Through
THIBAUT BECHETOILLE - Director of Ozon, President of CroissancePlus
GEOFFROY DE BECDELIÈVRE - President of 99 Digital
CÔME MORGAIN - Partner, Vendôme Associés
AREEBA REHMAN - President of FretBay
The signatories are members of the Management Committee of CroissancePlus
Launched in September 2019 and January 2020 respectively, the Next40 index and French Tech 120 bring together the technology companies identified as the most promising and which aim to become the champions of tomorrow. This government initiative has the ambition to highlight hyper growth companies and we can only applaud it.
However, this selection, determined "on the basis of the largest fundraising and growth in turnover" questions us with regard to the exclusively financial nature of these criteria. The index therefore makes growth by external financing the absolute criterion. In fact, it excludes companies that have succeeded in implementing robust strategies allowing sustainable growth to be achieved without necessarily opening up their capital.
We see fundraising as a tool for growth, not its marker. Of course, financing is at the heart of our system and dormant savings should flow better for the benefit of the real economy. But let us not be blinded by a vision that would give this criterion particular importance over others. Especially since there is also a real disparity between the financing needs according to economic models: some need it to capture the "leader's bonus", others are very little consumers of financial resources (services) or otherwise very capital intensive (industry).
Champion any category
We believe that the definition of growth encompasses much more than all of this. Criteria which seem, for us entrepreneurs of growth, all essential for the one who would be crowned with the title of champion all categories of growth.
Growth does not come without the impetus of the leadership of an entrepreneur and the establishment of a strong corporate culture. As a leader, he takes a risk and surrounds himself with men and women who make his project grow. He defines the values that will carry his business and that will allow him to achieve his individual and collective ambitions. Without the manager and his collaborators, the business is nothing, it is the men and women who drive growth.
It can only grow if the company makes a positive contribution to society by combining economic performance and general interest. Actor of change, we are convinced that a project can only be sustainable if it carries a social, societal and environmental dimension.
Growth comes from the capacity for innovation, which will allow it to respond to a long-term market need and create a product or service at the heart of a virtuous ecosystem made up of customers, suppliers, shareholders and once again of collaborators.
Growth also comes from the depth of a market, we are witnessing this daily. The most dynamic among us are those who are betting on the international, on the conquest of new territories, while showing adaptability to local cultures.
It is not all about a competition of figures. Entrepreneurial leadership, the impact of society on people and nature, team innovation and the internationalization of markets are also conditions for hyper-growth. Watching criteria by criteria would be like creating a champion by category. France is a judo country, wouldn't it be wiser to create champions in all categories?
Victories of growth, let's go!
CroissancePlus, KPMG, BNP Paribas and Le Figaro are organizing the 5th edition of Victoires de la Croissance. This competition is open to independent companies with a turnover of at least 10 million euros, posting an average annual growth rate of at least 10% and employing a growing number of employees, posting positive equity on the last three years ended. The deadline for applications is April 27 midnight. The prizes will be awarded on June 30. To find out more: www.lefigaro.fr/victoires-croissance
