With the theme in 2021 of "Seizing the future, together", the Rencontres Economiques d'Aix-en-Provence scheduled three days of interactive debates (July 2-4) revolving around the reconstruction of societies whose divisions have increased as a result of the crisis, and a new growth model for inventing tomorrow's prosperity. The 21st Economic Forum brought together 350 speakers in 50 sessions. Speaking in the debate entitled "A new paradigm for growth", Veolia CEO Antoine Frérot presented his vision, in the presence of the French Minister for Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the CEOs of Air Liquide and the La Poste Group, and the CEO of the Michelin Group.
When asked about the new growth for the next world, Antoine Frérot explained that while growth is essential, it must be fundamentally new, i.e. greener and more human. Greener with less carbon emissions, more respect for biodiversity and less pollution. And more human with more inclusiveness and less inequality. Indeed, until now, companies created these two types of negative externalities, but delegated their management entirely to public authorities.
"We must not stop at these two ideas, because they will not be enough to avoid future problems. For new growth to be supported and accepted, in bringing prosperity businesses have to manage all the negative externalities they produce: social externalities, hence the need for more human growth, environmental externalities, hence the need for greener growth. But they also need to manage territorial and intergenerational externalities, supply chain management, etc. In this new growth, companies will be concerned with being more widely useful than they were before. They will serve all their stakeholders: their employees, their customers, their shareholders, the territories in which they operate, the planet and even future generations. A company will be supported and therefore prosper because it is useful to all its stakeholders."
New growth will therefore be based on “multifaceted performance” and it will be necessary to prove to each of the stakeholders that this performance is useful to them.
When asked to choose between the words "disruptive" or "transformation" to describe the new growth, Antoine Frérot reiterated that a transformation can also be truly disruptive: "In a transition, we are passive, but in a transformation we are actors, taking our destiny in hand."