improving environmental performance
" and "
improving societal performance
" occupy only the 6th and 10th place, far behind strictly economic or competitiveness considerations.
"
Afterwards, it's true that when you have to manage the day-to-day of your business, it can sometimes be complicated to think about the rest,
” admits Raymond, however.
Moreover, while only 21% of them think that the company is the most relevant scale to deal with global warming, 79% think that the State (41%) and citizens (38%) are best able to deal with this issue.
"
Managers, like the rest of the French, are often caught up in the most urgent, which is not necessarily the most important,
" explains Marie Humblot-Ferrero.
Yet "
leaders must force themselves to reintroduce the non-urgent but important in their agenda: it is only by mastering the short-term that they can win in the long-term.
" according to her.
Survey conducted online on May 18 and 19, 2022 among 1,002 French people aged 18 and over, representative of the national population and 500 business leaders and managers, representative of French companies with 1 employee or more.
