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Arnaud Bamberger

editorial

President, French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain, and Executive Chairman of Cartier

s 2013 ends and 2014 begins, we can look back on what has been, in many ways, a remarkable year for the French Chamber and a year of firsts. We held our very first Franco-British Energy Conference, addressed by Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, the success of which has spurred plans for a Franco-British Transport Conference in 2014. We had our first Annual Legal Lunch too, following the launch of the Chamber’s Legal Forum. It was also the first time the Chamber took a Trade Delegation to Scotland, where we were received by the First Minister, Alex Salmond. Moreover, it has been a year in which the Chamber’s visibility, image and reputation have grown through increased links and useful contacts with government as well as improved press coverage. We are looking to build on this, not only through nurturing our contacts but also by exploring the possibility of having regional representation of the French Chamber outside of London. Part of our role as a Chamber is to acknowledge and celebrate excellence and achievement in business, which we do every year through the annual Franco-British Business Awards. I would like to congratulate this year’s winners – Talentia Software, Aveva, Alstom and EY. Another winner, voted by our members, is the charity Emmaus UK, which was awarded this year’s Intercultural Trophy – a well-deserved accolade. Since becoming President in July, I have discovered so much more about the Chamber and its activities, and I am impressed with what I see. The Chamber’s events, services and publications set ever higher standards of quality and value, and the team is dedicated and professional in taking care of member companies, providing them with talents, tools, introductions and connections. The question is, do all our members know what the Chamber can offer them? Do they really know the Chamber? Our Advisory Council has picked up the challenge by forming a ‘Discover Your Chamber’ committee, which is already bursting with ideas and innovative ways of helping our members make the most of their membership. The Focus of this issue is on Innovation and Creativity in New Technologies. Within the past few years, new technologies have changed the business landscape, revolutionising business models, creating new types of business and disrupting the established way of doing things. The articles that follow look at some of these technology trends in our digital era, particularly in the business context, as well as the key areas for innovation and creativity, showcasing the clever and exciting things that companies – many of them Chamber members – are coming up with. London is home to the fastest growing tech cluster in Europe – Tech City – and the head of Tech City Investment Organisation, Joanna Shields tells us in an interview what makes it tick and why it is attracting talent from all over. In this issue too, we are very privileged to have an interview with the new Lord Mayor of London, Fiona Woolf CBE, who is only the second woman ever to hold this ancient office. I hope the pages that follow make for a thought-provoking, informative and entertaining read. It only remains for us all at the Chamber to wish you happy holidays and a prosperous New Year! I

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Contents issue 210 / January - February 2014

Joanna Shields

Interview with Fiona Woolf CBE

8 A word with the Lord Mayor of London, Fiona Woolf CBE

5 minutes with...

10 Ciaran Bird, UK Managing Director, CBRE

News in the City

13 It’s a recovery, but is it the right sort? 14 City profile: Laurence Dubois-Destrizais

News

17 HM The Queen receives Cartier Award

Louis Vuitton Townhouse at Selfridges 18 The Walpole British Luxury Awards for Excellence 2013 19 Pullman London St Pancras official launch 20 Veolia Environnement imagines 2050 21 Emmaus UK wins Intercultural Trophy International SOS supporting relief work in the Philippines 22 Schools news

SMEs startups

24 SME briefs 27 Lirone 29 Interview with Arvinda Gohil, Chief Executive of Emmaus UK

Managing Director: Florence Gomez Editor-in-Chief: Keri Fuller Communications Co-ordinator: Marielle Fraize Graphic Designer: Prima Hevawitharane Advertising & Sales: Suzanne Lycett Publications Assistant: Paul-Gilbert Colletaz Subscription: INFO is published every 2 months Printed by: Headley Brothers Ltd

Annual Gala Dinner

Success Story

Franco-British Energy Conference

Christian Noyer, Governor of Banque de France

Culture

30 TomTom: Corinne Vigreux

55 What’s on 58 Book reviews

Focus

33 34 36 38 39

Cheese and wine press

Innovation & Creativity in new Technologies

The flowering of tech clusters in London

News @ the Chamber

40 The four P’s for embracing digital

62 New members 65 Chamber shorties 66 A record-setting gala evening 68 Franco-British Energy Conference 70 Rates, ratings and progress towards a

42 How technology and innovation

71 To the Manoir born

Joanna Shields on London’s tech boom Tech hubs and new generation innovators Five technology forces and the challenge of integration transformation

disrupt businesses

44 Intellectual Property and how it interfaces with digital media

45 BYOD 46 Support for creativity and innovation 47 Capitalising on the mobile revolution 48 Reshaping B2B operations with mobile innovation

49 Making new technologies work for

banking union

Rendez-vous chez Eccleston Square Hotel

72 Patron visit to the Lee Tunnel construction site 73 A diamond is forever 74 Franco-British Business Awards 76 Celebrating the season and ties that bind 77 Challenges and opportunities in the Middle East 78 Cross-cultural management: what HR Managers should know

79 Sustainability and staff engagement 80 Breakfast at Harrods 50 Are we just playing around? 81 Emerging from an abnormal recession 52 Artificial Intelligence and the service sector 82 Legal Forum: A year in review 53 The (r)evolution of digital publishing 54 The consumption of culture in the digital age 83 Forthcoming events your business

Contributors: Mike Alderton, Melanie Bonnet, Fabrice Boyer, Mark Brown, Eric Charriaux, Jerome Couturier, Brian Doherty, Nick Cross, Jean-Baptiste Décarre, Rick Freeman, Alex Jenkins, Will Jones, Savita Kumra, Thibault Lavergne, Josean Mendez, Guillaume Pellan, Elena Pierazzo, John Rauscher, Kathryn Robertson , Mark Thompson

1 2 3 4 6 8 5 7 15 9 10 12 14 16 11 13 22 17 19 21 23 18 20 29 24 26 28 25 27 30

Cover photographs: © 1. flickr/hbrinkman 2 & 3. flickr/x_tine 4. flickr/Army Medicine 5 & 6. sxu/ilco 7. flickr/Bristows LLP 8, 14 & 15. working central 9 & 27. Cisco 10. wikipedia/The Ostich 11, 13, 17 & 24 B-reel London 12 & 24. sxu/pipp 22. epSos.de 16. Capgemini 18. sxu/JohnKB 16. flickr/Alex Abian 20. flickr/through dans eye 23. mojopixel 25. Altran 26. wikipedia/The Opte Project 28. flickr/Chris De Jabet 29. flickr/Alec Couros 30. flickr/Sandia Labs

Distribution: French Chamber members, FrancoBritish decision makers, Business Class lounges of Eurostar, Eurotunnel and Air France in London, Paris and Manchester Editorial and Publishing Office: French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain Lincoln House, 300 High Holborn London WC1V 7JH Tel: (020) 7092 6600; Fax: (020) 7092 6601 www.ccfgb.co.uk

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i n t e r v i e w w i t h F ion a Wo ol f C B E

A word with the Lord Mayor of London, Fiona Woolf CBE Fiona Woolf CBE has been elected to the ancient office of Lord Mayor of the City of London for 2013/2014. She spoke to INFO about her ambassadorial role and mission to promote diversity

ow did you become the 686th Lord Mayor of London and what does it mean to you to be one of only two women to hold the office since 1189? I became an Alderman in 2007 and after serving as Sheriff in 2010, I became eligible to stand as Lord Mayor. I felt I had a lot to offer in the role, so I stood for election and was elected in September. I hope that being the second female Lord Mayor highlights the increasing normalisation of female leadership that’s taken place over the last 30 years since the first female Lord Mayor in 1983-4. I’d like to use my mayoral year to not only highlight the importance of diversity but also to encourage more women to consider leadership roles in both business and civil life.

What does the role entail? The Lord Mayor’s role has evolved over time and nowadays a large part of the role is ambassadorial. I will travel to around 25 countries, spending around 100 days abroad during my mayoral year, to promote the UK’s financial services industry and to help forge stronger relationships with nations around the globe to grow our exports. I will also be visiting various UK cities with strong financial and professional services clusters such as Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh, to learn more about their areas of expertise so I can better represent them abroad. As Lord Mayor, I don’t just represent British companies located in London – I represent French banks based in Leeds and German shipping companies based in Portsmouth too, and it’s important to understand all aspects of the industry. I will also meet representatives of

Fiona Woolf CBE

- info - january / february

other nations to discuss trade deals.

Could you elaborate on your mayoral theme ‘The Energy to Transform Lives’? Energy has been the driving force in my career as a lawyer specialising in global electricity industry reforms at CMS Cameron McKenna to bring cheaper, cleaner and more energy to more people. My mayoral theme reflects my conviction that the City of London has the energy and talent for innovation necessary to serve the needs of society and the environment. The overarching messages which underpin my Mayoralty are: • The City has an abundance of two key resources: people and capital. • There are huge opportunities for the City to contribute to long-term value creation. • We are in a ‘new normal’ and business as usual is never a guarantee of future success. • The world is an economy of cities and London must be a city of cities – a city for cities. I hope that my own enthusiasm is infectious and that people from the City will join me, so together we can capture ‘The Energy to Transform Lives’. Which charities will be supported by The Lord Mayor’s Appeal in 2014 and why these in particular? My husband Nicholas and I chose four community-based charities close to our hearts. They are all transforming lives on local and international levels and we know that they punch well above the weight that their size would imply. The Appeal will help them to consolidate or develop specific areas of their work: Beating Bowel Cancer will organise a City awareness campaign; Princess Alice Hospice aims to develop a tele-health project to reach more people at home; Raleigh International will use the funds as bursaries for disadvantaged London youth, and Working Chance will be able to support more women offenders enter back into employment. How much are you aiming to raise and what are some of the key events being organised for this? We set ourselves a target of £2million and the funds raised will be split equally between the four benefiting charities. Injecting such an important sum of money in

i n t e r v i e w w i t h F ion a Wo ol f C B E

The new Lord Mayor waves from her carriage during the Lord Mayor’s Show celebrating her installation

these small and medium-sized charities means that it will have a critical impact on their work and their ability to deliver more services. Our Appeal team has developed a programme of wonderful events including a Human Table Football tournament in the Guildhall Yard during the World Cup next year; The Lord Mayor’s Appeal Day that will get the entire City involved with local fundraising activities and an opera in September. Our next star event is a very special Wine Tasting and Dinner organised in partnership with The Académie du Vin de Bordeaux, which will take place at The Mansion House on 12 February. The proprietors of 30 châteaux will be bringing their best wines, including white wines from Graves and sweet wines from Sauternes. Château Haut Brion, Château d’Yquem and many other fine wines will be showcased at the tasting and dinner, served in the magnificent Egyptian Hall. We are expecting 250 guests, including the Financial Times columnist, Jancis Robinson Master of Wine, CBE, who will be speaking. Tables are already available for booking and we have also developed very attractive sponsorship packages so people interested can be in touch with the Appeal team to find out more.

As a female Lord Mayor do you feel it is important to to promote diversity and particularly women’s issues? I do: if our talent pool is not wide enough, particularly at the mid to top levels, where are the new ideas going to come from? It is all about ensuring that the City is as successful in the future as it has been in the past. London

faces many great challenges, with a growing population, the reality of climate change, and a need for new infrastructure all requiring first class solutions. If we are to have any hope of meeting those, we need to make sure that we create a true meritocracy so that the best ideas reach the top. This is a drum I will be banging throughout my year as Lord Mayor and I hope the message will reach across the City’s business community.

You studied at the University of Strasbourg and are francophone. Tell us about your French connections. I went to Strasbourg because they had a very innovative course on comparative law; the only one of its kind! We learnt how different legal systems provide solutions to the same problems such as the enforcement of contracts, constitution and administrative laws. This course proved to be very useful later on, especially when I had to work as an interface between the private and public sectors. I am still very much in touch with my French side and go back every year, always with great pleasure. I love ‘choucroute garnie’ and my wine; this is why I am so delighted to get the owners of prestigious Bordeaux châteaux coming to London for our Tasting Dinner in February. I do hope that the French contingent of London will join us for this special event. I Interview by KF For more information about The Lord Mayor’s Appeal please call the team on 020 7332 3908, email info@thelordmayorsappeal.org or visit www.thelordmayorsappeal.org info - january / february -

5 m i n u te s w ith ...

Ciaran Bird

UK Managing Director, CBRE With US roots, CBRE is the world’s largest commercial property advisor firm, and the only one in the Fortune 500. What is its history and standing in the UK?

this and how we remain incredibly responsive to our clients and their needs.

The British side of the company - Richard Ellis International – was founded in 1773, and joined the American CB Commercial in 1998 to create CB Richard Ellis. Over the years there have been several mergers and acquisitions making CBRE what it is today. Globally we’re the largest, and in terms of size and turnover, we are the third largest in the UK. However, our recent agreement to buy Norland Managed Services, a provider of commercial building technical engineering services, will be a huge boost, springboarding us to the biggest in the UK by some margin.

You were previously a professional rugby player for London Irish. How did you go from that into the property sector and how has your career evolved?

What are CBRE’s range of services and specialisms in the UK?

We work with occupiers, investors and developers within the office, industrial and logistic, residential, retail and hotel sectors. Our strategy is to provide the ‘best-in-class’ service in every one of those areas, and to provide a fully integrated corporate outsourcing service throughout the EMEA region. The property market itself has evolved over the past decade to become far more sophisticated and diverse and as a consequence our skill base has also developed. Historically, each sector has had a separate department, but we have clients whose interests cross over a number of sectors and expect one seamless service, so we’re now moving towards account management and tailoring a team of experts around a client’s needs. What differentiates CBRE from its competitors?

Our competitors do vary according to territory and service line but our main differentiator is our global platform that allows us to truly service clients in any geography. A lot of big corporates are now thinking globally, which is why we’re growing our outsourcing business. In what is a global market place for international capital, this is a key strength. Another thing that stands out is the way we’ve evolved our business – the acquisition of Norland is an example of 10 - info - january / february

At the age of 16, I wanted to play rugby at the highest level but at the time rugby wasn’t a professional sport so I had this idea that selling big houses would be good. I applied to a number of property firms and started as an office junior at a commercial property company, moving into the retail department, before long. Meanwhile I played amateur rugby initially for Wasps and then London Irish. After seven years, the game turned professional and I had an agreement with the rugby club and my employer Dalgleish that I would work mornings and train in the afternoons. I did this for just under three years, which was challenging, but eventually I had to make a choice between the two. I was still at Dalgleish when it was acquired by CBRE in 2005, and not for one minute did I think that eight years later I would be the UK Managing Director. You started your property career as a teenager, but what are the prospects for young people in this sector today?

One of my frustrations has been that many people simply don’t know much about the commercial property sector and what diverse careers it offers. There has also been a tendency to enter the property industry via the traditional route where University qualifications is the bare minimum requirement. I feel it’s important that our industry reaches out and becomes far more diverse, two months ago I initiated an apprenticeship scheme, which is the first of its kind in our sector. We went to 50 state schools, interviewed over 200 students and chose 11, ranging in age from 16 to 23. We will fund their work with a full apprenticeship that leads to them becoming fully qualified chartered surveyors. It is so refreshing to see these young faces who are so hungry, keen to impress and excited about what they are doing. Our people are finding it really engaging and can’t help them enough. We are also involved, along with some

5 minu t es w i t h Ci a r a n Bird

of our competitors, with an initiative called Pathways to Property, which encourages young people from different backgrounds to consider our industry. Is the London commercial property market different from other regional centres in the UK and do you have to offer different kinds of services regionally?

Not at all, other than our Central London residential agency team, we offer exactly the same services across the UK. But like many other European economies, the capital is dominant. Both investor and occupier requirements tend to focus around London and a flight to prime meant London was in a bit of a bubble throughout this recession. But since the beginning of the year we’ve seen real regional growth and a strong upturn in the biggest cities: Leeds, Edinburgh, Manchester, Bristol. Having said that, we do specialise in prime and good secondary property in larger cities, which are not beset by many of the issues and challenges in the tertiary property sector in regional towns. Why is CBRE expanding into the prime residential market in London?

As a property advisor our clients expect us to have expertise in all sectors. As we control a lot of land sales and have a large development team for major mixed-use projects, it was a natural progression for us. The prime London residential market offers a huge opportunity, so we needed to have a ‘best-in-class’ platform, particularly given the domestic and international appetite for our developments. We have a network of residential experts across Europe and Asia that focus on promoting central London, which is key to this success. Do you have many French companies as clients in the UK and are you seeing any trends in their requirements?

We advise landlords such as AXA. French media companies have recently been particularly active as Publicis will be moving into new premises while Havas and Hachette are also in the market looking to relocate their current London offices. Energy companies have also contributed to market activity, particularly in Aberdeen where office take-up reached a record level on the back of the sustained high oil price and Government measures to promote investment in the North Sea. We advised GDF Suez last year on their Aberdeen relocation into a 40,000 square-foot, brand new building which will help accommodate their strong local growth. Technip have also built a new campus next to their existing site while Total have recently acquired a new 180,000 square foot industrial unit. On the retail side, we are seeing a number of French retailers, particularly from the Paris Marais district,

Ciaran Bird, CBRE

expanding into London. We recently advised Zadig & Voltaire on the acquisition of a shop in Central London and are also advising LoftDesignBy. What have been your favourite projects this year?

My favourite projects are those when various teams come together to work on landmark deals, such as our appointment to manage the 48,000sq m ‘Gherkin’ building, 30 St Mary Axe, in London, which was the result of pulling together an asset management team with global expertise of managing such iconic buildings to offer a unique service. We also sold the Lloyd’s building on behalf of Commerce Real to Chinese life insurance firm Ping An for $400 million, and we’re the letting agent for the ‘Walkie-Talkie’ building, which is now 56% let. But the success of these projects comes down to the talented individuals. To have the very best people in the industry, we’ve got to have the best training and development platform, but we’ve also got to listen to what they have to say. One example of this are the ‘youth boards’ we’ve initiated in each department, so that we can hear from the younger generation who are opinionated and come up with brilliant ideas. They are certainly thinking far deeper about social media and what the next big idea might be, that will affect the way we sell or market property or the service we offer our clients. I KF info - january / february - 11

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n e ws i n t h e ci t y

It’s a recovery, but is it the right sort?

he UK is now the fastest growing economy in the developed world, according to data published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). A growth rate of 0.8% in the three months to the end of September means the UK expanded faster than the United States, Japan, Germany, France and Italy on a quarter-on-quarter basis. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which provides independent and authoritative analysis of the UK’s public finances, expects growth of 1.4% in 2013 (up from its March prediction of 0.6%) and foresees 2.4% growth in 2014. While Chancellor George Osborne sees the figures as vindicating his austerity strategy, he made clear in his Autumn Statement in December that the economy is by no means home and dry, and signalled his intention to continue with fiscal responsibility and spending cuts. The deficit may be down, but debt is soaring; employment may be surging, but productivity remains too low. There are also concerns that the positive numbers mask some serious underlying problems in the UK economy. Recovery was supposed to bring a rebalancing away from private consumption and towards exports, industry, investment and jobs outside of London, but this is not what is happening. Consumer spending is accounting for most of the growth, and confidence is being driven by rising house prices. Moreover, the jump in domestic spending is based on lower savings rather than rising wages, making growth vulnerable to household debt and another house price bubble. It’s a case of deja vu, and not ultimately sustainable.

So what are the prospects for an investment and export-led recovery? The OBR sees business investment falling 5.5% in 2013 because of tight credit conditions and continued

The figures are looking better, but we seem to be reverting to the same old patterns

Consumer spending accounts for most of UK growth

uncertainty over demand. However, companies should start funding new projects in 2014 as the recovery gathers pace and banks start lending. From 2015 onwards, business investment is predicted to grow an average 8.5% a year. Trade won’t fare as well. The depreciation of Sterling has not boosted exports as hoped, partly because of the sluggish world economy but also because Britain’s competitiveness is lagging. Imports are expected to outpace exports until at least 2019. On the upside, inflation is expected to fall back to the Bank of England’s 2% inflation target by 2016, which will ease cost of living pressures on households, and the unemployment rate will continue to fall. The OBR predicts it will fall from 7.6% to 7.2% by Spring 2014 and then consolidate, hopefully while productivity picks up. So while interest rates remain low – at least until the unemployment rate drops to 7% as per the Bank of England’s forward guidance – and money is cheap, the onus is on the private sector to follow the lead of consumers and start spending... to convert the recovery into the right sort. I KF info - january / february - 13

news in the cit y

Profile

Laurence Dubois Destrizais A senior official at the French Treasury, Laurence Dubois Destrizais is Minister Counsellor for Economic and Financial Affairs at the French Embassy in the UK

or someone with a penchant for history, Laurence Dubois Destrizais has certainly seen history in the making in the course of her career. Her early notions of being an archeologist quashed by her parents, she nevertheless persisted in doing a history degree, but then set her sights on being a lawyer, fired up with the cause of abolishing the death penalty. ‘At a certain moment I realised that I was probably not cut out to be a criminal lawyer,’ she admits, ‘so I specialised in banking and finance law.’ Her first internship in Banque de France did not thrill her, however. ‘I found it relatively austere,’ she says, ‘It was like going to the convent!’ So she opted for ENA,* with a view to doing something in international affairs. ‘Your whole career depends on your final ranking and the jobs available to you,’ Laurence explains, and she was able to choose the Department of Economy and Finance, where she knew she would have exposure to international affairs. Plunged in at the deep end, she was put in charge of EUUS trade relations. ‘The main issue then was the Airbus-Boeing war,’ Laurence recalls, ‘and the four EU countries involved entered negotiations with the US.’ She learnt a lot and honed the negotiation skills that were to become one of her strengths. This US experience ‘wasn’t a handicap’ to getting a Treasury position at the French Embassy in Washington in 1991. As Deputy Minister Counsellor for Economic and Commercial Affairs, her remit was trade policy at the time that the US was opening up to China and Bill Clinton was elected President. ‘Washington is where things happen,’ she observes. It’s a very open place, you have access to a lot of information.’ On returning to Paris in 1993,

Laurence joined the office of the Secretary for Industry and Trade, where she was in charge of multilateral and European affairs towards the end of the Uruguay Round, the multilateral trade negotiations conducted within the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). ‘France was verymuchinvolvedbecauseitwasafight over agriculture,’ she recalls, ‘There were a lot of tough negotiations.’ A balance had to be found in a difficult context: agriculture was a sensitive issue within the EU too, and French politics were Laurence Dubois Destrizais fraught with the state of ‘cohabitation’ between Socialist President Mitterand and a Conservative parliament. Laurence then took up an economic affairs position in the office of the Minister for European Affairs, Michel Barnier. There she was involved in the switch to the Euro, which started long before the physical currency was brought into circulation. ‘We had no experience of anything like this, nobody knew what would happen and we had to anticipate the reaction,’ she says. Laurence’s next appointment took her back to trade matters as the Permanent Representative for France to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva. For five years from 1997 to 2002, she was in her element, creating contacts and links between organisations and governments, and working across all sectors. From the low point of the failed WTO Ministerial Conference in Seattle to eventual success in Doha in 2001 in the wake of 9/11, Laurence was involved in complex, stimulating negotiations and forming dense professional relationships. Returning to Paris in 2002, she took on responsibilities for multilateral trade negotiations, foreign investments and international sanctions at the French Treasury, relishing all the complexities and technicalities of implementing investment regulations and sanctions. When she made her next move to the OECD as the French Minister Counsellor for Economic Affairs, Laurence was worried that the role would be ‘too contemplative’, but there was no chance of that as the financial crisis broke. ‘It was exciting times – everyone was looking at what could be done and what had to change, and it precipitated the creation of the G20.’ Laurence was also involved in the Development Aid Committee, which polices the aid that countries commit. Laurence’s 2010 appointment to her present role in London was her first experience in economic bilateral relations. ‘I was interested in what was happening post-crisis in the UK,’ she explains. ‘There is a tendency to view everything as “Anglo Saxon”, whereas it’s more subtle than that, and it’s my job to follow the main developments across all sectors and report back.’ Reflecting on her present, past and perhaps future roles, Laurence says, ‘I’ve always enjoyed what I do, as long as the environment is stimulating, there’s activity to report on and I’m defending something I believe in.’ I KF * Ecole Nationale d’Administration

14 - info - january / february

news in the cit y

||| The prospect of retirement has just moved that bit further away for millions of Britons in their forties and younger, now that Chancellor George Osborne has brought forward plans to raise the age at which people can start receiving a state pension to 70. In 1940, when the state pension age was set at 65 for men, average life expectancy was around 67. Now that life expectancy has jumped to 80, the Treasury is having to fork out pensions for many more people, for many more years – an increasingly unaffordable proposition. Plans have been in motion to gradually raise the retirement age, but now it will happen sooner, which could save £500 billion over 50 years. The

Just shy of retiring

state pension age will rise to 66 by 2020, 67 by 2028, 68 by the mid-2030s and 70 by the 2060s, using a new formula linked to life expectancy. That means young people now entering the workforce will be working for the Biblical life expectancy of three score years and ten. By comparison, the retirement age in France is currently 60 to 62, with plans to gradually increase it to 68. I KF

City job vacancies at 7-month high

||| City job openings have hit their highest level for more than 7 months. Astbury Marsden, an international recruitment firm, said that 2,500 jobs were created in November: 6% more than the previous month and 38% more than at the same period last year. Most surprising is that November has the reputation of being a month when Square Mile job openings slow down prior to Christmas bonus announcements. I P-G C

Tablet shopping triples this Christmas ||| Tripling from last year to reach £4.7 billion this Christmas, tablet shopping is growing and now drawing even with smartphones in terms of retail sales made over mobile devices also known as mcommerce or mobile commerce. Fuelled by the launch of several competitively priced devices, this figure is even set to grow and quadruple over the next four years, hitting £17.9 billion in 2017. According to eMarketer, 10% of Internet users primarily purchase items via mobile devices in the UK compared to 2% in France. I P-G C

info - january / february - 15

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Worldwide reach Human touch 16 - info - january / february

news Compiled by Marielle Fraize

Companies

Her Majesty The Queen receives Cartier Award ||| Her Majesty The Queen was presented with the Cartier Stayer Award for her filly Estimate by Arnaud Bamberger, Executive Chairman of Cartier UK and President of the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain. The Queen was delighted to receive the Award and accepted it on behalf of Estimate, whom she said ‘did all the work’. Estimate provided one of the highpoints of the 2013 Flat season winning the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot. I

HM the Queen accepts the award from Arnaud Bamberger

Louis Vuitton Townhouse opens at Selfridges ||| Louis Vuitton has opened the Townhouse, a new urban retail destination set within Selfridges, London’s historic department store. Built over three inter-connecting floors, the architectural concept is by French-born, Japan-based designer, Gwenaël Nicolas. The centrepiece is a spiral structure that wraps around a circular elevator connecting the different Louis Vuitton departments. The glass elevator gently revolves in tandem with the movement of the spiral, making theatre of the luxury shopping experience. On the ground floor, Louis Vuitton has introduced an innovative luxury experience – the Maison’s first Digital Atelier. A tactile digital table takes customers on an interactive journey through

Louis Vuitton’s great glass elevator

the history and craftsmanship of the brand, engaging with stories about Louis Vuitton’s main collection and the varied personalisation services offered by the house. The Digital Atelier also highlights the heritage of Louis Vuitton and its close links to London. I

info - january / february - 17

news

Three Chamber members – Burberry, Cartier and Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons – shine at The Walpole British Luxury Awards for Excellence 2013 ||| The Awards, in association with Coutts, took place on 18 November at Banqueting House in London. Presented by Ben Fogle the event recognised some of the industry’s most exciting and innovative brands and individuals; highlighting the level of quality, design, service, and talent within Britain and the international luxury industry. Three members of the French Chamber of Commerce received awards: Special Medal of Excellence: Burberry’s Chief Executive Angela Ahrendts Corporate Social Responsibility: Cartier Best Luxury Service: Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons I Ben Hughes, Chairman of Walpole British Luxury

Chef Simon Rogan to head new restaurant at Claridge’s ||| Simon Rogan, considered to be one of the most creative and exciting chefs in the UK today, will be taking the helm at Claridge’s new restaurant, opening in Spring 2014. Rogan’s creativity and inventive techniques are rooted in his belief in using local British produce of exceptional quality, all sourced from his own farm in Cumbria. His trail-blazing use of seasonal ingredients will be a defining element for his new restaurant at Claridge’s. Rogan currently holds two Michelin stars at his flagship restaurant, L’Enclume, in Cartmel, Cumbria. Claridge’s is part of the Maybourne Hotel Group. I

Simon Rogan

The Connaught awarded best UK hotel by Condé Nast Readers 2013 ||| The Connaught, part of the Maybourne Hotel Group, has been awarded the very prestigious Condé Nast 2013 USA Traveler Readers’ Choice Award for best UK hotel. Just under 80,000 readers cast 1.3 million votes – making these awards their biggest to date. Condé Nast readers also put the Berkeley at number 10 and Claridge’s at number 18 – an impressive hat-trick in the city with the most top-rated hotels in the world. I

18 - info - january / february

news

Pullman London St Pancras celebrates official launch ||| Pullman London St Pancras hotel officially launched with Pullman ArtNight showcasing its final design, state-of-the art services and contemporary art collection on 13 November. After a year-long £15 million transformation, the Pullman London St Pancras is now a European flagship for the global hotel brand. Two bedrooms transformed into ‘Art Rooms’ for the launch, are now available for overnight stays. Only a short walk from both King’s Cross/St Pancras and Euston stations, the hotel is ideal for business, with 17 contemporary meeting rooms, 312 bedrooms and its unique dining experience, Golden Arrow Restaurant & Bar. I

Airbus nets billions in orders at Dubai Airshow ||| Airbus won a total of 160 orders and commitments at the 13th Dubai Airshow worth US$44 billion (£27 billion), underlining the strong appeal of its widebody aircraft. The A380 and A350 XWB (extra wide body) in particular, were demonstrated to be spot-on with customer requirements and expectations. The order intake includes 142 firm orders worth US$40.4 billion (£24.7 billion) (50 A380, 40 A350-900, 10 A3501000, 26 A321neo, 10 A320neo and 6 A330-200F) and 18 Memorandums of Understanding worth US$3.6 billion (£2.2 billion). I

CBRE Group to acquire UK-based Norland Managed Services ||| CBRE Group announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Norland Managed Services Ltd (Norland), a leading provider of commercial building technical engineering services in the UK and Ireland, for £250 million plus up to £50 million of deferred contingent consideration as well as a payment for excess working capital and related items. The purchase price is payable in cash, except for £5.6 million that is payable in CBRE common stock to Norland senior management. The acquisition will add market-leading capabilities for CBRE to self-perform building technical engineering services in its UK and European Global Corporate Services (GCS) business, providing its client base with fully-integrated outsourcing services in the region. I

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news

||| Thales UK will provide a Deployable Communication & Information System (DCIS) capability for EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Limited (EDF Energy NGL) in a contract worth £5 million. Following the Fukushima event in Japan, EDF Energy NGL undertook a rigorous assessment of the resilience of its fleet of UK nuclear power stations against the highly unlikely occurrence of an extreme weather or other natural event. Part of a suite of safety enhancements is the provision of a mobile emergency response capability that could be deployed should such an event occur. The Deployable Communication

Thales to enhance UK nuclear power station emergency response

Hinckley Point B power station

& Information System will monitor critical plant systems and relay essential data through a resilient communications network. The system will allow operators to access, monitor, communicate, analyse, and act upon the critical data. Ultimately, the system will provide emergency response decision makers with the information that they need to make the best possible decisions. I

Veolia Environnement imagines 2050 ||| Veolia Environnement and the London School of Economics recently published a report ‘Imagine 2050’ which envisages the home of the future with nanoscopic robots sorting materials, self-cleaning bathrooms and ultrasonic baths. However, it also contains stark warnings with two contrasting visions of urban living in 2050. Under both scenarios, environmental technology will transform the home of the future – one in the context of a circular economy, the other in the context of a linear economy. The report describes one future city in which system-level planning has created a dense, resourceefficient society characterised by collaborative consumption, shared ownership and local selfreliance. Alongside this, it models a scenario in which disparate and unregulated development has led to a resource-hungry urban sprawl where private consumption and 20 - info - january / february

ownership is prioritised over long-term communal thinking. Estelle Brachlianoff, Veolia Environnement Executive Vice-President, UK and Northern Europe, said: ‘By 2050 it’s estimated that 70% of the world’s population will live in cities. We need to start thinking now about how to lock urban lifestyles into more sustainable pathways. We already have much of the technology we need to recycle, recover and reuse precious resources, but we also need a shift in public attitudes and greater engagement from government and business.’ I

A vision of the high-tech green homes of 2050

news

Emmaus UK wins the Franco-British Intercultural Trophy ||| Emmaus UK was the winner of the 2013 Intercultural Trophy, sponsored by AXA, which is awarded to companies which have made particular efforts to develop stronger ties between Britain and France. Presented with the Cartier-designed trophy at the French Chamber’s Soirée de Noël on 3 December, Chief Executive Arvinda Gohil was delighted with the ‘completely unexpected’ award. ‘What makes the award even more special is that it was voted for by members, showing the support Emmaus has from the Chamber,’ she said. ‘Emmaus in the UK is growing and we want to increase recognition for our work as a charity that is working together with others to end homelessness. Ultimately we would like Emmaus in the UK to have a similar profile to that enjoyed by our colleagues in

France. We look forward to working with the French Chamber and its members in 2014.’ I

International SOS supporting relief work in the Philippines ||| Experts at International SOS and Control Risks are now supporting relief workers in typhoon-hit parts of the Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) made landfall on 8 November 2013. The category 5 typhoon is considered one of the most powerful to strike the country. It has caused extensive loss of life and severe damage to infrastructure. ‘International SOS and Control Risks have an incident management team on the ground in Manila, advising

organisations who are involved in humanitarian operations. We are also liaising with clients who may be considering sending workers into the affected areas on business. The situation on the ground has significantly improved, but we are currently advising our clients to defer travel to the typhoon-hit locations unless they are involved in those humanitarian operations,’ said Simon Francis, Regional Security Director, International SOS and Control Risks. I

The French Chamber supports Handicap International’s action in the Philippines ||| Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines on 8 November 2013, devastating the lives of millions of people. Whole cities have been destroyed, and many are struggling to survive with limited food, shelter and drinking water. Disabled and vulnerable people are especially at risk. The teams of Handicap International – a member of the Chamber – are on the ground, working to meet people’s basic needs, prevent disabilities through healthcare and rehabilitation and get aid into hard-to-reach areas. ‘We have already sent tens of tonnes of aid, including emergency kits containing tents, blankets and cooking equipment for 4,400 people. We’ve provided pumps to provide clean water for 50,000 people per day. And our teams are giving emergency rehabilitation and walking aids to injured and disabled people at hospitals in Tacloban,’ says Catherine Palmer, Major Giving Officer at Handicap International. The Chamber supported an appeal from Handicap International, raising some money towards this work but the needs continue to be great. ‘The Philippines may not be making the headlines

anymore but our team of physiotherapists and community workers urgently need your support to help the most vulnerable people,’ says Catherine. ‘We have to act now to ensure that the injured do not develop permanent disabilities.’ I To donate to Handicap International’s Philippines emergency appeal please call 0870 774 3737 or visit www.handicap– international.org.uk/Philippines info - january / february - 21

news Schools

Groupe INSEEC’s first UK career day ||| ‘London is the gateway to an international career,’ say education professionals, Groupe INSEEC. The group, with its 12 business schools and nearly 15,000 students throughout France and Monaco, entered the UK market five years ago in Central London’s chic Marylebone. Most students presently on campus are in their final year of Master’s studies. For its first career day in November, Director Ron Morris decided on an intimate event, where top-level executives could talk about their companies, give career advice, and meet the students afterwards. The day was extremely successful thanks to Saxo Bank, Bloomberg,

Students quiz top executives

JP Funds, Google, Jellyfish, Essence, Silversun, Starcom MediaVest, and Cognito, among others. Participants also involved entrepreneurs, including several from the technology accelerator Level39, all giving illuminating talks. I

Grenoble Ecole de Management opens Paris campus ||| Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM) has established a new campus at 64 rue du Ranelagh in Paris’ 16th arrondissement. The school intends to take full advantage of this prime location to promote its international programmes, innovative approaches, and expertise in management of technology and innovation – a positioning aligned with GEM’s Business School of the Future initiatives. Judith Bouvard, Dean of Grenoble Graduate School of

Business, has been named Director of the Paris campus. She says: ‘We have a long history of off-site campuses with the School delivering its programs in London, Singapore, Moscow or Beijing… Only a campus in Paris was missing! This new location will allow us, amongst other, to better provide services to our corporate clients. It will allow us to be closer to major French and international corporations and offer them a portfolio of programmes adapted to their needs.’ I

HEC launches online courses

Two more schools sign agreements with the French Chamber

||| HEC Paris has become the first business school in France to launch a ‘MOOC’ (Massive Open Online Course) in partnership with the online platform Coursera. This enables HEC Paris to expand its teaching beyond the realms of the campus by making it available to the masses. Also launched is ‘HEC Ideas’, a video production which brings the work of research professors to life in animation form. The first episode is entitled ‘How To Bake a Broccoli Quiche: A View On Organisations.’ I

22 - info - january / february

The Chamber’s Recruitment Service has signed two new partnership agreements with school members: ESSCA (Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Commerciales d’Angers) and Société des Ingénieurs Arts et Métiers. It now has eight such partnerships which support both young graduates and alumni in their search for positions while enriching its pool of high-profile candidates. I

news

ESCP Europe professors publish widely acclaimed book

ESCP Europe: activities around entrepreneurship and connectivity

||| How to Think Strategically: Your Roadmap to Innovation and Results by Professors Davide Sola and Jerome Couturier, has been published by Pearson and Financial Times Publishing. The authors, both professors of strategy and management at London’s ESCP Europe Business School, have adopted a hands-on, practical approach to designing winning business strategies. Using a clear framework, ‘the strategy roundabout’, they put forward methods such as ‘lean testing’ and tools for developing a strategic mind-set. An accompanying app, The Strategic Plan Generator, allows users to add their own data to each step of the strategic planning process to generate a complete strategic plan with supporting graphics. The book is available widely online and at airports. I

||| ESCP Europe in London took the spirit of entrepreneurship as the theme for three key events in November. It held an Entrepreneurship Festival during Global Entrepreneurs week, followed by an Internet Entrepreneur panel for executive students and alumni, and then used its annual champagne reception to highlight its new partnership with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) through sponsorship and a talk. The Research Centre for Energy Management and the Creativity Marketing Centre at ESCP Europe have created Linkedin to bring together professionals and those interested in the two specialist fields into networks that span business and academia. New discussions are added regularly and the groups will be kept up-to-date with events, news and articles. Do take the opportunity to join: ‘Creativity Marketing @ ESCP Europe’ and ‘Energy Management @ ESCP Europe’. I

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Briefs

Movingdesign helps create Harrods’ Christmas windows ||| Movingdesign was commissioned by Harrods to create an artistic movie for the store’s shop front over the Christmas season. This year’s theme was ‘Harrods Express’ and each shop window was designed to resemble the coaches of a train reminiscent of the Orient Express. Movingdesign’s movie was used as a window on the outside world and took the viewers on a magical journey from Knightsbridge tube stop to cities like Paris, New York and Shanghai through dreamlike landscapes. Adaptations of the movie were also created specially for screens inside the shop and on social media platforms. I

Harrods’ Christmas shop fronts depicted train carriages with Movingdesign’s fantasy scenery flashing past the windows

VB Capital launches new website ||| VB Capital Conseil’s new website www.expatconseil.com is a platform for French people living in the UK looking for legal and tax information. The website covers a wide range of areas including: French and UK personal tax, French pensions, acquisition of real estate in the UK, health & life insurance, and family matters. A personalised service can also be provided as well as opportunities to get in touch with professionals. I

Yseop selected for European Business Awards ||| Yseop, a French artificial intelligence software company with offices in London, Dallas and New York, was recently selected as a National Champion for the European Business Awards. Yseop was selected out of 17,000 entries and will be competing with 30 finalists in France to make it to the next stage of the competition. ‘The European Business Award’s jury chose Yseop because ours is a truly disruptive innovation that has the capacity to revolutionise the service sector simultaneously increasing productivity and allowing companies to deliver unprecedented levels of personalised communications to their customers,’ said John Rauscher, CEO of Yseop. Yseop is the first artificial intelligence enterprise software that writes and speaks, just like a human being, but automatically and in multiple languages. Yseop analyses customer data to automate tasks such as lead generation, up-selling, cross-selling as well as the writing of prep-to-meeting reports, post meeting summaries, personalised proposals and customer intelligence executive summaries. I 24 - info - january / february

AMJ UK launches GEO software

||| AMJ, the IT services specialist in the UK, France and Spain, has launched its GEO software in the UK. Widely used in France by over 700 councils and public organisations, the GEO digital mapping software is designed for the maintenance and management of public infrastructure assets and services. It collects, stores, analyses and displays data on a map by using MapInfo, a multi-layered Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping facility. AMJ UK has adapted GEO to the local market and is now offering UK councils and other organisations the capacity to efficiently manage their community assets, roads, allotments, grounds, and cemeteries using this mapping technology. I

spotlight on s m e s & s ta r t u p s

Briefs

Coles Trading Limited brings French brands to London ||| Coles Trading, a member of the Chamber since 2011, sources outstanding food and drink brands from France and has just developed its product portfolio. Fauchon – a range of over 100 sweet and savoury items from the iconic Parisian house of gastronomy is now featured online at www.selfridges.com. Gallia Paris, the historic beer of Paris since 1890, is increasingly available at many leading French restaurants in London including Bistrot Bruno Loubet, Le Pont de la Tour, La Petite Maison, and Coq d’Argent. New distribution deals will see Loïc Raison ciders and Pimento, a new non-alcoholic ginger and chilli drink from Paris, launched nationally early in 2014. I

A taste of France in Selfridges

Edenred launches the ‘Connected HR’ programme ||| Edenred is helping organisations improve people performance with a free programme of new practical guides and webinars for organisations. ‘Connected HR’ provides practical support for managers on the key areas organisations need to focus on when it comes to supporting their people in the year ahead. The first set of webinars focused on issues ranging from changes to employment law, financial and physical wellbeing to supporting working parents ahead of changes to childcare vouchers in 2015. I Find out more at www. edenred.co.uk/connected-hr-webinars-from-Edenred

Ipsen acquires Syntaxin ||| Pharmaceutical company Ipsen has acquired Syntaxin, a UKbased private life sciences company specialised in botulinum toxin engineering, as part of a strategy to reinforce its core technological platforms, and become a leader in specialty healthcare solutions for debilitating diseases. Syntaxin has an extensive patent portfolio – with 75 granted patents and over 130 patents pending. Syntaxin and Ipsen had previously collaborated in a strategic partnership to explore and develop new compounds in the field of recombinant botulinum toxins. I

Highscope works with French Institute to reduce costs ||| Highscope, a business cost reduction specialist, is working with the French Institute to cut unnecessary costs. The saving is quantified prior to implementation and the service is self-funding with any fees paid as a percentage of the savings. So far, savings have averaged 30% with more in the pipeline. David Davis, Managing Director of Highscope says, ‘We are proud of the excellent savings generated and are happy to be supporting the savings programme’. Daniel Pirat, Secretary General of the French Institute says, ‘we are greatly benefiting from both additional funds and the support from Highscope’. I info - january / february - 25

spotlight on s m e s & s ta r t u p s

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spotlight on s m e s & s ta r t u p s

Profile

David Attiach takes on representative role for Lirone

||| Photographer David Attiach’s career has spanned over 30 years. In the 1980s, he created his own company, Jeux d’Images, in Paris, which became renowned for its creative and artistic photography. His success followed him to London, where he moved in 2001. Jeux d’Images is now a high-end wedding and celebration photography business, while the newly formed Eagle Eye Corporate Studio concentrates on the corporate side. But the third, and most entrepreneurial string to David’s bow is his fledgling agency for photographic artist Lirone. Lirone is a ‘world-class’ photographer with whom David has worked on a number of prestigious corporate projects. He did some amazing pictures for Louis Vuitton Luxury Watches and had the idea of transforming his work into 3-dimensional images using a unique process he has developed. It was so outstanding that he then proceeded to decorate their offices with his creations. Lirone went on to patent his technique of direct visualisation of images in acrylic, and succeeded in getting his work shown at a number of exhibitions and galleries. But David believed that Lirone’s unique

art pieces deserved a wider audience. So with little knowledge of the art world, but a great belief in the potential of Lirone’s work, David took on the role of his representative. Getting to know the art market and the role of galleries was David’s first priority. ‘This was completely new to me two years ago,’ says David. Galleries are key to giving artists exposure and have the right connections with their portfolios of collectors and buyers, but David also has plans for a global operation that will take Lirone’s work to Russia, the UK, India, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates in 2014. Lirone’s art pieces have been bought by companies and institutions such as LVMH, Van Cleef & Arpels, Musée Grévin and Euro Media France, as well as banks and financial services companies, superyacht owners and art collectors. David’s strategy now is to build up his own pool of connections and a dedicated website is now under construction for the business market. Meanwhile, Lirone continues to take his art form to new levels with his 3-D violins, guitars and a double bass. It truly is a business in the making. I KF info - january / february - 27

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Interview with Arvinda Gohil, Chief Executive of Emmaus UK ||| More than a charity, Emmaus is a social enterprise. What is the philosophy behind it and how did it start?

Emmaus is all about providing people who have experienced homelessness and social exclusion with a home and meaningful work in one of our social enterprises. This gives them the opportunity to regain their dignity, which can be eroded by homelessness, and make a real contribution to their community. Emmaus was started by Abbé Pierre in Paris in 1949. A member of the French Resistance, he had devoted himself to building homes for women and children left homeless after the war. One night, a man was brought to him after a failed suicide attempt. Georges had been released after 20 years in prison, only to find his family

Duncan Gall’s story ||| I have good reason to appreciate what Emmaus does, because it gave me my dad back. I was only 12 years old when my mum died of cancer, leaving me in my dad’s care. Unfortunately, Duncan and John Gall he really struggled to come to terms with mum’s death, and depression meant he used alcohol as a crutch. When I was 16, I went on holiday with some friends. When I got home I found an eviction notice on the door. My dad had disappeared. I managed to get myself a bedsit, did my A levels, and got a job in a warehouse. My dad was living on the streets, sleeping in bus shelters and begging for money. Then he disappeared completely. For six years I had no idea if he was dead or alive. But one day in 2002, I received an invitation to my dad’s wedding. Unbeknown to me, in 2000, he had moved to Emmaus, in Cambridge, where he’d been given the support he needed to overcome his alcoholism. Emmaus had completely turned his life around. I began visiting regularly and ended up staying with him for 18 months, working alongside my dad in the place where he was now community manager. When the Leicestershire & Rutland community advertised for a community leader in 2012, he encouraged me to apply, and I got the job. My dad is an inspiration and I’m so proud of what he’s achieved. I often tell new companions about him, how far he has come and how it has transformed his life. If he can do it, they all can. I

Winner

INTERCULTURAL TROPHY

was unable to cope with his return home. Georges became the first Emmaus companion, living with Abbé Pierre and helping him to build homes for those in need. He later said, ‘Whatever else he might have given me money, home, somewhere to work - I’d have still tried to kill myself again. What I was missing, and what he offered, was something to live for.’ How did Emmaus come to the UK?

Emmaus came to the UK in 1992, thanks to a man called Selwyn Image who had lived and worked in an Emmaus community in Paris as a student in the 1960s. He set up the first UK Emmaus community in Cambridge. Since then the UK movement has grown to 24 communities spread across the UK, supporting around 600 people. What is the role of work at Emmaus?

Meaningful work is one of the most beneficial elements of the companion experience. It brings them together as a group and gives them a sense of purpose, as well as helping them to learn new skills that can help them to find work in the future. Our research shows that 82% of companions find having something to do every day to be the most beneficial part of their time at Emmaus. It sets us apart from other homelessness charities, many of which are able to provide a bed for the night but nothing to fill your days. Just Economics carried out a Social Return on Investment analysis of Emmaus communities in 2012. What did it find?

This fantastic piece of research showed that for every £1 invested in an Emmaus community there is an £11 social, environmental and economic return on investment. This is because we take a long term approach to helping people to overcome homelessness, which reduces hospital admissions, crime reoffending and the benefits bill. Homelessness is a growing problem and you have waiting lists for communities. Do you have any plans to create more?

We currently have nine Emmaus groups who are working to set up new communities. The current economic situation means raising the money to do this is tougher than ever, so we’re looking at alternative ways to do this. Every community is slightly different but on average it costs around £1.5 million to set up a new community. Our aim is to increase the number of companion spaces in the UK from 600 to 750 by 2017. There are always waiting lists for our communities, so we know there is an ongoing need to create more places. Ultimately, while homelessness remains a problem in society, our work will never be done. I KF info - january / february - 29

s u cc e s s s to ry At the end of the day we are an entrepreneurial company. We know how to make good products that will delight customers and are easy to use … we want to use that expertise to bring out new, innovative and youthful products

TomTom ‘TomTom is the only global consumer electronics brand to have come out of Europe in the last 20 years,’ says Corinne Vigreux, one of the four co-founders of the multinational blue chip listed company. Yet, in 1991, when it was founded, they had no idea how far or how fast their start-up would take them

ost of TomTom’s co-founders, which also include Peter-Frans Pauwels, Pieter Geelen and Harold Goddijn, Corinne’s husband, had met at Psion, the innovative British consumer electronics company where Corinne, who is French, had begun her career in 1986. ‘It was British engineering and technology at its best,’ she recalls of the London-based company that invented the personal digital assistant device (PDA), the mousepad and the Symbian operating system for mobile phones. In the era before Windows, they were involved in the creation of software for Psion’s PDAs, such as dictionaries, financial calculators and accountancy programmes. ‘Back in those days no one had personal computers and only a few companies did, so people were not used to computing and we were very good at making easy-to-use software for bluecollar workers to do their job. That’s where we started,’ Corinne explains. She initiated it all by leaving her job as Psion’s sales director in 1991 to found Palmtop Software, which developed business-to-business applications for mobile devices such as bar-code reading, meter reading and order-entry systems, as well as consumer software products for PDAs. By 1998, alongside the other software, they had started developing early navigation applications – Routeplanner and Citymaps. This was the beginning of a new direction for the company. Already the leading PDA software creator, they saw a demand for navigation software. ‘We looked at what was happening in car navigation - it was very expensive, 30 - info - january / february

cumbersome, didn’t work very well - and realised that we should be able to do something better,’ Corinne recounts. Their first navigation product was an application for third-party PDAs and included a GPS receiver and car-cradle. Compared to the factoryinstalled and dealer-fitted systems available at the time it was much cheaper, albeit still bulky. But technology was evolving, the memory required for maps was getting cheaper, the software was improving and a gap in the market had opened up: ‘We came up with the idea for a device with our software inside that you could buy in a shop, put on your windscreen and drive home with’, says Corinne. This decision to move from software into hardware was a defining moment for the small company. Suddenly it didn’t make any sense to be called Palmtop Software, and the company became TomTom – more catchy, more international and not easily confused with Palm handheld devices. Despite predictions that it would never catch on, TomTom launched its first all-in-one portable navigation device in 2004. At €799, the TomTom GO was more affordable than the €2-3,000 price tag of other built-in car systems on the market, and you could literally just buy it in Dixons or Halfords, put it on your windscreen and drive off. ‘It was supereasy to use, worked better than anything else and really quite revolutionary,’ says Corinne. The 200,000 units they had forecast to sell in the first year were sold out within six months, and in 2005 it jumped

s u cc e s s s to ry

Corinne Vigreux, Co-founder and MD, TomTom

to 1.7 million units. To date, more than 70 million units have been sold. ‘From then on, the whole story accelerated,’ says Corinne. The small company that had been ticking over with 20 employees ballooned to 4,500, and its turnover of €2-3 million shot up to €170 million in 2005 and €1.8 billion by 2008. Second generation devices as well as new versions of software navigation for mobile devices were developed, and TomTom continued to expand geographically too, not only within Europe but also North America and beyond. Aware that it was crucial to invest in technology to maintain its leading edge in the navigation solutions industry, TomTom sought funding by listing on the NYSE Euronext Amsterdam in May 2005. The company then embarked on an acquisition programme to build up its business units and enhance its capabilities, buying Datafactory AG, a German telematics company to provide services for fleet management in Europe, Applied Generics, a specialist in the use of data from mobile networks for advanced routing of vehicles and a 90-strong automotive engineering team from Siemens VDO’s research and development division. But the most defining strategic decision was to buy their map maker, Tele Atlas, one of the two largest global digital mapping companies. This helped TomTom to speed up the release of new maps, increase map accuracy, make the map production process more efficient and ultimately deliver a better navigation experience for customers. Today TomTom provides maps for Apple’s

applications and Corinne refers to a recent article in The Guardian newspaper, which compares the quality of their maps favourably with Google’s. ‘So we’re a big map maker, we’re big in navigation, we have more than 50% market share in Europe, we’re number 2 in the US and we are now present in Southeast Asia, India and Latin America – 35 countries overall,’ Corinne states. But since its peak in 2008, TomTom has had to contend with rapidly developing mobile phone technology and market saturation, with the result that turnover has declined 10-15% a year over the past four years. ‘The interpretation is that people are opting to use free mobile phone applications for navigation, but actually the biggest problem is that a lot of people already have a navigation device.’ Corinne’s answer to this is innovation that will drive a new wave of adoption and encourage existing customers to upgrade. At the core of this innovation are live services. TomTom’s latest range of devices now has real-time traffic information, which means they can give drivers the best routes to their destinations, while helping TomTom’s mission to reduce traffic congestion. ‘We’ve invested over 10 years working on technology that will ensure you spend less time in your car,’ Corinne explains. ‘Traffic is a big problem, it creates a lot of pollution and wastes a lot of time, but our devices are traffic-busters.’ And while the competition may offer traffic information on the main routes, TomTom covers 99% of the entire road network thanks to its highly accurate data aggregation. The company is also diversifying. Navigation is but one pillar, the others being telematics (fleet tracking), map licensing and automotive - inbuilt car navigation systems first developed with Renault, that have now added several car manufacturers as clients. TomTom is also branching out into the fitness sector with its new GPS sports watches, launched earlier this year. ‘The brand has always been about ease of use - that’s what we’re known for,’ observes Corinne. ‘We’ve already democratised navigation by making it accessible to everyone, very easy to use and affordable, and now we’re trying to do the same thing with our watches, which are intuitive, track your progress and encourage you to do more.’ TomTom has covered a lot of ground on its journey from start-up to global brand, but it is clearly still en route. ‘At the end of the day we’re an entrepreneurial company,’ says Corinne. ‘We know how to make good products that will delight customers and are easy to use, and we want to use that expertise to bring out new, innovative and youthful products.’ I KF info - january / february - 31

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focus Innovation & Creativity in new Technologies

ore than two centuries ago the Industrial Revolution completely transformed work, life, business and industry. It marked a major turning point in history and had an influence on almost every aspect of daily life. If you swop ‘industrial’ with ‘digital’ and take away the centuries, it becomes an apt description for our times. The words ‘transformation’, ‘change’ and ‘revolution’ crop up frequently in articles in this Focus for good reason – we are undergoing a revolution of sorts with far-reaching implications for business and the way we live our lives. At its heart is a flowering of creativity and innovation driving new technologies, new businesses and new approaches. Creative and new technology start-ups are one of the phenomena of the digital age, and London is home to Europe’s fastest growing technology cluster. Dubbed ‘Tech City’, this hub has flourished organically in an environment that is open and unfettered by traditional business models, where collaborative community has replaced competitive advantage, and youth is no barrier. Some of its success may be down to the fact that the

government has supported rather than interfered in this boom in creative entrepreneurship, creating, for example, the Tech City Investment Corporation with the objective of making London the best place to imagine, start and grow a business. The fact that the Google Campus start-up community grew from 8,000 to 22,500 members since January 2013 attests to its vibrance. But new technologies are not the exclusive domain of start-ups: the digital wave is breaking over all businesses and industries, in some cases disrupting and challenging their modus operandi, if not raison d’etre. Established business models start looking redundant, traditional markets are turned upside down and businesses have to tackle issues unheard of a few years ago. What are the challenges posed by the five forces – analytics, mobile, social, cloud, cyber – and how business can respond is a common theme in many articles, while others look at the creative and innovative ways businesses are using these forces to overcome disruption, boost productivity and grow in directions never envisaged. Vive la révolution! I

focus contents Trends & challenges in the post digital age

34 The flowering of tech clusters in London 36 Joanna Shields on London’s ‘once in a generation’ technology boom

38 Tech hubs and new generation innovators 39 Five technology forces and the challenge of integration 40 The four P’s for embracing digital transformation 42 How technology and innovation disrupt businesses 44 Intellectual Property and how it interfaces with digital media 45 BYOD

46 Support for creativity and innovation Key areas of creativity and innovation

47 Capitalising on the mobile revolution 48 Reshaping B2B operations with mobile innovation 49 Making new technologies work for your business 50 Are we just playing around? 52 Artificial Intelligence and the service sector 53 The (r)evolution of digital publishing 54 The consumption of culture in the digital age

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focus part one: Trends & challenges in the post digital age

The flowering of tech clusters in London Tech and creative start-ups were initially drawn to East London by cheap rents and the edgy vibe, but the community has flourished in an atmosphere of collaboration, openness and interconnectivity

One of the ways fledgling tech companies do this is to come together in collective working spaces, where they can plug in, work and interconnect with others. Central Working is an example of this: more than a working space or club, it functions as an incubator, helping its members, 60% of which are international, with connections, advice and business support. ‘We work with them to grow their businesses,’ says Toby Payne, manager at Central Working’s Shoreditch venue. ‘Some join us as just one person, but when they leave to set up their own offices they might have grown to 16.’ Some members are resident with their own sections in the casual, open-plan area, which occupies the floor of a nondescript building in Shoreditch. The rest is community space, rented out on a flexible, drop-in basis, and open 24/7. ‘We are not only about tech companies; we take all sorts of businesses from lawyers, to HR, yoga teachers to chefs,’ Toby explains. ‘We believe that the best connections and the best conversations of shared knowledge happen when you are talking to people that aren’t actually in the same business as you.’ Barclays, which sponsored some of the furnishings, has a business banker on site for two hours a day, offering business advice on investment, loans and other financial matters. Occupying seven floors in a nearby building, Google Campus is another type of co-working space. Part of it is a more basic café-style offering – refractory-style benches and tables, free WiFi, a coffee bar and access to support such as mentoring programmes and networking events. Free and open to anyone, as long as they register, it tends to attract the individuals and early-stage startups. Those looking for something more can become residents, paying a monthly rent for full-time desks, superfast wi-fi, workstations, soft seating areas, meeting rooms as well as teleconferencing facilities, or an annual fee for more occasional use of the space. working central

he name ‘Tech City’ conjures up the image of a designated zone of gleaming high rises, slick, sanitised offices and an abundance of steel and chrome. However, London’s technology cluster that goes by that name is nothing like that. The phenomenon that is Tech City took shape about seven years ago when media and high technology start-ups began setting up in the vicinity of the Old Street Roundabout, chiefly because rents were cheap and the area’s arty, creative vibe had a young, edgy appeal. In 2008 there were around 15 such companies; within two years it had grown to 85 and by 2012 Wired magazine estimated there were 5,000. The trend was given form and prominence in 2010 by Prime Minister David Cameron, who recognised that something was ‘stirring in East London’, but that its growth should be organic rather than designed from on high. Instead, he offered government support that would ‘go with the grain of what is already there’, help create the right framework, but ‘not interfere so much that you smother’. What is there is a mix of culture, connectivity and collaboration that has fomented creativity and growth. Start-ups thrive in the rough-and-ready atmosphere, free from traditional business boundaries and models, which lends itself to a risk-taking and entrepreneurial mentality.

The co-working area of Google Campus

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working central

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Central Working

Google’s stake in the campus is more strategic than financial – a show of support for the government’s efforts to drive technology entrepreneurialism. But it keeps tabs on its success. Its start-up community has grown to 22,500 members, hailing from over 60 countries. In the last year, members have attracted over £34 million in funding from sources such as venture capital funds, accelerator programmes, government grants and angel investors. Google’s Head of Campus, Eze Vidra says: ‘Campus is less than two years old, but, through building a vibrant community, offering mentoring, educational programming, and, crucially, a place for serendipity, we’re already seeing rapid growth, job-creation and significant investment. We’re proud of the role Campus is playing in building this ecosystem, and eager to continue to grow London as one of the world’s most exciting technology centres.’ I KF

iCity: a creative and tech hub in the making 750-seat auditorium; and a 65,000m2 building housing educational space where schools renowned for innovation and digital technologies, Loughborough University and Hackney Technical University College, will have second campuses; the BT Sport Broadcast Studio; other film and broadcast studios, a state-of-theart data centre, office space, as well as unique retail, artisan cafes and bars, which will take over the gantry spaces once occupied by air-conditioners. By 2015 it will be a new place for ‘making, gathering and grazing’. I iCity

While Tech City came about spontaneously, iCity, a new digital quarter planned for the former Press Centre in Olympic Park, will come about by design, albeit on the same principles. Plans are to ‘keep it gritty’ according to Richard Gibbs, the Business Development Director of iCity, as the young talent and start-ups it hopes to attract eschew sterile environments. The iCity campus will incorporate a 28,000m2 innovation centre in which up to 800 people will work in ‘sweat shop conditions’ that induce collaborative advantage; a

iCity gantry

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Joanna Shields on London’s ‘once in a generation’ technology boom Joanna Shields, Tech City UK CEO and UK Business Ambassador for Digital Industries, tells INFO what makes Tech City tick and why London is the new technology mecca

‘T

ech City’ has been identified as the ‘fastest growing tech cluster in Europe’. What is it about East London and its ecosystem that has fostered this growth?

A number of elements have come together to produce what I see as a once in a generation opportunity – the support of Government, a movement of people and community of ideas (not just in East London but throughout the capital and in clusters around the country) and a broader appreciation for business innovation and entrepreneurship. In Tech City we have the combination of creativity, entrepreneurship, investment opportunities, academic prowess and companies at every stage of development and maturity. Tech City is an ideal location to grow an international business. It provides quick access to Europe. It has a heritage of creativity and innovation making it attractive for digital media and tech companies. It is an excellent strategic location for large companies to be based, blending the creativity and innovation of East London with easy access to the financial centre of the City. Tech City has seen an overwhelming success in the past three years due, in part, to the diverse and supportive ecosystem that has been created. Recently we released our third anniversary report that looks at the success of Tech City and the UK digital industries as a whole. It found that from 2009 to 2012, 83,000 new tech/digital/media industry jobs were created and number of tech/digital companies grew from 49,969 to 88,215. What kinds of businesses favour the East London cluster and is this changing or evolving in any way?

Since the launch of Tech City in 2010, we have actively encouraged a diverse ecosystem, from small start-ups, with incentives such as Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes (SEIS) and R&D tax relief, to encouraging global multinationals. In the last year we’ve already seen some of the largest players like Amazon and Google increase their operations here and we’re looking forward to more investment. London is fast becoming the mecca for ecommerce, fin tech, big data, fashion tech and creative industries. The opportunities for foreign companies to locate here and tap into our talent base, build businesses and products is enormous. Over the past year I have visited several of the world’s leading tech clusters – from Dubai 36 - info - november / december

to Israel and San Francisco – to commend the worldleading environment that the UK offers businesses. We are drawing in significant numbers of high value, foreign companies from markets around the globe which are in turn creating jobs and fuelling economic growth. Is there sufficient access to capital for these companies?

The UK has a thriving ecosystem of investors with more money being invested in digital industries than ever before. In fact, just last week, social media analytics company, DataSift, announced $43m funding. We have one of the most attractive investment environments in the world with dedicated policies, such as SEIS, in place to encourage venture capitalists and investors. In addition, as part of our recent third year anniversary, the Government’s Technology Strategy Board announced a new £15.5 million funding package to help innovative businesses grow. This includes up to £12.5 million in research and development funding competitions to boost digital and computing technologies across the UK. And three new competitions of £1 million each are being set up to encourage specialist clusters – helping digital companies to develop further into Tech City, supporting healthcare technologies in Wales and assisting manufacturing (process industries) in the North East. Does Tech City have links to or relationships with other tech clusters across the UK?

Tech City has become the nucleus of a new era of growth in the UK economy. Tech City’s success is not limited to East London. Over the past 12 months an unrivalled package of incentives, tax breaks and policy changes spearheaded by Tech City coupled with dedicated marketing and promotion of the cluster has helped the UK become one of the most attractive places to locate a technology company. As a result, we are seeing a movement of entrepreneurship across the country, centred around emerging clusters, while established technology clusters are being reinvigorated. How does Tech City benchmark with other tech clusters globally?

We don’t compare ourselves to other European clusters – London is unique. Tech City has become a

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some great success stories there, which we can’t wait to help accelerate towards further growth, whether that is towards a listing or a high value exit. There is a growing deep pool of companies reaching this stage and we must do everything we can to support them as they consider their options for the future. We must remember too, though, that an IPO is just one way of measuring success. The past three years have been filled with examples of innovative young firms within the cluster hitting incredible growth milestones and attracting significant investment. Are rising rents and talent shortages the greatest hindrances to start-up growth?

Joanna Shields

global brand that stretches far beyond the Old Street Roundabout. It is the symbol of the transformation of London into a super city unlike any other in the world. This is not hyperbole, it’s a fact. I’ve been travelling all over the world this year and met with developers, engineers and business builders from small start-ups to global multinationals and universally they recognise the potential and opportunity of London. We have also recently seen the Tech City model adopted by France and Germany, further confirming the UK’s position as the best place in the world to imagine, start and grow a business. Why do high growth tech companies in the UK all head to the US for their IPOs and what could be done to change this?

The pivot that companies make to growth-stage requires a different level of support than early stage. We had done a very good job of creating the best package of incentives and programmes for start-ups but we needed to work this year to create an equivalent and globallyleading package for growth-stage. We have now done that through the launch of Future Fifty. Future Fifty is a fast-track programme of public and private sector support that aims to catalyse growth, create jobs and deliver economic impact to the UK. The programme is designed to connect growth-stage companies with expertise and tailored support that will enable them to scale rapidly and lay the foundations for their next major liquidity event. The full list of Future Fifty companies is now available at www.futurefifty.com and there are

With a high volume of growing tech and digital companies in East London and constrained supply, there will always be competition for space. Where there is competition for space and high demand, rents will inevitably go up. However, we are doing all we can to facilitate developers getting planning consents because the only way to deal with price rise is to increase supply. City fringe rents are still half what they are in the west end, so companies are finding they can attract talent who want to be in the east and can halve their real estate bill. We also have over 30 co-working spaces in Tech City which provide a low barrier to entry for startups, with a range of affordable prices. We encourage those seeking out a suitable space to get in touch with the Tech City team and we will do our best to help. What have you achieved in your first year as CEO of Tech City UK and what is still in your sights to do?

We have achieved a massive amount over the last year. The past 12 months have seen us focus on paving a path for innovative companies and visionary individuals to move from start-ups to scale-ups. Tech is a genuine bright spot in the UK (accounting for 8.3% of GDP) and high-growth tech businesses make a significant contribution to our economy; so the work we’re doing in supporting these firms feels extremely valuable. I’m proud of all the work we have done, especially launching the Future Fifty and the work with the London Stock Exchange and Number 10 to reinvigorate the market and create the conditions that will make going public in the UK attractive again for tech companies. It’s vital that in 2014 we maintain the momentum we’ve built to encourage greater numbers of high potential tech businesses to scale and grow in the UK. We will continue to support the development of the High Growth Segment and the success of the Future Fifty programme to ensure our brightest and best companies are not tempted abroad and lost to the UK. We will continue to work with our partners to support and catalyse companies’ growth through each stage of the imagine, start and grow evolution. I Interview by KF info - november / december - 37

focus

Tech hubs and new generation innovators Guillaume Pellan, Account Manager at We Are Social, benchmarks the top European tech hubs and the young digital entrepreneurs that are making waves

n the US, New York competes with its Californian counterpart with its own ‘Silicon Alley’, situated in the heart of Manhattan. Here in Europe however, London, Paris and Berlin are beginning to drive similar initiatives in order to start unrolling the red carpet for both start-up and tech companies.

Europe’s rising tech hubs The last decade has seen a significant development in how technological start-ups are considered in France. The French Government has allocated over €123 million to two new tech hubs in Grenoble and Paris-Saclay. The aim? To simplify the process for French start-ups and create new and greater opportunities. Similarly, Digital Economy Minister, Fleur Pellerin, recently announced plans to form a €100 million sovereign fund for intellectual property to develop public-private partnerships. Berlin is facing-up as a serious competitor in the tech start-up space, thanks to lower rents and an evergrowing pool of young innovators, with Zalando and SoundCloud just a couple of the successful names emerging from the German capital. According to management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Berlin currently ranks fifth, falling just behind Tel Aviv, London, Paris and Moscow. One of Berlin’s biggest projects is the transformation of the old Tempelhof airport into the city’s new start-up incubation centre. London continues as the European leader with its own tech hub – Tech City, located in up-and-coming Shoreditch where the cluster of start-up businesses has grown from 200 to well over 1,500 within a few years. UK government support through the Tech City Investment Corporation, private investment and initiatives such as London Mayor Boris Johnson’s ‘Exceptional Talent Visa’ are making it easier to attract international talent and create jobs in the capital. Giant tech corporation Amazon is already based in King’s Cross, and Google will soon follow with the development of its new 85,470m2 UK HQ. However, London is an expensive place to conduct business, and cities like Birmingham have created new initiatives to attract talent away from the capital. Today, 6,000 tech firms (including online clothing giant ASOS) call Birmingham home and pump £768 million into the UK economy.

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Young digital innovators Location and facilities are clearly not all that is required to create the next big thing in digital space. Snapchat, the mobile app specialised in ephemeral mobile text and photo messages, has just declined an acquisition offer of €1.9 billion (£1.6 billion) from Facebook. Yahoo! acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion (£675 million) last May. The fact that Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel is only 23 and Tumblr’s David Karp, 27 makes this even more impressive. However, in order to transform these ideas into business successes, young digital innovators still need funding, financial support, advice and mentoring in the early stages. In London, some of the best examples include Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Start Up which launched in Box Park last October, bringing together business legends such as Steve Wozniak, Apple’s cofounder, with young, talented entrepreneurs such as the 16-year-old CEO of ThinkSpace James Anderson. Educating future entrepreneurs In the last decade there has been a greater focus on putting enterprise at the heart of the education to encourage the future generation of entrepreneurs. An inspirational example is British entrepreneur and investor Peter Jones’ support for the ‘Tycoon in Schools’ initiative, which aims to encourage young people to compete to become successful entrepreneurs. In our increasingly digitalised economies, pioneering countries are giving the youngest members of society the tools to develop technological skills at an early age. In France, globally recognised initiatives have been led by Xavier Niel who created a computing school and settled 1,000 start-ups in the ‘Halle Freyssinet’. Other European countries are blazing trails by involving children from an early age in this transition period. Estonia has piloted a program called ProgeTiigerin 2012 that teaches the basics of Java and C++ in 20 primary schools. Finland followed suit by announcing that it would be adding coding and programming into its educational syllabuses in the near future. It comes as no surprise therefore that Estonia and Finland are respectively the countries where the enormous digital successes Skype and Angry Birds originated. I References: www.mckinsey.de/sites/mck_files/files/131007_pm_berlin_builds_ businesses.pdf; https://yougov.co.uk/opi

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Five technology forces and the challenge of integration

here are five key technology forces affecting business at the moment; analytics, cyber, mobile, social media and hosting, or intelligent cloud computing as it’s now called. They each present challenges ranging from the fact that the technology doesn’t always work perfectly through to the ways in which we use it. As evolving technologies come of age they are converging to create a raft of new possibilities, but with it new vulnerabilities and risk. Our unfettered ability to create new technology can exceed our ability to effectively govern its use and as our dependency on technology increases so does the magnitude of the problems when it goes wrong. Recently Bridgestone launched a $600 million suit against IBM alleging that the system-wide failures of the IT system supplied completely disrupted every aspect of Bridgestone’s business operation and in October more than 700 patients in Glasgow had their appointments cancelled due to a major IT failure which left NHS staff totally unable to access their records. The most significant issue is in integrating these new technologies. Cloud computing, the adoption of mobile devices, capitalising on social media and the need to prove that Big Data is more than just an enterprise search project also pose challenges in terms of management and adoption. At the same time, these innovations can drive significant business benefits. All of these things must be considered against the increased risk to information security particularly in relation to cloud computing and mobile technologies. In the summer Adobe suffered a major security breach in which hackers stole the encrypted passwords of almost 38 million active users. Given the heightened focus on cloud computing the key issue is how to protect data from hackers while keeping systems usable. The motivation and commitment of the

Lawrence Berkeley Nat’l Lab - Roy Kaltschmidt, photographer

Five new technology forces are affecting business, but it is their integration that is the key issue, observes Mike Alderton, General Manager at AMI (UK)

IBM cloud computers

hacker when pitched against the protector cannot be underestimated; the potential rewards on offer to the hacker are huge and ensure that attempts to access systems illegally will be constant and widespread. Research consultancy 451 Research predicts a 36% compound annual growth in cloud computing through 2016 whilst a recent Oracle-funded study found that 52% of businesses said they had missed deadlines due to poor integration of cloud apps across vendors, and a staggering 64% were unable to integrate their cloud apps with other enterprise apps. Application integration issues remain the primary reason why organisations can’t deliver the business benefits at the speed demanded by customers. The three things that keep the CEO awake at night remain the same as they always have been; revenue, profit and reputation with reputation nearer to the top of the list than ever before. All three are intrinsically linked and used to be largely dependent on good leadership and employee performance; they are now directly dependent on the performance of the technology systems chosen and the ability to integrate those technologies effectively. 2014 will see the need for board members and senior executives to be more closely informed than ever before about the technology decisions their organisations take. I

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The four The four P’s P’sfor for embracing embracing digitaltransformation transformation digital

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New digital technologies are fundamentally altering the way we live and work, explains Rick Freeman, Senior Vice President, Director of Business Innovation at Capgemini Consulting

n my house if I need to do something more complicated than turn on my TV and change channels, I inevitably have to ask my 15-year-old to help me out. He will then, much like a master Jedi, wield the three controllers that manage our TV, set-top box and Internet film service, and with consummate ease set the surround sound and load up a film on Netflix. Having had a number of conversations with friends I suspect I am not alone in this failure to get the best out of my technology. I am not a technophobe as I have all the gear and access to lots of functionality, I just struggle to make it all work together. In essence, according to the latest Capgemini/MIT Sloan research, this is a situation many CEOs are finding themselves in when it comes to the digital transformation of their business. They have access to many new capabilities and they know what they’d like to do but there are some old barriers (lack of capability, lack of governance and lack of urgency) that are making it difficult to reap the benefits. Over the last three years Capgemini Consulting

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has partnered with Massachusetts Institute of Technology to carry out in-depth global research into challenge that is digital transformation. In short, what we have uncovered is that new digital technologies are fundamentally altering the way we live and work 1 and that those who manage to effectively harness the potential of these new digital technologies will have a significant competitive advantage. 2 This autumn has seen the release of the latest research which has sought to understand ‘how’ those that are undergoing digital transformation are coping with the challenges. The research also provides an indication of the key areas where firms need to work hard in order to ensure a successful digital transformation.3 This article provides an overview of those findings and a set of steps to consider for your own business.

Prioritising Firstly let’s deal with the obvious. Digital transformation is hugely important and is transforming our world; three years on from the start of our research this is now very self evident. There

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Those that can lead on digital rather than merely manage the status quo will be guiding their organisations towards a healthy future.

are still a few chief executives across the globe that have yet to see the light but, by and large, the evidence is overwhelming. In the latest research ‘78% of respondents believed that achieving digital transformation will become critical to their organisations within the next two years’. That is pretty conclusive and a big challenge, especially when ‘63% of respondents said the pace of technology change in their organisation is too slow’ and the most frequently cited obstacle to digital transformation is a ‘lack of urgency’. In addition ‘only 38% of respondents said that digital transformation was a permanent fixture on their CEO’s agenda’. So clients and employees are crying out for our organisations to embrace digital but senior executives, whilst acknowledging the importance of digital transformation, seem to be struggling to prioritise it. Maybe chief executives are behaving like me when faced with the three controllers: they are feeling a little overwhelmed and are hoping they would have retired or moved on before things become critical. Well our research suggests that they have no reason to fear digital. Where CEOs have shared their vision for digital transformation, ‘93% of employees feel that it is the right thing for the organisation’. But only ‘36% of CEOs have shared such a vision’. If ever there was a time for business leaders to be courageous and step up, it is now. Those that can lead on digital rather than merely manage the status quo will be guiding their organisations towards a healthy future. So what challenges will the courageous leader have to take on to drive digital transformation at an effective pace? Our research suggests there are three areas that require immediate action.

People The first area is People. Chief executives need to get involved and demonstrate that digital transformation does not belong exclusively to teenage millennials – it belongs to all of us who have the curiosity and enthusiasm to get involved. Our research showed that when it comes to attitudes towards older workers there is a belief that ‘older people will have difficulty adapting to the digital world’. From our studies of organisations that are running effective

digital transformations – the ‘Digirati’ – that does not need to be the case. These Digirati are capable and keen to engage all their staff and customers in digital transformation. In fact the Digirati take engagement very seriously and look to promote the engagement of staff and customers through incentives. Our research shows that ‘68% of respondents at Digirati companies do connect digital transformation to incentives’.

Politics The second area is Politics. ‘More than 20% of respondents said that internal politics, including fear of losing power in the organisation, impeded adoption of digital technology.’ Ouch. It is no surprise that change provokes a reaction, but chief executives will need to change the old power structures of their organisations and adopt new more flexible operating models if they are to succeed. This again takes courage on their part and the creation of an aligned leadership team that can move forward together. Our research, however, shows that ‘fewer than 25% of respondents at the non-Digirati companies thought leadership was completely aligned on a road map’. There is much work to do here too. Platforms And finally there is, of course, a challenge with existing technology platforms. Many chief executives report feeling hamstrung by their current systems and the massive investment they have made in them. What is clear is that the Digirati are resorting to radical IT solutions in order to overcome these significant challenges with a massive increase in the use of cloud services. Unsurprisingly ‘limitations of IT systems ranked third on the list of significant organisational barriers to digital transformation.’ So for those chief executives who know they need to take on the challenge of digital transformation – in addition to being clear about the ‘what’ you do, it’s highly important to be clear and decisive with regard to ‘how’ you do it. Specifically, how you take on the challenges of People, Politics and Platforms. As for me, it is high time I learnt how to use my own TV. Bonne chance! I 1. Capgemini/MIT’s initial Digital Transformation research: www.capgemini-consulting. com/digital-transformation-a-road-map-for-billion-dollar-organizations 2. Capgemini/MIT’s research into the Digital Advantage: http://ebooks.capgeminiconsulting.com/The-Digital-Advantage/index.html 3. Capgemini/MIT’s research into the lessons from implementing digital transformation – Embracing Digital Transformation: www.capgemini-consulting.com/embracingdigital-technology-a-new-strategic-imperative

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How technology and innovation disrupt businesses Dr Jerome Couturier, Professor of Strategy and Management at ESCP Europe Business School looks at two sectors disrupted by new technologies and outlines the key characteristics of companies that will successfully navigate the fast-changing business world

xecutives whom I’ve meet in the past 18 months make it more and more explicit that they see their business facing a significant opportunity or a major threat: the one of being disrupted by a new and unexpected technology player. This latter could even change the rules of the game and make competitors irrelevant! Well, this scenario is already happening in several industries... Think of Netflix that came in the way of traditional VOD (video on demand) service providers: the once successful Blockbuster closed last week their remaining 300 stores in the US. And what about elance that disintermediates a heap of middlemen businesses such as temp agencies, providing companies straight access to thousands of freelancers – web developers, designers, writers, translators, marketing pros from around the world). And LinkedIn that changes the standards in the recruitment industry? And Skype or Google’s Hangout in telecoms, etc... These

disruptors have at least one thing in common: they have all successfully built a recent competitive advantage that relies on advanced technology and introduced disruptive innovation in well-established industries (by the way Richard Greenhill and Hugo Elias of the Shadow Robot Company

most originate from the Silicon Valley which has become the capital region of the world when it comes to business disruption!). As a result, an increasing number of executives have come to realise that spending significant time and effort to build a long-term strategic plan is less and less relevant in a world that can fast be disrupted by technological innovation. Let’s look at two specific examples.

Higher education Traditional classrooms filled with cohorts of students coming to hear a monologue from a self-prominent professor, taking note his messages are already part of history... Students today, born in a fast-evolving technological era, will most likely have already been exposed to the topic of the day, probably connecting to an e-platform, watching videos from other professors in the Americas, Europe, or Asia, or simply having skimmed through the topic on the Khan Academy. This is all good news as they come to class more knowledgeable and ready to engage into a richer and more constructive discussion. After class, they might follow up through e-learning tutoring or online groupwork, using a collaborative platform. Such an improved learning pathway is the result of technological innovation and comes to disrupt the job of the professors as well as the model of business schools for instance. One core challenge is no longer to expand the number of classrooms or building facilities, but rather to manage thousands of students taking courses online or organising online tutorials. Stanford University now registers hundreds of online participants into the same class, giving them the possibility to earn a graduate or professional certificate or a master of science, at a pace of their choice, without moving to California. Healthcare You don’t have to be a specialist doctor or an expert

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The ubiquity and pervasiveness of smartphones and tablets could not spare the classroom. Forget paper: until a couple of years ago it was a common sight to see students taking notes on laptops, but now the trend is to do on the iPad or on the smartphone. It is also not uncommon that such devices are connected to the Internet, in which case the temptation of checking emails or ‘liking’ on Facebook may prove too strong to resist. In some cases this is an element of distraction, but in others it is gradually becoming a way to enrich the teaching and learning experience. Our students use Twitter as a way to keep notes and have discussion with classmates over some particularly interesting point, all while following their teacher. They also check data and references provided by their lecturers, and occasionally correct them: the Web 2.0 has educated them to interact and be proactive users, contributing to Wikipedia, for instance, commenting, annotating and rating, an habit that is now overflowing from the screen and feeding into teaching. The lecture is therefore developed on two

economist to realise that healthcare systems are under pressure these days: constrained budgets, more patients (living longer with chronic diseases), higher expectations from all of us to be treated well and faster, ever increasing investments to find out new drugs, personalised medicine, etc. Well, the picture might actually not be as dark as it seems and we might be able to avoid the perfect storm thanks to technological innovation. This is called e-health (or even m-health for mobile health) and comes with a heap of disruptive players. Let’s take diabetes, one of the first causes of early death in most countries: diabetics can now better control their activity levels, or calories and be directed by an app ‘coach’, insulin pumps can self-adjust their flow based on real-time glycaemia, individuals with chronic conditions can be examined and managed remotely at home. In another field, dermatology, the tele-treatment with computer tablets and apps of some acute skin conditions requiring regular follow-up can alleviate significant time commitments by patients in addition to reducing a financial burden on the healthcare system.

Making disruption good for business What are then the strategies for success? Which

Teaching in the age of Twitter

different levels: the verbal one enacted by the lecturer, and the virtual one, the backchannel conducted mainly by students, but also participated in by their teachers when they feel brave enough. A third level is also readily available: tweets go out and come in, virtually opening the classroom to the world out there. A glimpse of things to come? I Dr Elena Pierazzo, Lecturer in Digital Humanities, King’s College London

companies will embrace technological innovation and really disrupt their industry to their advantage? As Davide Sola and I researched in our book, How to Think Strategically: Your Roadmap to Innovation and Results (Financial Times Series, Pearson), an organisation strategy should always focus on overcoming the core challenges looming ahead, in an increasingly uncertain environment. Uncertainty is not linear with time but exponential: the horizon of certainty keeps shrinking. And there is no magic recipe for success. Yet a few key ingredients can be observed across companies that successfully navigate the waters of fast-changing environments. We are talking here about lean start-up mindset, fast experimentation, no fear to make mistakes, a culture of learning and feedback, taking controlled risk, challenging the existing, killing dogmas, testing out new tools and processes, nimble and un-siloed organisations, simplified decisionmaking processes, free internal markets for ideas and people. Organisations that embrace these principles and put them at the core of their culture can make technological innovation a normal practice that is deeply rooted in their DNA, and not just endure it! It is less about finding the right strategy, but more about developing the right organisational culture... I info - november / december - 43

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Intellectual Property and how it interfaces with digital media Mark Brown, Partner, and Nick Cross, Trainee Solicitor at Bristows LLP, one of the leading UK (and European) law firms in IP and the technology/innovation sectors, provide a quick guide to the all-important issue of intellectual property in the digital realm

t has long been recognised that the intangible assets of a business such as its branding and goodwill can have considerable value. The rise of digital media presents both new opportunities and risks for businesses when considering their intellectual property (IP). On the one hand, the Internet and digital media allow a business’s material to reach a wider audience more easily and swiftly than ever before. However they may equally facilitate the unauthorised use and copying of a business’ valuable IP.

Copyright Within a digital environment, copyright is the most frequently encountered type of IP right. Copyright protects print and digital content including text, still and moving images, websites, music, software and databases. Copyright arises automatically when a work is ‘fixed’ on a medium and does not involve a registration process. Various aspects of a website will be protected by copyright. Firstly, there will be copyright in each and any of the text, drawings, images and layout which make up the website as accessed by a consumer. There will also be copyright in the software which powers and operates the website.

Copyright protecting a work will generally be owned by the person who creates it. Works produced by contractors, for example website designers, are therefore likely to be owned by those contractors unless dealt with specifically in a contract. As a result it is important to ensure that a contract of engagement allows for the copyright in any work produced to be transferred to your business. Most small-business owners now use websites and social media to promote their firms. Firms therefore need to understand their obligations under copyright law. Where a business wants to reproduce material from another online source it should first check whether it has permission. Reproducing words or images without permission can result in a fine of up to £50,000 or prosecution.

Trade marks Trade marks are typically a symbol, image or word that serve as a badge of origin for goods or services provided by a particular producer. The owner of a registered trade mark has the right to take legal action to prevent third parties from using its mark (or something deceptively similar) in the course of trade. The Internet has greatly expanded the

Watch out for the bugbear of Data Protection Growth in the use of the internet, electronic communications and e-commerce has led to a large increase in the volume of personal data being processed by businesses. Businesses now realise that consumers can be served most efficiently by obtaining their information online and exploiting it, while consumers are increasingly confident when using the web. Communication between businesses and customers inevitably contains personal data about individuals; for example, email addresses, banking details as well as personal details such as a person’s age and location. Where businesses process personal information on staff, customers and account holders they need to be aware of the requirements of data protection laws. In the UK these are found in the Data Protection Act 1998 (‘DPA’), which places a number of legal responsibilities on businesses. Failure to comply with the act incurs heavy penalties - it could mean a fine of up to £5,000, although in serious breaches of the Act, the Information Commissioner’s Office can impose a fine (with no recourse to the courts) of £500,000. Further information about data protection and the legal requirements in the UK can be found on the ICO website at http://www.ico.org.uk. I Mark Brown and Nick Cross

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possibilities for trademark infringement. Instances of cybersquatting, the practice of registering or using a domain in bad faith to profit from the goodwill of another business’ trade mark, have increased markedly. Companies have also been able to exploit developments in Internet advertising to take advantage of others’ marks. For example, Marks & Spencer purchased a sponsored link at the top of the Google search result page for rival flower delivery service Interflora. The positive news for IP owners in this regard is that legal remedies to halt these kinds of trade mark infringement have also developed. Most of the main domain registrars now provide a dispute resolution service to deal with disputes over the use of domain names and in the particular circumstances of the case briefly mentioned above, Marks and Spencer were found to have infringed Interflora’s trade mark. I

BYOD

nterprise mobility presents significant opportunity for businesses but with that comes a much greater threat to security, as mobile users send sensitive data over multiple, unsecured wireless networks using their own devices. Furthermore mobile devices are far more prone to theft or being lost than laptops. The only real way to protect and control an enterprise in terms of mobile security is by formally embracing a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy program says Josean Mendez, Chief Mobility Architect, at Capgemini. Here he provides his top five considerations to help business leaders to protect their organisations and employees. I

1. Focus on data protection. Ask yourself what is it that you

Creative Commons: licensing and using content for free Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organisation which provides free, clear and simple-to-use copyright licences that grant permission to share and use your creative works for free. CC licences are built from 4 elements which can be tailored to your needs. The creative commons website itself provides a licence builder that can help you choose an appropriate licence and help you integrate this into your work.

Creative Commons and business models Sharing your content under CC licenses might be one way to increase access to your business and promote your brand. While material under the CC licence will be able to be used for free, commercial licensing arrangements can be used in parallel for paid purposes not covered by the licence. Creative Commons resources If you require photographs or videos for use on a website, the cost of hiring a professional photographer or licensing media from a stock image database can be prohibitive. However, increasingly content is available to use under the CC licences: Flickr contains over 200 million CC-licensed images while YouTube has begun allowing users to apply a CC licence to uploads. Sites such as these can therefore be useful resources for discovering content that is available for free and legal use as long as the terms of the licence are complied with. I Mark Brown and Nick Cross

need to protect? In my experience it is the data on the devices. Enterprises must not be focusing on securing devices that do not belong to them. They need to be looking at the data itself.

2. Consider how your users access the data. Data reaches devices via mobile apps. A company therefore needs to explore ways of managing the apps that matter. To do this, some companies are deploying ‘Enterprise App Stores’ allowing employees to consume approved enterprise apps. Companies are also employing application management systems to enforce control on the usage of the apps.

3. A mobile device should not be treated like a laptop. Trying

to apply outdated security methods to new types of devices such as mobile phones or tablets is an easy mistake to make, however personal property used to access the Internet brings with it a whole new set of complex data protection issues.

4. Think mobile. Companies are currently turning a blind eye to the BYOD trend because they don’t fully understand it or know how to effectively control it. The key is to think ‘omni-channel’ and treat mobile as one more way to access company data. It’s an opportunity to enhance your security measures.

5. Embrace mobile and understand your user needs. BYOD

has opened the door to employees connecting to storage resources such as iCloud or DropBox, which are not controlled by the business. Companies need to look at how to provide the tools people need. Otherwise people will obtain what they need on their own, resulting in using tools not approved by the company.

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Support for creativity and innovation Kathryn Robertson, Senior policy/technical advisor, Venture Capital Schemes at HM Revenue & Customs outlines the range of support and financing initiatives available for new technology and creative companies from the UK Government

M Revenue and Customs provide a range of initiatives which new technology and creative companies of all sizes can use to secure the support and finance they need to grow their business in the UK. These supports range from tax reliefs to encourage investment in new start-up businesses to tax credits specifically targeted at Research & Development (R&D) activity. Some of the key initiatives available to business of all sizes include:

Patent Box: Introduced in 2013, this encourages companies to come up with new ideas and to then commercialise those innovations in the UK, bringing the high-value jobs associated with developing, manufacturing and exploiting patents to these shores. It does this by providing a reduced rate of Corporation Tax – just 10% – on profits made by exploiting patents, with a phased introduction which means the full benefits of the scheme will be available in 2017. To qualify, companies must own or exclusively license-in qualifying patents granted by the UK Intellectual Property Office, the European Patent Office or the national patent offices of certain other European Economic Area countries. Further details on Patent Box, including more detail on the qualifying criteria, can be found at www.hmrc.gov. uk/ct/forms-rates/claims/patent-box.htm. R&D reliefs: Originally introduced with the aim of encouraging SMEs to invest more in research and development activity, these reliefs are now available for large companies. Improvements have also been made in terms of what companies can claim, what spending

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qualifies for relief and how much relief is given. The SME relief provides an enhanced deduction of 225% of qualifying expenditure, and losses attributable to that deduction can be surrendered for a payable credit of 11%. All other companies can benefit from an enhanced deduction of 130% of qualifying expenditure. These schemes now cost the UK government over £1 billion – a cost which is expected to increase in future years. More information on R&D reliefs can be found at www.hmrc. gov.uk/ct/forms-rates/claims/randd.htm. Several other mechanisms exist which are specifically targeted at SMEs. These include: Enterprise Investment Scheme: Designed to help SMEs raise finance, this offers a range of tax reliefs to investors who buy new shares in companies, with investors able to invest up to £1 million annually in qualifying shares. Since 1993/94, companies have raised around £8.6 billion through this scheme, and around 1,000 companies raised funds through it for the first time in 2010/11. Get more information on the scheme at www.hmrc.gov.uk/eis/index.htm.

Venture Capital Trust Scheme: This initiative offers a range of tax reliefs to investors who put money into Venture Capital Trusts which, in turn, invest in or lend to SMEs. VCTs have been used to raise around £4.6 billion since the scheme was launched in 1995/96 and, in 2011/12, there were 124 VCTs managing funds. Find more information on VCTs at www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/vct.htm. Both the above mechanisms have been expanded in the past couple of years. Their scope has been extended from companies with up to 49 employees to those with up to 249, and from those with gross assets of £7 million up to a maximum of £15 million. The changes also increased the amount of investment a company can receive each year, from £2 million to £5 million. 2012 also saw the introduction of the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS). This is designed to help smaller new companies raise finance by offering a range of tax reliefs to investors. Investors can put up to £100,000 a year into a company with up to 24 employees and £250,000 gross assets. Firms can receive a maximum of £150,000 in total via the SEIS. Get more detail on this scheme at www.hmrc.gov.uk/seedeis/index.htm. I

focus Part two: Key areas of creativity and innovation

Capitalising on the mobile revolution Creative collaboration is key to capitalising on m-commerce, says Will Jones, President, EMEA at Monitise, a global mobile money specialist that built the world’s first mobile banking, payments and commerce ecosystem, and processes 3 billion transactions worth $50 billion annually

uch has been said about the mobile revolution. That device that never strays far from our side has infiltrated almost every aspect of our lives. In tandem with the soaring use of smartphones, mobile technology itself has progressed at lightning speed, giving more power to consumers to access information, connect, discover, research and buy with the swipe of a finger. And this technology is becoming increasingly available – analyst house Gartner published research showing smartphones are consistently outselling feature phones – out of 435 million mobile phones sold between April and June 2013, smartphones accounted for 225 million.

Building on mobile banking foundations Mobile Money – and by that I mean banking, paying or buying from a mobile device – is a particularly exciting part of the mobile revolution. From a consumer’s point of view, mobile offers easy up-to-the-minute access to your finances, wherever you are. From a business perspective, mobile offers banks, retailers, mobile operators and other players a consistently high level of engagement and repeat usage from a captive audience that other channels, such as the high street or web, just can’t match. Thanks to this, many businesses want a slice of the action and the market has boomed with new innovations and services. First-generation mobile banking has seen banks bring traditional banking services to the mobile. On the whole they’ve done it well – the world is getting used to balance checking and simple transactions on the move. A common denominator of successful banking apps are those which are designed to live on mobile – not just extensions of internet banking on a smaller screen. But the pecking order has changed – consumers now dictate the services they require and are getting tired of irrelevant ones. A ‘one size fits all’ approach won’t cut it for long. The next challenge is to consider how the unique characteristics of mobile can be harnessed to improve the banking experience, while seizing the opportunity mobile provides to develop stronger customer relationships through more connected banking and payment services, as well as clever contextual offers.

The m-commerce opportunity Banks have an opportunity to be at the centre of a mobileled lifestyle encompassing loyalty scheme redemption, peer-to-peer payments to social connections, the sending and receiving of gift cards between individual accounts and the sharing of relevant ‘click to buy’ offers. In fact, as the guardians of people’s money, banks are extremely well placed for this. We conducted a study with the Future Foundation into what consumers really want from banks in relation to mcommerce. It highlighted that banks have a central role to play. It revealed that the majority of European smartphone users would feel more confident buying goods and services by mobile if they could use apps provided by their banks. It showed that 50% of smartphone users are already buying goods via mobile and that ease-of-use, direct banking insights and the state of personal finance and budgets were leading factors most likely to prompt European consumers to buy products and services via a banking app. Collaboration is power Of course, there’s no silver bullet. Competition in this industry is tough and evolving rapidly. That’s why players are stronger together: the key is for businesses – banks, retailers or mobile network operators – to work collaboratively to create compelling new experiences. By creating a tighter lifecycle for Mobile Money there are benefits for all involved: consumers get a more convenient way to shop, transfer funds and pay bills; businesses open up new revenue streams and start playing a more engaging role in their customers’ lives. I info - november / december - 47

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Reshaping B2B operations with mobile innovation While all the focus has been on B2C, the next wave of mobile innovation is in B2B, and it will transform businesses from the inside out. Jean-Baptiste Décarre from business performance management consultants Methys, points to the evidence

during board meetings (mobile business intelligence). Notably most FTSE100 companies’ mobile applications concern investors (press releases and key information – BAE Systems, TUI Travel or British Petroleum). In a nutshell: mobile projects can be set up to reshape operations in many different ways. Some judge mobile innovation to be ‘incompatible’ with companies offering B2B services, but there are examples to prove otherwise: Softline Pastel, part of the leading business software company Sage, approached Methys to create an accounting mobile application that would allow their clients to view customers’ balances, and even generate quotations and invoices. As early birds, they now outperform their competitors thanks to ‘Pastel My Business’ (available on Android devices). For B2B-focused companies such innovations are not only a convenient way to use their solutions, but also offer better support for their services and improve the way they interact with their clients. It is, in many cases, simply a matter of analysing their needs, the market in which they are operating, and their competitors. The management of the transformation remains a key component of a B2B mobile project in which the employees and the stakeholders need to be directly involved. Moreover it is crucial to ensure that transactions are highly secure and to get expert advice in the implementation process. For example, Methys worked with a VISA-owned company over many months to build in the high level of security needed to operate secure financial transactions using a mobile application. Neglecting these points could jeopardise a whole organisation. It will soon be a necessity for businesses to take this step forward in the use of mobile innovation. Why wouldn’t you start now? I © flickr/priceminister

n recent years, both large companies and SMEs have used mobile innovation as a new way of approaching clients, setting up loyalty programmes and delivering services conveniently. However, they have tended to focus their efforts on the customer side, forgetting that mobile innovation could also help them evolve internally. Very few decide to go further and redefine their operations through disruptive mobile innovations. But Deloitte anticipates that ‘the next wave of mobile may fundamentally reshape operations, businesses and marketplaces’ (Elements of Postdigital, 2013). This points to a refocusing on B2B mobile innovation. The mobile revolution deeply affects internal operations and interactions. Businesses have been able to optimise the value of their transactions by integrating the components of various departments in a mobile application, allowing them to operate in a more convenient and efficient way. Mobile technologies make marketing departments increase their interactivity and presence for brand positioning or even bring information and reports in real-time to decision makers

Mobile computing

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Making new technologies work for your business Melanie Bonnet, Communication Manager at Powervote looks at how businesses can harness new technologies to deliver all-round benefits

he rise of mobile devices has been meteoric; according to a survey by Sophos Labs, the average person in the UK carries 2.7 devices.1 Technology has leapt off our desktops and hopped into our pockets. People have access to information, tools and social interaction everywhere they go and the average person checks their phone five times per hour.2 Technology is fun and innovative for individuals, and it could be for business too! Organisations are not yet using technologies to their full potential, for example only 39.7% of people use social media to communicate before, during and after events in the business industry.3 People’s smartphones and tablets can be turned into powerful tools to enhance productivity and boost performance. By stimulating people’s participation through their tablets and smartphones, you can catch their attention, make meetings more interesting and actually benefit by gathering valuable data in real time. Thanks to interactions between participants’ devices you can estimate the engagement rate of your attendees in real time and so measure the efficiency of your meetings. In June 2013, LeWeb, Europe’s largest tech conference for web start-ups and entrepreneurs with 5,000 participants from 46 countries, used interactive and engaging technologies. The audience could participate in the conference’s Startup Competition and got access to a voting platform on their own devices. They could then join the judging panel in evaluating the shortlist of start-ups and voting for their favourite. With little investment and no additional infrastructure, LeWeb were able to engage their audience and create a memorable experience for everyone involved. As Morgan Denis of LeWeb reported: ‘Technology allowed us to engage with the audience in real-time during the London Startup Competition and our jury gathered very constructive feedback.’ Examples such as this provide positive templates for the future of business. Instead of isolating us as individuals, technology can provide new ways for people to come together and improve the effectiveness of meetings and events. Organisations need to find ways of utilising its

power or risk being overtaken by competitors who use technology to its full potential. I 1. www.sophos.com/en-us/press-office/press-releases/2013/03/mobile-security-survey.aspx 2. Daily Mail; 3. The British Meetings & Events Industry Survey 2013

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Are we just playing around? Alex Jenkins, Creative Director at B-Reel, an award-winning integrated production company located in London’s Tech City, solves digital problems through creativity and innovation

ow many games have you played lately? None? Chances are you have, you just didn’t realise it. Game-play techniques are increasingly being employed by business and commerce as a pathway to engaging audiences, improving learning and retention of ideas, even problem solving for the greater good. Expect to see more of it, but what about the quality of those experiences? I often find executions sorely lacking, using only compulsive and repetitive actions to achieve some arbitrary goal. They strip out the soul of what makes playing games so much fun. I believe in the value of genuine user engagement, how to capture hearts and

56 Sage Street: Barclays’ engaging way of teaching teenagers to save and invest

Web Lab: virtual and physical worlds interacting 50 - info - november / december

minds, whether that’s through a game, interactive film or mobile app.

Better experiences If easy rewards are the only incentive, how loyal can you expect your audience to be when the next gamified experience arrives flaunting its wares? Playing can be a reward in itself. Don’t walk blindly into creating a gamified experience, they’re often quite involving. Be prepared to invest in the experiences you create. Deliver fresh, engaging content, not just costume changes. A good story can really help hook audiences and turn them into ambassadors for your brand. Knowing when to call time could actually be the wiser tactic. Surely it’s better to leave the audience wanting more than becoming a victim of apathy? Above all, identify real motivations for both brand and end user and fully engage with that. It could be the difference between something passable or something amazing, even better, memorable. ‘56 Sage Street’, an online game we created with Barclays Bank, taught teenagers the value of saving and investing. Yes, a banking game! In actuality we built an immersive role-playing game. With only £4 in your pocket and a head full of dreams, your goal was to make it big by playing smart, seeing opportunities and all the while learning valuable financial lessons as the story unfolded. ‘Web Lab’ a virtual and physical exhibit created with Google and the Science Museum, explained the invisible workings of the web. By playing with experimental installations, visitors could discover through their actions, whether at home or in the museum, alone or together, how the web works. ‘What I Love’ is an experience with a big call to action, created for The Climate Reality Project, an initiative founded by Al Gore. The project compels people to act on climate change by demonstrating that it’s far closer than they imagine and affecting the very things they hold dear. Visitors select eight items they cannot live without from a canvas displaying beautiful and evocative videos of many things people love and take for granted, for instance, oceans. Scientific data is then applied to their choices

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to reveal just how much they are being threatened by carbon pollution. Finally, visitors are asked to ‘protect it’ by adding their voice to the movement. Great user engagement isn’t easy to quantify with simple metrics, but the value of emotionally touching someone shouldn’t be underestimated. Chances are it will be cherished far longer than any kind of instant gratification. Or to put it another way, imagine making a broth, you mix in all the ingredients, reduce it down to its quintessence then serve it up to your guests as a stock cube. You just wouldn’t, would you? No, you would use

that wonderful base to prepare a feast that enchants the eyes, flirts with the nostrils and courts the taste buds with every bite. Employing gaming tactics without rounded consideration for story or motivation is like sucking on the stock cube – you get a dose alright, but sooner or later you’re left with a bad taste in your mouth. I Links to project examples: 56 Sage Street: www.b-reel.com/projects/digital/case/64/56-sage-street Web Lab: www.b-reel.com/projects/digital/case/8/web-lab What I Love: www.whatilove.org

Connected cars – redefining the driving experience A new generation of ‘connected cars’ is emerging, driven by unprecedented consumer demand for connectivity with mobile and home-based devices, for better safety and for improved environmental performance. Smarter, more connected vehicles will clearly offer drivers and passengers an improved driving experience, but what technological advances are enabling this transition? Perhaps the biggest technological trend in the automotive space is that the major manufacturers are focusing heavily on software-driven innovation. It may surprise you to learn that over 85% of a modern vehicle’s functions are already under software control, and as much as 25% of vehicle cost is currently spent on embedded system components (hardware, software, and services). This number is increasing rapidly, as 80% of product innovation includes intelligent systems. The automotive industry is also investing heavily in remote data acquisition, processing and monitoring, and in the use of technologies such as mobile wireless to link vehicles to the outside world. Vehicle-to-X (V2X) systems will be the basis for many advanced safety applications such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and improved driver and passenger experience via in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems. The steady, widespread adoption of ADAS, controlled by complex real-time embedded systems, is providing drivers with safety functions such as adaptive cruise control, blind-spot detection, emergency brake assist, and night vision. IVI systems are redefining the driving experience and simultaneously providing a new opportunity for car manufacturers to achieve differentiation. A number of automotive manufacturers, as part of the GENIVI alliance, have deployed IVI systems in mid- to high-grade models to capitalise on this rising

Fabrice Boyer, Altran UK

Dashboard of Altran’s connected car demonstrator

trend. IVI systems can include functions such as GPS/navigation, mobile phone integration, climate control, social networking and DVD playback. Altran has recently developed its own ‘Open and Connected Car’ technology platform, which allows manufacturers to develop, test and demonstrate their back-end solutions, including all aspects of data harvesting, processing and cloud storage. This stateof-the-art vehicle offers a glimpse into the future, in which the driver and passengers will be able to connect seamlessly to their mobile devices as well as their home-based computers, via a number of interfaces, streaming several types of content simultaneously, from movies and music to web radio. The demonstrator also features a Green Driving application, which allows users to access information about the environmental performance of the vehicle via a digital dashboard. The advent of connected cars is a great example of how cutting-edge technological innovation has the potential to enhance and improve an everyday activity for millions of consumers around the world. I

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focus

This revolution may not be televised but it will be digitised: Artificial Intelligence and the service sector Artificial intelligence is set to revolutionise the service sector, now that new technology can automate communication, as John Rauscher, CEO of Yseop, reports

he story of industrialisation can be told through unprecedented gains in productivity. However, over the last 50 years these gains have not been uniform across sectors. In the 1990s, the manufacturing sector was an early adopter of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, using, for example, AI to teach assembly line robots to diagnose and fix themselves through complex sets of reasoning. The results of AI on the manufacturing sector are stunning: since 1996, productivity has risen by 40%. But growth in the service sector has almost stagnated. This is significant, because the service sector represents 78% of GDP* in the UK so even a modest rise in service sector productivity would pay major dividends for the economy. However, is it possible to bring automation to a sector which lacks uniformity and is based largely on communication and language? In an age where customers demand increasing levels of sophisticated and personalised communication in their interactions with businesses, business leaders are faced with a dual challenge – how to simultaneously increase productivity and communicate with their customers on an individual level? The AI Revolution offers the answer. New technology on the market will significantly increase productivity in the service sector, while allowing businesses to communicate with their customers on a one-to-one level. Analyst house Gartner has identified this next generation of AI technology, which it calls ‘smart machines’ as one of the top technology trends of 2014 and the next decade. Smart machines, like that developed by Yseop, are at the forefront of this new market and can automate both communication and the service sector’s paper work, reporting and analyses. Yseop, for example, combs through data to write detailed pre- and postmeeting reports and real time financial analyses. Yseop writes at the speed of thousands of pages per second 52 - info - november / december

and asks questions to gather contextual information. Now the banker can use Yseop to write his reports, allowing him to meet with more clients and give them individualised attention, since each report will respond to each customer’s unique situation. Yseop makes sense of CRM data and automatically upsells and delivers individualised and compliant product recommendations to clients, removing the risk of selling complex products to the wrong customers. Machines will never replace human ingenuity or creativity but they can free up time, boosting productivity and making room for that creativity and ingenuity. Industrialisation occurred in reaction to an everincreasing demand for goods and its effect has been wildly successful, raising the quality of products, standards of living and sending productivity skyrocketing. In the last decades, customers have sought an ever increasing level of personalisation while economic pressure has pushed organisations to rationalise and increase productivity in search of profitability. The AI revolution addresses these two seemingly antagonistic objectives. Tools like Yseop partner with staff to increase productivity, leverage big data assets and deliver unprecedented levels of personalisation to customers. I *Economy Watch. http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/united-kingdom/

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The (r)evolution of digital publishing The publishing industry has been slow to go digital but the buds of innovative are opening up exciting possibilities, explains Dr Elena Pierazzo, Lecturer in Digital Humanities at King’s College London

Books are finally here. After a wait of more than a decade, the digital publishing market is taking off at a very fast rate, making up for the years of waiting. Expectations are now that what happened to the music market will happen to publishing as well, affecting consumption and distribution in a deep way. As for music, the reasons for this belated success are to be found in the development of attractive glamorous devices such as tablet computers, and the provision of online shops well supplied with the latest titles. Publishers have started to believe in digital, disseminating printed and digital version of their latest titles simultaneously. Yet, one has to wonder if this is really the revolution that everybody was waiting for, or if is only an evolution of the same old book, from print to screen. In fact eBooks do look remarkably like their printed counterparts, making very little use of the potential of the new medium. Tablets and eReading apps mimic the reading environment of books, and turning virtual pages on touchscreens is the most common way of interaction with these devices. But is it this everything we are meant to expect from digital publishing? Innovative forms of digital publications are in fact gaining much visibility, thanks especially to the publications of TouchPress, a London based company specialised in the production of multimedia apps. Their mission is to ‘create new kinds of books that re-invent

Screenshot from The Waste Land, by Touch Press and Faber & Faber (2nd ed. 2013)

the reading experience’. Certainly their highly creative apps, the experience of which can be shared on social networks, are doing exactly that. For instance, one can ‘read’ The Elements, an interactive and engaging version of the periodic table of the elements; or Shakespeare’s Sonnets, performed by a stellar cast including Sir Patrick Stewart, Kim Cattrall, Stephen Fry and David Tennant; or The Waste Land of TS Elliot, including original recordings of Elliot himself as well as the original manuscripts; or again the interactive and hugely entertaining Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Partnering with leading companies such as Disney, Deutsche Grammophon and Philarmonia Orchestra, the small company is growing at a steady rate, demonstrating that creative ideas can take you a long way. These initiatives could open new exciting possibilities. An area that is underdeveloped in digital publishing is represented by textbooks: while the provision of digital versions of printed titles is becoming the norm, much more could be done in the design of interactive teaching and learning products for all levels of learners. For instance, one can imagine that borrowing ideas and principles from computer games and embedding them into learning material could open the way to a completely different conception of teaching and learning. On the academic publishing front, meanwhile, the most relevant element of novelty is given by the requirement of academics to publish their research outcomes in Open Access, a fact that is requiring publishers of scholarly journals in particular to revise their production and business models. Publishing is indeed an industry in deep and radical transformation. We have certainly not seen it all yet. I info - november / december - 53

focus

The consumption of culture in the digital age New technologies have democratised culture and empowered the public who consume it, observes Dr Elena Pierazzo, Lecturer in Digital Humanities at King’s College London

n 1964 Marshall McLuhan declared that ‘the medium is the message’. Fifty years later his declaration is still just as valid, if not more so. Furthermore, the change of media in the production and consumption of cultural artefacts is certainly changing the people, as well as the contents. Museums certainly look very much transformed; visitors’ experiences are now built through layers of interconnected medias, where the real and the virtual interpenetrate. Multimediality is at the base of the online and real-life exhibition hosted in 2012 by the National Library of Ireland on the life and work of WB Yeats. The exhibition at the library was enriched with multimedia content which allowed the visitor to virtually handle objects such as manuscripts and letters – objects which normally are beyond reach behind a glass. The same possibility was (and still is) offered to visitors of the website (www.nli.ie/yeats): here the web surfers are invited to explore the spaces of the exhibition, ‘walking’ into the rooms, and exploring the specimens in the same way that the people at the library were able to do. The virtual museum is not only a substitute for the visit in person, it is also a preparation prior to the visit, and a complement to it: a way to enhance and think again about the object and the experience just had. Even more interactive is the experience offered by QRator, a project developed by University College London in partnership with The Grant Museum and The Museum Of Brands (www.qrator.org/). The project offers visitors a unique opportunity to contribute to interpreting the objects on display. With the help of iPads, they are invited to share their experience and their understanding with the other visitors and with the world, as their contributions are distributed via Twitter. ‘Virtual’ visitors can do the same

Virtual visits of museums made possible by new technologies 54 - info - november / december

by entering the museums from the web and interacting with the ‘real’ visitors in real time. Educated by social networks, blogs, and Wikipedia, people are not satisfied any more with being consumers: they want to be active protagonists of the cultural discourse. The great success of crowdsourcing initiatives can be considered part of this trend. The Zooniverse website (www. zooniverse.org), for instance, is the meeting place of citizen scientists, who contribute to the study of weather, galaxies, animal behaviour and cancer cells, by transcribing manuscripts, annotating images and classifying specimens. This involvement has also meant the empowerment of the public, as newspapers and news network have learned. Even watching television has become a social experience under the scrutiny of the public, with TV shows and series being commented on in real time and with show producers forced to interact with the public to explain and justify their controversial choices. This was the case of the death of a main character in the Christmas episode of the award-winning TV series Downton Abbey: a deluge of tweets and comments for days after forced writer Julian Fellowes to apologise for it. In the Web 2.0-shaped world, Public Engagement has become a necessity and a resource for cultural industries, transforming cultural production into a two-way communication stream. I

Compiled by Paul-Gilbert Colletaz

Laure Prouvost. Wantee 2013 installation

Installation view of Wantee

||| Laure Prouvost has been named the winner of the 2013 Turner Prize for contemporary art. The 35-yearold artist, who was born in France and lives in London, was nominated for Wantee, a video offering a witty tribute to a fictional grandfather and his relationship with exiled German artist Kurt Schwitters. Displayed at Tate Britain’s Schwitters in Britain exhibition in 2013 – shown in an immersive installation of the grandfather’s dated house – the work was commissioned to explore the lasting legacy of the German artist. ‘Wantee’ was Schwitters’ nickname for his partner, who liked to offer him tea frequently. The jury, chaired by the Director of Tate Britain, Penelope Curtis, said that Prouvost’s work was ‘unexpectedly moving’ and praised its ‘complex and courageous combination of images and objects in a deeply atmospheric environment.’ The panel added: ‘Building on personal memory, it weaves together fact, fiction, art history and modern technology. Using film in a completely contemporary way, Prouvost takes viewers to an inner world, while making reference to the streaming of images in a postinternet age. Her unique approach to filmmaking, often situated within atmospheric installations, employs strong storytelling, quick cuts, montage and deliberate misuse of language to create surprising and unpredictable work.’ On receiving the award, Prouvost, a graduate of Central Saint Martins, said ‘Thank you for adopting me, for having a French one. I feel adopted by the UK.’ The award was presented in Derry-Londonderry, the UK City of Culture in Northern Ireland. I

French artist Laure Prouvost wins the 2013 Turner Prize

Laure Prouvost

Laure Prouvost. Wantee 2013

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w h at ’ s o n : a s e l e c t i o n o f e x h i b i t i o n s n at i o n a l p o r t r a i t g a l l e ry , l o n d o n

French Master Chefs in the 1930s

Eugene Herbodeau by Florence Enid Stoddard circa 1937 © National Portrait Gallery, London NPG D42430

Portraits by Florence Enid Stoddard (1882-1962) of five leading French chefs working in London in the 1930s give a glimpse of the celebrity chefs of their day, including Eugène Herbodeau at the Carlton, François Latry at the Savoy and Paul Henri Poupart at Buckingham Palace. Donated by the artist’s greatniece Christine Hayes, the French chefs’ mischievous eyes and jolly faces are a heart-warming reminder of what ‘Frenchness’ should stand for: joviality and conviviality. I Until 24 February. Open daily 10am-6pm and 10am-9pm Thursdays and Fridays. Admission free

scie nce m u s eu m , london Buried deep under the border between Switzerland and France is a 27-kilometre tunnel built for the largest scientific experiment ever conducted – CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. This quest to uncover the building blocks of our universe – the ‘God particle’ – resulted in the discovery of the Higgs bosun and the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for Peter Higgs and François Englert. Recreating a visit to the famous particle physics laboratory, this exhibition blends theatre, video and

Collider, video projection. Credit Nick Rochowski for Science Museum

Collider

sound art with real scientific artefacts to. You can witness the uncovering of the Higgs boson, explore the collider and its cathedral-sized detector caverns, and discover how studying the subatomic world can point the way to a fuller understanding of our universe. I Until 24 February. Open daily 10am-6pm and 10am-9pm Thursdays and Fridays. Admission free

n at i o n a l m a r i t i m e m u s e u m , l o n d o n

Turner & the Sea

Snow Storm – Steam-boat off a Harbour’s Mouth by J.M.W. Turner, 1842, oil on canvas © Tate

Turner is most famous for his ability to render light and skies on a canvas but this exhibition explores his depiction of the sea, bringing a better understanding of the man who had himself lashed to the mast of a ship to better paint a storm at sea. This major exhibition features 120 of his dramatic, violent and more peaceful landscapes, some of which are on loan from prestigious art institutions including National Gallery, Tate, Yale Center for British Art, British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Royal Collection, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon and National Gallery of Art, Washington. I Until 21 April. Open daily 10am-5pm and 10am-8pm Thursdays. Full price: £10

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a r t g a l l e ry , Subversive Design

It is perhaps by showing how designers, makers and manufacturers can play with materials, functions and forms in order to create objects that we best realise the importance of design. In this exhibition, objects are characterised by their capacity to shock or amuse people, bringing into evidence the relations that exist between human beings and the items surrounding them. From high fashion to high street consumerism, cheeky ceramics to controversial chairs, provocative lamps to ‘rubbish’ jewellery, this major exhibition subverts your preconceptions and challenges your relationship with objects you use on a daily basis. Works are by a wide range of wellknown designers and makers, including Alexander McQueen, David Shrigley, Studio Job, Philippe Starck, Richard Slee, Campana Brothers, Vivienne Westwood and Leigh Bowery. I Until 9 March. Tuesday to Sunday 10am-5pm. £6

b r i g hto n m u s e u m

If there is one artist who could only be British, it is Grayson Perry. The 2003 Turner Prize winner’s touch, combining contemporary messages, forms and colours onto classic items, is recognisable from the start in the six tapestries, measuring 2m x 4m each, that are on exhibit in The Vanity of Small Differences exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery. Inspired in part by William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress, the tapestries chart the ‘class journey’ and its cultural implications made by young Tim Rakewell, who grew up in poverty but quickly moved up the social ladder thanks to his Internet start-up before dying after crashing his Ferrari. As Grayson Perry would say: ‘There is no such thing as good

#Lamentation, 2012, Grayson Perry. Photography © Stephen White Gift of the artist and Victoria Miro Gallery with the support of Channel 4 Television, The Art Fund and Sfumato Foundation with additional support from AlixPartners.

m a n c h e s t e r a r t g a l l e ry , The Vanity of Small Differences

and bad taste.’ I Until 2 February. daily 10am5pm and 10am-9pm Thursdays. Admission free.

s c o t t i s h n at i o n a l g a l l e ry o f m o d e r n a r t , e d i n b u r g h Louise Bourgeois CELL XIV (PORTRAIT), 2000 Steel, glass, wood, metal and red fabric. 188 x 121.9 x 121.9 cm. ARTIST ROOMS Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by the Artist Rooms Foundation 2011 Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation All of Louise Bourgeois’s art and writings are © The Easton Foundation.

Louise Bourgeois, A Woman without Secrets Franco-American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) is renowned for her giant spiders called Maman, which earned her the monicker ‘Spiderwoman’. One of them is exhibited at the Tate Modern. Highlighting her late work, this exhibition shows how Bourgeois used different materials and scales to explore human emotions. It includes Poids (1993), Couple I (1996), Cell XIV (Portrait) (2000), Eyes (2001-2005), and two late masterpieces, the cycle of 16 monumental drawings A L’Infini (2008-2009) and the artist’s final vitrine, Untitled (2010). Complementing the exhibition and until 23 February, the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh will be presenting a major exhibition of Bourgeois’s works on paper. Louise Bourgeois: I Give Everything Away, features the artist’s Insomnia Drawings (1994-95), a remarkable suite of 220 drawings and writings on loan from the Daros Collection, alongside two suites of large-scale mixed-media drawings made during the last years of the artist’s life. I Until 18 May. Open daily 10am-5pm. Admission free info - january / february - 57

book reviews These books, recently translated into English, were selected by the French Institute

Rimbaud The Son

Plague and Cholera

by Pierre Michon Published by Yale University Press Translated by Jody Gladding and Elizabeth Deshays

by Patrick Deville Published by Little Brown Translated by JA Underwood

||| Pierre Michon’s groundbreaking work investigates the life and work of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud by means of a new literary genre: a meditation on the life of a legend as witnessed by his contemporaries who knew him before the legends took hold. Michon introduces us to Rimbaud the son, friend, schoolboy, renegade, drunk, sexual libertine, visionary and ultimately poet. He focuses no less on the creative act: what compels a person to write, to pursue excellence? The author dramatises the life of a genius whose sufferings are enormous while his ambitions are transcendent, whose life is lived with utter intensity and purpose but also disorder and dissolution – as if the very substance of life is its undoing. Rimbaud the Son is now masterfully translated into English, enabling a wide new audience to discover for themselves the author that the Publishers Weekly called ‘one of the best-kept secrets of modern French prose’. I

||| As Nazi troops storm Paris in May 1940, Dr Alexandre Yersin takes the last flight out. He is too old for the combat ahead, and besides he has already saved millions of lives. As the brilliant young protégé of Louis Pasteur, he focused his exceptional mind on a great medical conundrum: in 1894, on a Hong Kong hospital forecourt, he identified and vaccinated against bubonic plague, later named in his honour Yersinia pestis. Swiss by birth and trained in Germany and France, Yersin is the son of a European tradition of endeavour; but he has a romantic hunger for adventure, fuelled by tales of Livingstone and Conrad, and sets sail for Asia. A true traveller of the century, he wishes to comprehend the universe. Ceaselessly curious and courageous, Yersin stands, a lone genius, against a backdrop of world wars, pandemics, colonialism, progress and decadence. He is brought to vivid, thrilling life in Patrick Deville’s captivating novel, a bestseller and shortlisted for every major literary award in France. I

Tips for a Bordeaux wine tour from Wine Story

Château du Gaby

||| If you fancy spending a few days in the beautiful Bordeaux wine region, here are some insider tips: Firstly and importantly, you don’t want to lose your driver’s licence when sampling the wares of

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multiple vineyards, so consider using a chauffeur. Pierre Durand from Bordeaux Escapades (www. bordeaux-escapades.com) will happily drive you from chateaux to chateaux and will even make wine-tasting appointments for you if so wish. A visit to Château du Gaby in Canon-Fronsac is a must. This stunning historic chateau surrounded by rolling vineyards will set the style to which you will quickly become accustomed. You could also immerse yourself in the Bordeaux countryside by renting a gîte at Chateau Moya in Castillon close to Saint-Emilion. While your children, play in the vines outside the house, you can taste the fantastic organic wines of Chateau Moya with Damien Landouar, the winemaker. Check out www.gites-defrance-gironde.com. I

c h e ese a n d w i n e p r ess

Wine tourism: travel and taste! Wine tourism in France has a lot of potential, but it remains a relatively undeveloped market, as Thibault Lavergne, Director of Wine Story explains

n January, the French Minister for Agriculture together with Atout France presents the second National Award for Wine Tourism (Oenotourisme) to the vineyard excelling in the art of hospitality. Last year, 200 domaines took part in this competition promoting wine tourism in France. Since 2010, the French government has supported the development of wine and tourism through a joint committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Tourism, and even before that had created a special label ‘Vignobles & Découvertes’ to encourage vineyards in their efforts to welcome tourists. In recent years, the economic model of vineyards has had to evolve with the development of direct sales to final consumers known as ‘caves particulières’. France remains the world’s top tourism destination and a great wineproducing country but these two industries are not always well aligned with the result that tourists can find it difficult to visit famous vineyards. It contrasts with countries such as the USA, South Africa and Australia where wine tourism is so well organised that vineyards sometimes resemble amusement parks with their gastronomic restaurants, art galleries and wine museums. Even in the UK, Denbies, one of the largest English wineries in Surrey, combines tours, art exhibitions, corporate events and weddings,

giving visitors plenty of different opportunities to come to the estate and taste their wine. In Italy, France’s main competitor in both tourism and wine, there is a different concept known as ‘Agrotourismo’, a blend of country gîtes and wineries. A few years ago, I was invited to stay in the Agrotourismo of Domaine Lamborghini in the estate of La Fiorita in Umbria, purchased in the 1970s by Ferruccio Lamborghini. The daughter of the sports car company founder, who now runs the estate, allowed me to sit in her father’s Lamborghini, which is now on display at the vineyard. While not all wineries have famous owners or prestigious art collections such as Mouton Rothschild, there are other opportunities for vineyard owners to showcase their region or highlight the specific characteristics of their wines. Moreover, this is the best way to educate and create a special bond with customers. Of course, we all know vineyards in France. Some, such as the Champagne houses or small family producers, invest a lot of time and money in welcoming the public, but French producers, unions of producers and regions need to do more to get on the 21st century wine tourism boat. I E: thibault@winestory.co.uk T: +44 (0)7921 770 691 W: www.winestory.co.uk

The art of cheese platters by La Cave à Fromage ||| Since pagan times, people have gathered to share drinks – mainly alcoholic ones – presented in receptacles, which are clinked together as a way to celebrate friendship as well as chase spirits and ghosts away. Far too often we forget that food is also made to be shared, savoured and if possible enjoyed with others. A cheese platter is the perfect way to do this. When choosing cheeses to create a cheese platter, think of the people who will be eating them, and define a theme: seasons, regions, textures, harmony of aromas, contrasts of flavours. There are very few rules when it comes to taste. Start eating the cheese with the lightest depth of flavour, often the youngest cheese, moving to ripe soft cheese, then on to aged hard cheese, leaving space for washed rind cheese, and always ending with a blue-veined cheese. Cheers, à la vôtre! I by Eric Charriaux E: eric@cheese.biz T: +44 (0)845 108 8222 W: www.la-cave.co.uk

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Patron Members of the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain

LOGO Nยบ dossier : 20110049E Date : 31/05/11 Validation DA/DC : Validation Client

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100

LONDON BRANCH

News @ the Chamber repeat business is anything to go by, they are doing an excellent job. We’ve welcomed 23 new members in this period: Ekimetrics UK has joined as a Corporate member along with 22 new Active members. We are already looking forward to what the New Year will bring and hope to meet even more of our members – both new and longerterm – at some or all of the exciting happenings we have planned for 2014. January kicks off with a Rendezvous chez… Aubaine and culminates in ‘From Scratch to Success: Business Stories’, which promises to be both inspirational and instructive, while February brings another of the everpopular Say Cheese… and Wine evenings. By March we will be in full swing with a second Rendez-vous chez, this time at Leon de Bruxelles, a reprise of the highly valued Member to Member Cocktail and Exhibition, and a very exciting new event – ‘Women, Inspiration and Leadership’. Until we meet again, we at the Chamber wish you a happy and prosperous New Year. I KF

All photographs © José Farinha photography

uch has been crammed into the last two months of 2013, but what great opportunities it has given us to connect with a wide spectrum of Chamber members and beyond. The following pages highlight the events, forum and club sessions and visits that have taken place, from our sell-out Annual Gala Dinner to the high-level FrancoBritish Energy Conference, and from the intimate Luxury Club Breakfast at Harrods to a hard hat tour of the Lee Tunnel construction site. Our Business Consultancy has been actively bringing French and British businesses together with a number of trade missions, and also joined forces with our Accountancy & Business Support and Recruitment departments to conduct a seminar in Paris for entrepreneurs looking to open businesses in the UK. Our Recruitment Service has signed partnerships with another two business schools, opening the taps to more talent for their rich candidate database. They have filled positions at several member companies and if

Do you know your Chamber How well do you really know your Chamber, what it does and the services it offers? Many do not realise that we do a lot more than events and INFO, so this new regular spot will serve as a source of enlightenment...

130

new member companies in our 130th anniversary year

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new members 1 new corporate member

Ekimetrics UK Ltd | www.ekimetrics.com Consulting firm leader in Europe in analytics practices Represented by Quentin Michard, CEO

Ekimetrics is a consulting firm specialised in analytics practices. We accompany clients worldwide on mix marketing optimisation, pricing strategy,

product potential, consumer-oriented strategy, digital economy, big data & CRM projects. Our consultants in Paris, New York and London bring high-level business and marketing experience to provide recommendations to financial & sales executives. Our approach, tools and services are tailor-made with multi-sectorial references.

22 new Active members

Accola Financial services Represented by Thierry Sebton, CEO www.accola.co.uk

Alan Edwards & Co Solicitors Represented by Alan Edwards, Senior Partner www.aelaw.co.uk

Armonia Services Ltd Reception services and soft facilities management Represented by Vincent Doucet, Business Development Manager www.armonia-services.co.uk

Aubaine Restaurant Group French restaurants in London Represented by Leslie-Joyce Johns, PR & Marketing Manager www.aubaine.co.uk

Blanchon French manufacturer of fine wood finishes Represented by Mélanie Roquelle, HR Director www.blanchon.co.uk

Carter - Ruck

Handicap International UK International charity for disabled and vulnerable people Represented by Aleema Shivji, CEO www.handicap-international.org.uk

Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill Hotel Represented by Fernanda Bragagnolo, Sales Manager www.london.churchill.hyatt.com

Jimmy Choo Luxury lifestyle brand Represented by Claire Ratti, General Merchandise Manager European Retail & Global E-Commerce www.jimmychoo.com

John Taylor Luxury real estate Represented by Tracy Hughes, Senior Sales Negotiator www.john-taylor.com

La Coupole History centre and 3D planetarium in Saint-Omer Represented by Julien Duquenne, Director www.lacoupole-france.com

La Maison Médicale

Solicitors specialising in defamation and litigation Represented by Claire Gill, Partner www.carter-ruck.com

French-speaking medical specialists, paramedics, psychologists Represented by Dr Jean-Michel Barbaste, Manager www.lamaisonmedicale.co.uk

Commune Works

La Petite Poissonnerie / Nic Rascle ltd

Marketing services and communication agency Represented by Axelle Van de Goor, Business Development Manager www.communeworks.co.uk

Eurolook International Transparent roller shutters Represented by Emmanuel Ventura, CEO www.eurolook.com

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Fishmonger,retailer, wholesaler and caterer Represented by Michael Robin, General Manager www.lapetite-poissonnerie.co.uk

Lloyds Banking Group - International Private Banking Banking Represented by Mathias Quennehen, Business Development Manager www.international.lloydsbank.com

new members

Meliá White House

Sloane Square Hotel

Hotel Represented by Cristina Zaragoza, Business Travel Sales Executive www.melia-whitehouse.com

Luxury 4-star hotel in Chelsea Represented by Jerome Belliard, Hotel Manager www.sloanesquarehotel.co.uk

PH Hotels

IT solutions Represented by Pierre-Henri Leuliet, CEO www.solog.net

Hospitality Represented by Luc Genest, Director of National Sales www.ph-hotels.com

QP Magazine Publishing and events (SalonQP) Represented by James Gurney, Editor www.qpmagazine.com

SOLOG

Team Relocations Moving and Relocation Services Represented by Virginie Gil, Account Manager www.teamrelocations.com

For more information about member companies (including email, address, phone number, etc.), please consult the online directory at www.ccfgb.co.uk/membership/search-for-members.

h at s o f f t o Olivier Morel – newly elected President of the French Foreign Trade Advisors UK – CCE UK Olivier Morel, Partner with Chamber member Cripps Harries Hall, was recently elected President of the CCE UK (www.ccegb.org) for a three-year term. This pre-eminent think tank provides free mentoring to SMEs and young people interested in the UK market. It works closely with the French Embassy and other French government agencies to carry out benchmarking studies on what France can learn from Britain. Olivier is dually qualified as an Avocat à la Cour and a solicitor, and has over 25 years’ experience advising French and foreign groups on the legal and strategic implications of their UK ventures. He is Co-chair of the French Chamber’s Legal Forum. I Olivier Morel

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Michel Brousset appointed Managing Director, L’Oréal UK & Ireland, taking over from Jeremy Schwartz Michel Brousset was appointed Managing Director, UK & Ireland in August 2013, taking over from Jeremy Schwartz who is now CEO of The Body Shop International. Michel is also Managing Director of L’Oréal’s UKI Consumer Products Division, setting the strategic vision for L’Oréal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline and Essie. Previously, Michel was the Country Managing Director of L’Oréal Peru, leading the Consumer Products, Professional, Active Cosmetics and Luxury divisions. Prior to joining L’Oréal, Michel spent 15 years with Procter & Gamble (P&G), before which he had various Corporate Finance roles in Latin America. Michel has an MBA from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and an Economics degree from Peru’s Universidad del Pacífico. He speaks English, Spanish and French. I Michel Brousset

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chamber shorties Visit from Paris Chamber of Commerce representatives Following the success of INFO’s issue on Urban Regeneration, the Business Consultancy organised a twoday seminar on behalf of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and its economic taskforce of senior representatives to assess the impact of London’s economic and urban regeneration policy over the past decade. Speakers included Maria Corts from London & Partners, Trevor

Lampen from Thales, Mike Keegan from Transport for London, Mark Robinson from Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Marc Reboux from CBRE, Nicolas Guerin from Bouygues Development and Richard Gibbs from iCity, who we thank for their participation. The conclusions of the seminar will be transmitted to the Maire of Paris’s economic advisers for consideration. I

Chamber conducts Paris seminar on successfully opening a business in the UK On 21 November, the French Chamber organised a seminar in Paris, in partnership with CCI of Paris Ile-deFrance and with the support of the Enterprise Europe Network. The objective was to give information to French entrepreneurs who are interested in setting up business in the UK, and then, subsequently, to promote the services offered by our Accountancy, Business Support and Recruitment departments. After the seminar, representatives from the companies, most of them Paris-based, were able to meet and interact with the speakers who had specially come from London, including tax experts (Mazars LLP) and lawyers (Miller Rosenfalck LLP), as well as UK Trade & Investment from the British Embassy in Paris. These personalised meetings helped the entrepreneurs develop their understanding of their own projects. A satisfaction survey was answered by all the participants, and 98% rated the event excellent – a promising sign for future Franco-British collaborations. I

Alsace Trade delegation 2013 Our Business Consultancy team led a trade mission for nine businesses from Alsace, which resulted in 35 targeted meetings being set up with potential partners in the UK. Businesses travelled as far as Newcastle to meet with companies specialised in varied industries including design, bathroom materials and engineering. The operation will be renewed in 2014. I For more information please contact Sabrina MIMID, smimid@ccfgb.co.uk

The Chamber’s Events & Marketing team expands Sonia Olsen has joined the Chamber’s team as Events and Marketing Coordinator. Sonia previously worked as an International Communications Executive at Alain Afflelou Spain serving as a bridge between different franchises in Europe and the French headquarters, and prior to that worked for L´Oréal Spain as a PR & Communications Assistant overseeing the launch of cosmetic products and managing media relations. She graduated in Advertising & PR from the European University of Madrid and has a degree in Tourism from the same university. Sonia is trilingual and can speak Spanish, French and English. I

Going high tech in Holborn TV screens have just become passé at the Chamber. Our videos are now shown in 3dimensional digital wizardry on a vertical mirror screen, installed by movingdesign in the reception of our High Holborn office. Not to be missed on your next visit! I

The 2014 Franco-British Trade Directory is out! The 2014 Franco-British Trade Directory has been published and all members should receive their copies shortly. It lists more than 1,650 contacts and allows searches by sector, company name or representative’s name. I The online version will be available soon at: www. ccfgb.co.uk/membership

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recent event annual gal a dinner

LOGO Nº dossier : 20110049E

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A record-setting gala evening Date : 31/05/11

Validation DA/DC : Validation Client

An unprecidented 400 guests gathered for the Chamber’s Annual Gala Dinner, at which Chairman of SNCF (French National Railways) Guillaume Pepy, spoke about the mobility revolution in railways

he evening at the Landmark Hotel began with a Perrier Jouët Champagne reception, courtesy of Pernod Ricard UK, before guests sat down to dinner accompanied by French wines from Le Conseil des Vins de Saint-Emilion and Les Vins de Pessac-Leognan. Arnaud Bamberger, President of the French Chamber, welcomed the gathering, remarking on the fact that the Chamber was celebrating its 130th anniversary, and saying how proud he was to be President in this milestone year. He also announced that, for the first time, raffle tickets would be sold, with the proceeds going to Emmaus UK, a charity founded in France which supports homeless people through social enterprise. He thanked HE Mr Bernard Emié, the French Ambassador to the UK, for his ‘constant and much appreciated support’ for the French Chamber. Thanks also went to the main sponsors EY and HSBC, and supporting sponsors Accor, Colas Rail, EDF Energy, International SOS and Safran, as well as the generous raffle prize donors,* Chanel for the perfume for each guest and Jeux d’Images for the photography and video. In his address, HE Bernard Emié noted that the UK recovery was going well, but that things were also picking up in France. ‘I want to send you a message of confidence in our country and in the strength of the economic relationship between France and the UK,’ he said. ‘When Britain and France agree to work together and share their vast material and human resources,

Guillaume Pepy, Chairman of SNCF

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they achieve great things.’ He commended the French Chamber for its dynamism and important work, which made it ‘the first and most powerful foreign Chamber in the UK’. Arnaud Bamberger then introduced the Guest of Honour, Guillaume Pepy, Chairman of SNCF (French National Railways), outlining his illustrious career within the rail sector not only in France but also in Europe, and acknowledging his leadership in the highspeed train business, particularly as the driving force behind the success of TGV, the company’s star product and greatest export. SNCF serves 10 million passengers a day and is present in 120 countries with a workforce of 250,000 people. Present in the UK since 1990, SNCF employs 8,000 people and has a turnover of €1.8 billion, roughly 8% of its global turnover of €35 billion. Guillaume Pepy had been Chairman of Eurostar before Richard Brown, the Chamber’s Deputy President, and Arnaud Bamberger asked, tongue in cheek, whether Guillaume could spend ‘a tiny bit’ of his budget on Gare du Nord, for the benefit of Eurostar passengers. Guillaume began by responding to Arnaud’s request. ‘It is one of the worst stations in Europe,’ he admitted, which had been tossed like a ping-pong ball between state departments, but he said that he and the Ambassador would lead a ‘coup d’état’ to do something about it. On the scope of SNCF’s partnerships in the UK, he noted that Britain had created railways and was an important role model from which SNCF still had much to learn. ‘No country in Europe has invested in rail as much as the UK and we are proud to work for you,’ he said, mentioning projects such as HS1, Eurostar, Crossrail and the East Coast Mainline, for which a Keolis/Eurostar joint venture will be bidding. Guillaume went on to speak about SNCF’s future strategies for coping with the revolution in mobility. The days of mass transport are over, as people now want customised travel from point to point, he observed, pointing out that transport companies risk losing out to Google if they allow it to move into the high margin role of middle man travel planner. In response he described an online service that will be rolled

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annual gal a dinner

Clockwise from top left: Arnaud Bamberger toasts the Queen and the French President; some of the 400 guests; L to R: HE Bernard Emié, Rt Hon Michael Fallon MP, Arnaud Bamberger, Florence Gomez, Guillaume Pepy, Richard Brown CBE; Baritone Ashley Riches

out in 2014 giving European customers the best and cheapest deals across all forms of transport, with the ability to download tickets on smart phones. Another trend he noted was that customers are increasingly price conscious and prepared to pay for service but not comfort. Consequently high speed rail is in competition with low cost airlines, prompting the launch of a TGV equivalent called Ouigo, which offers fares such as €10 tickets from Paris to Marseille. He noted that such low fares had been made possible by tripling the productivity of assets and cutting costs by 40%. One area in which there was still work to do, Guillaume admitted, was commuter trains, which face challenges of congestion in urban centres with public transport needs about to explode. He predicted that technological and technical innovation would be key to tackling this, giving as examples a new app that gives Paris commuters information on how full specific trains and even individual carriages are so they can avoid crowded services, and a new track management system that will accommodate 36 trains per hour on the busiest lines in the Paris area, a 20% increase on existing capacity. ‘Just like IT companies a few years ago, we have to invent broadband connections,’ he said.

Guillaume expressed hope that British companies would invest in the French mobility system for the mutual benefit of both countries. ‘SNCF welcomes competition and new players as it will help us solve a lot of challenges we face,’ he said. ‘We will roll out the red carpet for British entrepreneurs.’ He ended by saying that he liked to take inspiration from the sense of French national identity expressed by Eric Cantona, who said, ‘Being French to me is first and foremost being a revolutionary’. ‘It is indeed a mobility revolution for us,’ he said, ‘and I am glad we are on the same side for once’. Between courses, guests were entertained by soprano Anush Hovhannisyan, baritone Ashley Riches and pianist Paul Wingfield from the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, who performed pieces from Gounod’s Faust, Bizet’s Carmen and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. The evening ended with the draw for the fantastic raffle prizes, raising £6,000 for Emmaus UK. I KF * Accor, Air France, Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, Andaz Liverpool Street Hotel, Cartier, Chivas Brothers, Chaumet, Dior, easyJet, Eurostar, Evidens de Beauté, Guerlain, Hermès, Hotel La Résidence du Roy, The Landmark Hotel, L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, L’ Occitane, Lalique, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Ligne Roset, Locate Jersey, Louis Vuitton, LVMH Watch & Jewellery UK Ltd and Melia Hotels International.

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recent event f r a n co - b r iti s h e n e rgy co n f e r e n c e

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Franco-British Energy Conference

iming is everything, and for the Energy Conference to take place in the week following the deal between the UK Government and EDF Energy on the strike price for nuclear energy, could only be ‘a good omen for the future of investment in low carbon energy in this country,’ as Richard Brown, Deputy President of the Chamber remarked. But he also alluded to the huge challenges Britain faces to meet its carbon reduction targets and underlined that no single energy source – whether nuclear, wind, solar, energy recovery, biomass, oil & gas, tidal – could deliver this: all have a part to play. In his address, the French Ambassador to the UK, HE Mr Bernard Emié, highlighted the closeness of the links between the energy futures of France and the UK, and the major roles French companies are playing in this. ‘Energy is shaping global economic development and international relations,’ he said. ‘Faced with this new situation, countries like France and the UK, have opted

to be politically proactive by establishing an ambitious energy policy resolutely focused on a low carbon economy.’ He applauded the UK’s courage to press ahead with legislation and market reforms in the interests of long-term stability, which are ‘models that the rest of Europe is watching with great interest’. Vincent de Rivaz, CEO of EDF Energy, picked up on the topic of partnership – between private and public, UK and France, and between the company and its customers – that was at the heart of the Hinkley Point deal. ‘Nothing is more important than for us to stand on the side of our customers,’ he stated, but admitted that trust had become an issue. Commenting on the current ‘furore’ over rising energy bills, he agreed that affordability was an issue for many households, and that energy companies had to be part of the solution. But he expressed optimism that trust in energy companies could be restored, just as public acceptance of new build nuclear had undergone

The first panel

Networking in the lunch break

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All photography by José Farinha

Organised by the French Chamber with the support of the French Embassy and in partnership with the Franco-British Council and ESCP Europe Business School, the first ever Franco-British Energy Conference, with 240 participants, provided a platform for debate and discussion on some of the most pressing issues in the energy sector

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f r a n co - b r iti s h e n e rgy co n f e r e n c e

Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change

Conference delegates

a sea change within the last 10 years: ‘We will win the battle for trust, just as we won the battle for new build nuclear,’ he stated. Moderated by Guy Chazan, Energy Editor of the Financial Times, the first panel of speakers considered the question of whether the UK Energy Policy would enable the UK to meet its energy challenges. Steve Burgin, Regional Vice President, Northern and Central Europe, Alstom Global Power Sales, said that it should be viewed from the perspective of the good it will do the UK economy – in terms of infrastructure, skills and jobs – but warned against reaching an impasse because of the current ‘push-me, pull-you’ within the trilemma of sustainability, security of supply and affordability. Most speakers acknowledged the positives of the UK Energy Policy and its progressiveness in creating the preconditions to attract the £110 billion investment needed, but discussion revolved around what Angela Knight, Chief Executive, Energy UK, called ‘the inflection point of the moment’ – affordability and how it is all paid for – and what the implications might be for energy policy. Greater transparency on the costs involved, the challenges of getting the messages across and whether costs should be met by general taxes or put on to energy bills were all debated. Ed Davey MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, then took the floor to ‘tell the story of the real progress’ being made behind the headlines. ‘Cooperation between the UK and France on energy goes much further than nuclear, critical and symbolic though that is,’ he said, mentioning in particular Total in the North Sea, Alstom working in everything from offshore wind to the grid, and the increasingly close relationship between the French and UK governments on energy and climate change issues in the EU context. Describing it as a unique two-way partnership, he nevertheless expressed a desire to see more British companies in France. He set out the case why French investors and companies should see the UK as a place to invest in energy, with

its particular energy security needs and £110 billion infrastructure investment challenge. UK Energy Policy is, he noted, a competitive, technology-neutral response to the challenges, aimed at reducing the cost of capital for investors going in, while saving consumers money compared to using the older methods. He asserted that affordability was being taken extremely seriously by Government, outlining measures such as direct payments to households and making the market as competitive as possible. ‘I am convinced we can get there, go green and keep competitive,’ he said. On green growth he touched on the huge economic benefits for Europe in terms of jobs, technology and R&D, but warned that China and the US are closing in on Europe’s leading position in clean energy investment. ‘We should worry about “low carbon leakage” – jobs going abroad because we are not taking the lead sufficiently strongly,’ he said, and suggested that strong Franco-British partnerships would be a way of ensuring that Europe stays in the lead. The second panel of speakers considered how FrancoBritish partnerships could be developed to deliver the investment required. From the start, the issue of skills shortages dominated the discussion. There was debate on the sense of crisis in engineering as a subject, with issues of gender, image and message raised. Salaries, staff retention and competition from companies offering more attractive job prospects were all highlighted. As to how the UK manufacturing sector and supply chains could be developed to support the energy sector, Robert Davies, CEO, Areva UK said it was about ‘balancing project realism with ambition’. It was noted that successful Franco-British partnerships are ‘durable, sustainable, mutually beneficial and mutually comprehensible’, but the potential for incompatible views and misunderstanding is enormous and needs to be managed. The UK energy sector is a very attractive destination for investment, and partnerships are a way of making that investment sustainable in the long term. I KF info - january / february - 69

recent event annual financial lunch

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Rates, ratings and progress towards a banking union The long-running Annual Financial Lunch proved to be a great draw with Christian Noyer, Governor of the Banque de France speaking on the advance towards a European banking union

laces at the Annual Financial Lunch were in hot demand, even in the hours leading up to the event itself. The pull was Christian Noyer, Governor of the Banque de France, this year’s guest speaker. Having made recent headlines with his views on the Tobin tax, and following the ECB rate cut the day before and France’s credit rating downgrade, many wanted to hear what he had to say, and the opportunity to ask questions. This was the 17th edition of the Financial Lunch, sponsored by Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking. Ian Fisher, Head of the Coverage and Investment Banking Division and Group Country Head of the UK, was present to introduce the speaker to the 140-strong gathering of senior representatives from French and British financial, commercial and legal enterprises at the Berkeley Hotel, in Knightsbridge, London. Christian Noyer spoke about Europe being on its way to banking union, which he described as ‘one of the many positive developments to have come out of the crisis’. He gave a historical perspective, underlining the benefits that monetary union had brought over 14 years, but said that the crisis made it clear that ‘a uniformly healthy financial system was vital to safeguard the stability of the euro area and ensure the effective transmission of a single monetary policy’. He noted that federal bank supervision, a unified mechanism for banking crises resolution and a unified deposit-guarantee mechanism would have to be in place to achieve banking union, and commented on the progress being made. Of these, supervision is the most advanced: ‘In a year’s time, the main banks in the Euro area will be supervised by a federalised system headed in Frankfurt,’ he told the audience. The entire European banking system, including UK banks, will be supervised on the principles laid down in the Single Rulebook. ‘This is a huge step towards a more unified and consistent European banking system,’ he said, ‘and one that is therefore more robust and efficient.’ With the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) on track for November 2014 implementation, Noyer outlined steps being taken towards it, including an asset quality review 70 - info - january / february

L to R: HE Bernard Emié, Christian Noyer, Ian Fisher and Peter Alfandary

of 130 banks across Europe, followed by stress tests. The other ‘essential pillar’, the Single Resolution Mechanism, has to be in place by 2015 to ensure the credibility of the SSM. ‘I think we proved, in the darkest moments of the crisis, that we were completely committed to the euro. Our actions were driven by a profound belief that the single currency is our most valuable shared asset and that it brings enormous economic benefits. Today, with the construction of a banking union, we aim to demonstrate that this is a long-term commitment,’ he concluded. Christian Noyer then took questions from the audience, including the press. On the ECB rate cut, he expressed hope that banks would pass it on to their customers, but said that ‘transmission also depends on our capacity to ensure a better functioning of the interbank market inside the euro zone’, an improvement he linked back to banking union. On that day’s credit rating downgrade of France by Standard & Poor’s he called the analysis behind the decision ‘incomplete’, but was pleased that the French banking sector would not be impacted by the sovereign downgrade. The lunch, preceded by a Vranken Pommery Champagne reception, was complemented with wines from Domaine Brand & Fils and Le Conseil Des Vins du Medoc. Peter Alfandary, Vice President of the French Chamber, who facilitated the proceedings throughout, concluded with thanks, bringing another enlightening edition of the Annual Financial Lunch to a close. I KF

recent events

dîner des chefs

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To the Manoir born The year’s third Dîner des Chefs, hosted by the luxury club, returned to Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons for a memorable evening o mark the start of the festive season, 50 guests made their way to Great Milton, a quintessentially English village in Oxfordshire, home of the grandiose and charming Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, where they were welcomed with a glass of Perrier-Jouët Champagne, Cuvée Belle Epoque Rosé 2004 - courtesy of Pernod Ricard - and a crackling wood fire. Chef Raymond Blanc made a notable entrance, greeting each guest personally, before making emotional opening remarks and sharing the famous poem, ‘In Flanders Fields’, to mark Remembrance Day. He thanked all the guests for their participation and highlighted the values which have helped build his success as an iconic Chef and a great entrepreneur: a sense of excellence, a commitment to innovation associated with a sincere respect for traditions, heritage and local products, team spirit and engaging programs to train and inspire the next generation of Chefs. Beyond these grand principles, passion is certainly Blanc’s most striking and inspiring attribute. Florence Gomez, MD of the Chamber, said that a journalist recently wrote

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Chef Raymond Blanc with guests

about Raymond Blanc that he had been ‘RB’d’ and that she was sure that everybody leaving Le Manoir later in the night would experience the same feeling! The menu, specially designed for this occasion, showcased Blanc’s authentic and flamboyant style. As a ‘bouquet final’, a frozen winter still life and a meringue flambée au Grand Marnier followed by a glass of Martell XO. Jonathan Simms, Brand Ambassador at Pernod Ricard UK told our guests more about the story behind the oldest of the House of Cognac. I KM

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... Eccleston Square Hotel For the second Rendez-vous Chez…, members crowded into the little boutique hotel that’s big on tech livia and James Byrne’s Eccleston Square Hotel (featured in INFO July/August 2013) was abuzz with Chamber members, curious to discover this gem of a hotel located in a quiet Georgian square close to Victoria Station. Dominated by a giant screen, the hotel’s media room was packed with networkers who appreciated the informal, friendly atmosphere of this event. Parties of guests were given tours of the hotel’s stylish rooms, with a chance to try out the £12,000 electronically adjustable Hästens beds and experiment with all the gadgetry that makes the hotel one of the most high tech in the world, and a member of Design Hotels. Judging by the

Making connections in the media room

feedback, guests had a thoroughly enjoyable time, making valuable connections… of a non-electronic nature. I KF info - january / february - 71

recent event pat r o n v i s i t

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Patron visit to the Thames Water Lee Tunnel construction site Patron visits rarely require the donning of hard hats, goggles and safety boots, but that was the dress code de rigueur for the visit to the construction site of the Lee Tunnel, the first tranche of the new ‘super sewer’ that VINCI Construction Grands Projets is building in a consortium with Morgan Sindall and Bachy Soletanche for Thames Water

he group was met at the Beckton site in East London by Lionel Ravix, Managing Director, British Isles, who described the £635 million project as VINCI’s most important one in the UK. It involves the construction of a new 7-kilometre-long storage and transfer tunnel with associated shafts, which will help prevent more than 16 million tonnes of untreated sewage mixed with rainwater from being discharged into the Lee River, a tributary of the River Thames. The Lee Tunnel is one of the schemes developed to reduce the annual 39 million tonnes of sewage overflow into the Thames in order to comply with the EU’s Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. The reason why this happens was explained by François Pogu, the Lee Tunnel Project Director, who gave a brief history of London’s Victorian sewerage system, designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette in response to the ‘Big Stink’ of 1858, when Parliament had to be suspended because of the overpowering smell of sewage in the Thames. Performing a dual function of dealing with both sewage and rainwater, Bazalgette’s network of giant sewers, pumping stations and treatment works was planned for a London population well below the eight million it now serves with increased water use and reduced natural drainage in the built-up capital. When volumes are excessive, to prevent backup and flooding in homes, overflow is diverted into the Thames via a number of combined sewer overflows (CSO) along the banks of the river. But the demands of the 21st century city mean that this is happening around 40 times a year, rather than only in the extreme conditions for which it was envisaged. The Lee Tunnel, which has an internal diameter of 7.2m, will deal with the largest CSO point at the Abbey Mills Pumping Station, capturing the overflows before they enter the Lee River and storing or transferring them via the tunnel to the Beckton Sewage Treatment Works. The group visited one of the five vertical shafts connected to the Lee Tunnel which, with a diameter of 38m and depth of 86.5m, is the largest, and will deploy up to four powerful pumps to move overflow sewage 72 - info - january / february

All geared up for a tour of the construction site

up to the treatment works or to the Tideway CSO in the event the tunnel reaches capacity. With each pump requiring 2 megawatts to power it, a power station has also been built on site. Some overflow into the Thames is still envisaged when volumes rise during rain storms, and the group also visited the site of the Beckton overflow shaft and outfall culvert at the river bank. For safety reasons it was not possible to go into the tunnel itself, but the group received a detailed briefing on the innovative construction techniques being used to excavate and line the tunnel, as well as the £15 million 120m custom-built boring machine, dubbed Busy Lizzie, which is cutting through the chalk and flint strata 75m below ground. Tunnelling is a complex operation; the concrete lining segments are fitted as the borer progresses, and the excavated chalk is blended with slurry and piped to the surface for processing. Moving at an average rate of 20m a day Busy Lizzie is now within one kilometre of Abbey Mills, bringing the whole project closer to its scheduled completion date in 2015. It was a fascinating visit, which gave an insight into the extraordinary scale and complexity that building the Lee Tunnel entails. Our thanks to VINCI Construction Grands Projets for allowing us a glimpse of this truly ‘Grand Projet’, and special thanks to the team assisting us during the site visit, Emmanuel Costes, Claire Dioszegi and Clarence Michel. I KF

recent event c eo b r e a k fa s t

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A diamond is forever ‘I am the first and only Frenchman in the diamond business,’ Philippe Mellier, De Beers Group CEO, told the breakfast gathering, sponsored by PAUL at the Andaz Liverpool Street, before taking them on a fascinating – and multi-faceted – journey through De Beers’ 125-year history and the 3.2 billionyear history of diamonds

he group that De Beers is today is a far cry from the consolidated mine company founded in South Africa in 1888 by the Oppenheimer family, which made history by discovering the Cullinan diamond in 1905 – at 3,106.75 carats, the largest rough diamond ever found. Now the world’s largest diamond producer with mining operations across Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Canada, it employs together with joint venture partners more than 23,000 people across the diamond pipeline, which traverses exploration, mining, supermaterials production, rough diamond sales and jewellery brands. Owned since 2012 by Anglo American, with the Government of Botswana holding a 15% stake, De Beers is a global company headquartered in Luxembourg. ‘Diamonds are not easy to find,’ Philippe explained, citing that out of 7,000 potential locations De Beers has explored, only 10 have proved commercially viable, and a big mine has not been found in the last 20 years. Surprisingly, only one of its mines is underground, and that is under a lake. Most are open pit mines, producing 1 carat (0.2 grams) for every one tonne of ore, while others are alluvial, coastal or marine. De Beers is the only company in the world that mines diamonds at sea, and its six offshore vessels produce 1 million carats a year, 96% of which are gem quality, impressively high compared to the usual 40-50%. Jewellery is the destination of most diamonds, with only 1% used for industry, but long before the polished stone is set, the rough diamonds are sorted into 12,000 categories of size, shape and colour. ‘The only thing you don’t need is a diamond,’ Philippe quipped, but only to underline the necessity of creating a market for diamonds, which is what Henry Oppenheimer had done in 1939 when he headed to New York to kick-start De Beers’ pioneering advertising campaign. De Beers even takes credit for the greatest advertising slogan of the 20th century: ‘A diamond is forever’ has endured well beyond 1962 when it was first used, encapsulating the concept of ‘eternity’ that made it an essential component of engagement rings. At 40%,

Philippe Mellier and Arnaud Bamberger

the US still is the biggest market by far for polished diamonds, followed by China, Japan and India, where diamonds are symbols status and affluence, but demand is burgeoning in countries with emerging middle classes, such as Indonesia. The integrity of the pipeline is extremely important for the industry, and De Beers ensures this by being at the forefront of technology to detect any synthetic stones. As a result, polished diamond prices have increased by over 35% since 1993 compared to undefended gems such as rubies, emeralds and sapphires, which have devalued by as much as 61% because of the presence of synthetics in the pipeline. De Beers also stakes its reputation on responsible mining, investing billions in the local communities in which it operates. ‘20 years ago, Botswana was not even third world, it was fifth world but now you have free education, a free health system, roads, infrastructure... and everything has been paid for by diamonds,’ Philippe stated. Diamonds are rare and precious, the hardest natural material on earth, difficult to find, and highly prized. With a shrinking supply and increasing demand, diamonds hold value for the future. ‘Rare’, ‘unique’ and ‘responsibly sourced’ may be the catchphrase of De Beers’ Forevermark advertising campaign, but ‘In a few words, this is what we are,’ Philippe said in conclusion. I KF info - january / february - 73

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Franco-British Business Awards For the past 13 years, French and British businesses both large and small have come together annually in either London or Paris to celebrate the expertise, enterprise and success of companies nominated for the Franco British Business Awards

L to R: Jeremy Thurbin (EY), HE Bernard Emié, Viviane Chaine-Ribeiro and Julie Windsor (Talentia Software), Michael Ward (UKTI), Fredy Ktourza (AVEVA), Jean-Michel Geffriaud (Alstom), Terence Watson (Alstom), Arnaud Bamberger, Bob Lewis

his year it was the turn of Paris to host the Awards, which are co-organised by the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain and the FrancoBritish Chamber of Commerce & Industry in France. The Awards ceremony took place at the Mariott Champs Elysées under the patronage of the French Ambassador to the UK, HE Mr Bernard Emié and the British Ambassador to France, represented by Michael Ward, Director of UKTI. Invest in France and UKTI were partners of the event, which was sponsored by Barclays, Eurostar and London & Partners. The awards reward innovation, and honour ‘those companies that have seized opportunities on both sides of the border and brought their plans to fruition by drawing on our two countries’ strengths,’ HE Bernard Emié said. He singled out two of the 74 - info - january / february

large French companies nominated – Veolia and Alstom – as symbols of the importance of economic partnerships, and also praised the ‘young, dynamic, innovative SMEs which have succeeded brilliantly in breaking through into each of our two markets’. Mark Lhermitte, Partner at EY, Simon Baldeyrou, General Manager of Deezer and Robin Touati, Sales Director of Lycamobile took part in a debate on the attractiveness of Europe, and particularly France and the UK, as business destinations. Those deemed outstanding in their groups by the jury were Talentia Software (SME / Entrepreneur Award), Aveva (Innovation, Creation and Design Award) and Alstom (Large Corporate Award), while the Jury’s Award for its significant contribution and support to both Chambers over the years went to EY. I KF

FRANCO BRITISH BUSINESS AWARDS 2013

SME /Entrepreneur Award: Talentia Software Talentia Software is a Franco-British developer and provider of business management software for finance, CPM, payroll and Human Capital Management solutions aimed at SMEs and large international organisations. With over 300 employees and offices in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece, the group supports more than 3,600 customers in over 30 countries. ‘This award means a lot to us as it crowns a wonderful partnership between two SMEs (Lefebvre Software SAS in France and Cezanne Software Holding Ltd in the UK)

which joined forces to build a new leading international organisation,’ said Viviane Chaine-Ribeiro, President of Talentia Software. ‘We believe that this award not only recognises a tremendous year of growth for the company (+22%) from €46.07m in 2012 to €56m estimated at the end of 2013, but also the strong values that we proudly hold and implement as a business. We are committed to link the human dimension to the company’s strategic and financial challenges for strong, responsible and sustainable growth.’ I

Innovation, Creation and Design Award: Aveva Created in the UK in 1967, and expanding to France in 1996, AVEVA has been a pioneer in the software industry, developing the world’s first 3D plant design software, which defined a revolution in computer design. Its global turnover is €220m and it has 1,400 employees. AVEVA extends the boundaries of what technology can help to achieve, without losing sight of the fundamentals of good engineering, or the importance of its customers’ data. On receiving the award, Fredy Ktourza, AVEVA’s Senior Vice-President, Western

Europe and Africa, said: ‘We are very proud and honoured that AVEVA has won this year’s Innovation, Creation and Design Award. Since its creation 45 years ago, AVEVA has been committed to delivering creative and innovative products for our customers, proposing solutions that enable a more efficient, reliable and better quality execution of engineering projects in the power, process and shipbuilding industries. We believe that this award reflects our continual progression, which is AVEVA’s core value.’ I

Large Corporate Award: Alstom

Jury’s Award: EY

Alstom operates in almost 100 countries around the world, providing transport and energy solutions for everything from wind farms to nuclear power stations, and from city-based tram systems to very high speed trains travelling at around 300mph. It has a global turnover of over €20 billion and more than 86,000 employees worldwide. In the UK, Alstom operates across all of the company’s sectors and has a long history of helping keep the country’s lights on and moving millions of people from home to work and back again every day. Terence Watson, Alstom’s UK President, said on receiving the award: ‘I’m delighted to be able to raise the profile of Alstom’s commitment and contribution to not only Britain and to the British rail and energy sectors but also to the contribution that our UK operations make around the world. Our Corporate Social Responsibility programme is just part of what makes Alstom in the UK a great company to work for. We have strong UK based research and development activities and our British manufacturing centres export to fast growing economies such as Brazil, India and China.’ I

With global revenues of $24.4 billion and 167,000 employees, EY is located in 140 countries, with the French and UK practices being a fully integrated part of the EMEIA area. There are 12,600 employees in the UK, located in 21 offices, and 4,500 employees based in France. The EY UK firm works with a large number of subsidiaries of French groups. The UK-based EY French Business Centre is part of the firm’s French Business Network. It supports the services provided to French clients in the UK and helps develop synergies between both countries. ‘The Jury’s Award acknowledges EY’s efforts – as an international structured network, with integrated teams – to build closer business connection between our two countries,’ commented Jean-Pierre Letartre, CEO, EY France, Maghreb and Luxembourg. ‘Indeed, we believe that companies, and not only governments or institutions, have an important role to play in knitting close economic relationships; and we are happy to be part of the process to speed up both growth and confidence in our markets.’ EY has been a member of both Chambers for over 20 years, supporting their events and providing sponsorship. In addition, EY’s Frédéric Larquetoux has co-chaired the French Chamber’s SME & Entrepreneurs Club. I

1 British Pound Sterling (£) equals: 1.6279 US Dollars ($) or 1.1819 Euros (€) Source: Reuters, as at 17/12/13

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Celebrating the season and ties that bind The Chamber’s much-anticipated Soirée de Noël was a chance to indulge in seasonal festivities as well as celebrate the new winner of the Intercultural Trophy

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Arvinda Gohil, Françoise Abad and Yves Masson

Guests mingling in festive spirit

edecked with Christmas trees and glinting baubles, the beautiful Benjamin Suite of the Charing Cross Hotel was an enchanting setting for the Chamber’s Soirée de Noël, which this year incorporated the presentation of the Intercultural Trophy. Around the room, buffets of bread and cheese, courtesy of PAUL and Bongrain, offered up their tantalising treats, while guests mingled, clinking Champagne flutes in the festive spirit. There were hand massages to be had at the Nuxe beauty bar, and glimpses of the myriad prizes to be won at the tombola table. Arnaud Bamberger, President of the Chamber, kicked off proceedings with a few words about the Intercultural Trophy, designed by Cartier, and awarded by the Chamber since 1997 to a company that exemplifies and fosters cross-cultural ties between Britain and France, as voted by Chamber members. AXA sponsors the Intercultural Trophy and Yves Masson, CEO of AXA Direct & Partnerships, explained that this was because intercultural relations were integral to the company whose history and success were based on integrating different cultures. He announced the 2013 winner ‘by a large margin’ was Emmaus UK, the French charity founded by Abbé Pierre in 1949 which came over to the UK in 1992. Chief Executive Arvinda Gohil was surprised and delighted to receive the trophy, which was passed over to her by Françoise Abad from French Radio London, last year’s winner. Speaking afterwards to INFO she said: ‘We were absolutely delighted to win the Intercultural trophy, it was completely unexpected. What makes the award even more special is that it was voted for by members, showing the support Emmaus has from the Chamber. Emmaus in the UK is growing and we want to increase recognition for our work in the UK as a charity that is working together with others to end homelessness. Ultimately we would like Emmaus in the UK to have a similar profile to that enjoyed by our colleagues in France. We look forward to working with the French Chamber of Commerce and its members in 2014.’ There were other winners over the evening as the top three raffle prizes were drawn, courtesy of Brittany Ferries, Eurostar & Nuxe, Melia Hotel and easyJet, and guests took their chances at the tombola table for other prizes.* Festivities were in full swing by the time three giant fraisiers from PAUL were served, and dancing began.

The Chamber team

When the evening drew to a close, guests departed in high spirits, taking home goody bags stocked with delights from Maison Maille, PAUL and Nuxe. I KF *Thanks to the generous prize donors for their support: The Andaz Hotel, L’ Atelier de Courcelles, L’Atelier des Chefs, Aubaine, Brittany Ferries, Caudalie, Coles Trading Limited, Club Gascon, Dans le Noir, easyJet, Eurostar, France magazine, Guerlain, Jean Rousseau, La Coupole, La Petite Poissonnerie, Lalique, La Maison Maille, Léon de Bruxelles, Melia Hotels International, Merci Maman, Nuxe, L’Occitane, Pain de Sucre, Petit Bateau, PAUK, Trotters Childrenswear, The Eccleston Square Hotel, The Four Seasons Hotel, The Pullman London St Pancras, The Royal Park London and Voulez-Vous Parler.

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Challenges and opportunities in the Middle East Simon Williams, HSBC Chief Economist, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Dr Mamdouh G Salameh, International Oil Economist and Consultant on Oil & Energy to the World Bank, Washington DC spoke to the Finance Forum about the changes, dangers and bright spots in the Middle East

he Middle East is a region still in transition; the initial push for change that began with the Arab Spring in 2011 may have receded, but the direct and indirect consequences caused by the upheaval continue to play out. It is also a region governed by largely unreformed political and economic institutions, still poorly equipped to deal with the huge challenges the 21st century has thrown up. And it is a region marked out by one particular characteristic â&#x20AC;&#x201C; demographics. This is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, 70-75% of the population is under the age of 30, which brings huge challenges; on the other hand, it guarantees rising demand for goods, services, infrastructure and above all, employment. But there are really two stories here:

North Africa and the Levant: difficult and complex The Arab Spring has had an extraordinarily high cost, not only in human terms, but also in terms of lost GDP, employment, public finances and political function. Political regimes have been replaced by similar or more dysfunctional ones, while growth and unemployment are worse than before. At the same time, rising budget deficits and high inflation constrain governmentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; capacity to stimulate recovery. Although 2014 looks to be a better year economically than 2013 for Egypt, transitions for all of the Arab Spring states are still incomplete: there are at least another 12-18 difficult months ahead. In Syria, the conflict rumbles on, taking its toll also on its neighbours Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. The path to stabilisation, let alone normalisation, is long and rocky, and contingent on further political progress. The Gulf: good in the near term In contrast, the oil rich states of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia are faring well, not only compared to struggling developed economies but also to other emerging markets. They are solvent and have young, fast-growing populations, rising public spending is driving growth and quantitative easing withdrawal is not a concern. Saudi Arabia stands out, with both the means and the motive to drive growth through spending, a very young population with its concomitant demand for goods and services, a growing workforce and a commitment to economic reform. The UAE lagged the regional recovery to some degree over 2011-12, but stepped up a gear in 2013, and looks set to move into the lead in 2014. While not pressed by Saudi Arabiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s demographic and infrastructural needs, it benefits from a combination

of the oil wealth of Abu Dhabi and the vibrant exportoriented service sector of Dubai.

Longer term challenges and opportunities Over the longer term, though, the Gulf faces significant challenges. Its governments have yet to reduce dependence on the model which has served them so well thus far: taking crude out of the ground for $3-5 a barrel, selling it for $100, and using the balance to fund public spending. Indeed, far from reducing dependence on oil, the Arab Spring has distorted spending choices, with policymakers favouring short term populist measures such as public sector job creation and wage hikes, over long-term diversification and reform initiatives. Even if oil prices stay at $100 a barrel, this level of spending looks hard to sustain for all but the richest of the oil states. For Saudi Arabia, which has the highest oil production volumes in absolute terms, but among the lowest in per capita terms, the government could be back in deficit as early as 2015, even without a fall in oil prices. If and when that happens, public spending will slow and the onus will be on the private sector to drive growth. Whether the private sector is ready to take on this role is not clear. At the heart of the challenge the Gulf faces is the huge gap between financial wealth and levels of development. Being rich is easy given the low cost of extracting hydrocarbons, but it is not clearw that this wealth has created any real, sustainable prosperity. Economic diversification therefore is crucial and urgent. Lower oil export volumes as a result of steeply rising domestic oil consumption also pose a long term risk. Domestic oil consumption will have to be cut drastically or replaced by nuclear power and solar energy. Of course, such challenges also represent opportunities for foreign investment as the Gulf countries seek to diversify into renewable energy, education, food production (in Sudan, for example) and targeted industries such as IT, aerospace, car manufacturing and electronics. Meanwhile dynamics in world oil markets are shifting. The stability of oil prices over the last five years, in the face of weak demand from the developed markets, is testament to the rising importance of emerging markets demand, and in particular that of China. Even with rising shale oil and gas resources in the US, rapidly growing demand from China and other emerging markets will increasingly support growth in the MENA oil states, while the influence of the West continues to recede. I info - january / february - 77

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Cross-cultural management: what HR Managers should know The joint session of the Cross-Cultural Forum and HR Forum considered how cross-cultural management issues impact the day-to-day practice of HR management. Prior to the roundtable discussion, Dr Savita Kumra, Senior Lecturer at Brunel Business School, spoke about understanding of the nature of culture and how this directly impacts behaviour at work Levels of Culture and their Interaction

he importance of cross-cultural understanding In a recent Economic Intelligence Unit Report, ‘Competing Across Borders – How Cultural and Communication Barriers affect Business’ (2012), 572 worldwide executives were surveyed and it was found that contrary to expectations 90% of respondents indicated the current economic downturn was leading their companies to become more international. They further commented that to achieve this aim, they would need to ensure effective systems and processes of cross-border communication and collaboration were implemented, as this was deemed critical to the financial success of expansion plans. 90% of respondents confirmed if cross-border communication were to improve, then improvements in profitability and market share would follow; whilst half confirmed culturally based miscommunication had prevented a cross-border transaction resulting in financial loss. In terms of identifying what the key barriers to achieving the benefits of successful cross-border working are, respondents in the study indicated they comprised problems with differences in cultural traditions and workplace norms. As Professor Nancy Adler comments in the report: ‘There is a false assumption that just because we can reach anyone in the world so easily through email or Skype, we are therefore all the same’.

The nature of culture So what is it about culture that makes it such a powerful force and means it can directly influence our behaviour at work? Noted academic Geert Hofstede, defines culture as ‘the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes one group of people from another’. This definition provides us with an insight into the key characteristics of culture: • Culture is shared – i.e. between groups of people • Culture is learned; we are not born with a culture, we learn it through socialisation processes as we grow and develop within a particular group • Culture shapes behaviour, as a consequence of what we learn, we behave accordingly, i.e. in some cultures it is impolite to speak when others are speaking, whilst in others this is completely acceptable. The diagram shows this more clearly. 78 - info - january / february

Specific to Individual

Personality

Specific to group or category

Inherited and learned

Learned Culture

Universal

Inherited Human Nature

Culture: a learned collective phenomenon distinguished from inherited human nature and one’s unique personality Reference: Hofstede, 1981

We thus see that when working with those from other cultures it is important not to take anything for granted and seek to communicate with an open mind. When confronting differences in understanding in respect of prioritisation of tasks or core processes; it is important to avoid jumping to conclusions, viewing disagreement from the way those from your culture would do things as necessarily wrong or inferior.

Influence on HR practice Evidently these issues need to be taken into consideration in core HR policies and processes when seeking to work cross-culturally. Such factors will directly influence the development of competency frameworks for international positions, assessment of competence through recruitment and selection processes; being mindful that different cultures will evidence their competence in different ways. Performance management and reward management processes will similarly be impacted as will talent management and leadership development. Cross-cultural working is clearly a growing phenomenon and those who will reap greatest benefit from the opportunities offered are those who fully appreciate how culture impacts the way work is done and build this into the way business is done in their organisations; the rest will provide the case studies we all know and use of the financially catastrophic failures of their endeavours. I References: Competing Across Borders: How cultural and communication barriers affect business: A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit. Hoftstede, G. (1981) ‘Culture’s Consequences: International differences in work related values’, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

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Sustainability and staff engagement Using sustainability issues to engage staff was the topic of three presentations by Mark Thompson, Director of Sustainability & Climate Change at PwC; Brian Doherty, Communications & Change Lead, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at Capgemini and Dr Jonathan Foot, Chief Environmental Strategy and Compliance Officer at EDF Energy

ustainability – which most staff understand to mean ‘green’ – is not just a tool for engagement, but essential for the future survival of businesses. It has to be led from the top. Only when the leadership ‘gets’ it can any sort of framework for engagement and participation be implemented. One size does not fit all either – people come from different standpoints and engage to different degrees. Nevertheless, there are a

number of common elements that make for a successful programme, which include keeping the message simple and repeating it often, involving employees in developing the approach, creating opportunities to engage at different levels, being able to measure the impact and celebrating success. The case studies below give examples of how these elements have been put into action in different contexts. I KF

PwC: green building design PwC wanted to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability via the design of its new office building at 7 More London Riverside. It got involved with the design at an early stage to ensure that enough sustainability features; a tri-generator fuelled by used cooking oil; regenerative braking in lifts; passive heating and cooling systems; provision for cyclists; etc, were built in to achieve the first Building Research Establishment BREEAM* ‘Outstanding’ award for a commercial building. A staff engagement programme was developed for the opening in April 2011. A short film telling the story of the building was supported by discreet signage at ‘points of discovery’ and an exhibition in the foyer. PwC tracked the impact on staff via its 6-monthly survey which revealed a significant increase in staff awareness and understanding of sustainability. The survey also demonstrated a significant difference between the population in the new building as compared to that at its other main London office, Embankment Place, with a marked uplift in staff impressions of PwC’s ‘responsibility’, and levels of staff engagement for the occupants of 7 More London over the other location. So worthwhile did it prove that PwC determined to repeat the strategy when it recently refurbished Embankment Place, which has just been awarded the highest ever BREEAM Outstanding score, despite the difficulties inherent in achieving this in a refurbishment. * BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is the world’s foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings

Capgemini: Smarter Travel Week Smarter Travel Week is an annual global initiative executed jointly by the Capgemini Sustainability team and the internal communications function. The week-long campaign set out to achieve three objectives: • To increase awareness of the environmental impact of our business travel • To maintain a sustained reduction of our travel-related carbon emissions • To highlight the investment Capgemini has made in supporting and providing alternatives to travel. The campaign is underpinned by a wide range of rich-media content channelled through our intranet combined with low-tech but effective posters and banners. These were supported by downloadable leaflets such as the ‘Top Ten Travel Tips’. Overall, the campaign exceeded in its objectives. Globally, Smarter Travel Week was the second most visited web content of the month. In the UK, our carbon reporting continues to show a decline in travel related emissions and a continuing uptake in our expanded global video-conferencing facilities. info - january / february - 79

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Breakfast at Harrods Over breakfast, Michael Ward, Managing Director of Harrods, talked about the journey to transform the world’s most famous ‘corner shop’ into a luxury experience worthy of the brands it carries

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Michael Ward

ichael Ward welcomed members of the Luxury Club, chaired by Bertrand Michaud, Managing Director of Hermès, to an exclusive breakfast in the Tea Room of the world famous department store, long before its doors opened to the public. He explained that the Tea Room was ‘a salute to history’ given Harrods’ origins as a grocer with a specialism in tea, but it was the store’s historic and ongoing relationship with luxury brands that he spoke about. ‘We are constantly pushing the boundaries to produce something very luxurious, but that means spending inordinate amounts of money to achieve standards that luxury brands create on a day-to-day basis,’ he said. Harrods’ unique, yet traditional way of doing this is to invest in ‘that absolute journey for customers’. He gave as an example the Homeware Store, which Harrods has recently redeveloped, welcoming back traditional brands, and offering everything from cooking pots to original Monets and Renoirs. ‘Being seen in absolute luxury gives real authority to brands,’ he said, ‘but we have to make sure that when we do it, we create the extraordinary.’ The impact on sales has certainly been out of the ordinary, with the average transaction value over the last five years increasing by 85%. Harrods’ major investment plans for the store are aimed at this elevation of brands and products, taking things to another level with a continued concentration on the absolute luxury sector. Michael emphasised that service was as important as the physical environment. ‘The very best service is part of the quality of experience,’ he said, ‘and a lot of work goes into understanding customers’ softer issues and feedback’. Technology has helped Harrods to know its customers better and facilitates communication and interaction through, for example, a Customer Relationship Management programme, an innovative point-of-sale system, and an award-winning Harrods magazine app. With 76% of all transactions recorded on rewards cards, Harrods now has great visibility on what customers are doing when, so that offers can be tailored and brand adjacencies optimised. ‘It has enabled us to get down to that absolute level of detail and understand what brands are working or not working and why. Not only can we glean volumes of brands sold but also correlate it back to age and size.’ Commenting on Harrods’ great breadth of customer, Michael described the overseas representation from Asia and the Middle East as ‘balanced’. While China represents 20% of all overseas visitors, these tend to be wealthy individual travellers because of visa restrictions and the fact that Harrods refuses to be involved with tour groups. While Harrods still has a core of British customers, Michael admitted that some had been alienated under the previous ownership and they were working discreetly and respectfully to rebuild bridges. Michael emphasised that Harrods was only at the start of a journey towards its transformation into an absolute luxury experience for customers, not only by putting the wow factor into its one million square feet, but also by giving them the best possible service. And by his own humble admission, ‘We are not quite there yet’. I KF

Pierre de Maigret, Bertrand Michaud

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Emerging from an abnormal recession David Kern, Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce gave his perspective of the recession and prospects for UK, European and global recovery

he recession and its aftermath Eurozone tensions and Recessions are a normal part of weakness the economic cycle – the economy While recurring crises have beset gets too bubbly, inflation rises, the Eurozone, the European governments hike interest rates, Central Bank has been its salvation. adjustments are made and then life Nevertheless, political and returns to normal within a period of economic tensions are likely to time. Not so the 2008 recession, which persist given the disparity between was driven by banking failure and an economies and the expectation excessive build-up of debt. Unlike a in southern Europe that Germany normal cyclical downturn, this was a will always cough up, albeit banking recession akin to the 1930s, unwillingly. Unemployment is at and therefore longer and nastier. But, a high 12.2% in the Eurozone as a although things are starting to look whole, but huge discrepancies exist better, it is by no means the end of between countries, ranging from the story. Output remains below pre4.9% in Austria to 27.6% in Greece. crisis levels in most G7 countries, Youth unemployment is at socially David Kern with the UK’s growth still 2.5% below explosive levels in countries such what it was in Q1 2008, and 17-18% lower than what it as Greece and Spain, where it has topped 55%. could have been if it had continued on trend. Eurozone GDP growth remains weak, down from 0.3% in Q2 to 0.1% in Q3, after a few quarters of negative Controversial and risky policies growth, and is expected to come in at -0.4% for 2013, In the face of financial meltdown, central banks had to and squeak in at 1% for 2014. Important decisions were resort to unconventional policies, cutting interest rates to delayed by the German election and the banking union almost zero, and providing liquidity on a huge scale. The remains a big question. jury is still out on whether this ‘quantitative easing’ (QE) has had a positive impact on the real economy, and many UK improving but fragile believe it has been risky with asset price inflation and Prolonged stagnation has finally given way to modest the creation of bubbles among the potential problems. growth in the UK with statistical revisions showing there How to exit from these policies is the next challenge and was no double dip let alone triple dip recession. While the markets have been unsettled at the prospect of ‘tapering’ UK labour market has proved resilient and flexible, avoiding as governments seek to scale back their bond buying. large-scale unemployment, productivity has suffered and has yet to return to growth levels. SMEs weathered this Sluggish global recovery recession better than in the 1990s, but still lack adequate The exceptionally deep recession has been followed by financing from banks that remain risk averse. an unusually slow recovery. De-leveraging – reducing Reducing the structural fiscal deficit is proving a long and painful task. Despite the strength of the labour market, excessive debt levels – and budget deficit reductions have been the main dampening factors. China and India tax receipts are inadequate, and additional spending cuts were the least affected by the crisis, but are now facing will be needed in tandem with effective growth policies. problems of their own with China’s economy overly Forward guidance, Mark Carney’s new policy initiative, is reliant on high levels of investment and India grappling facing challenges but can help. A prolonged period of low interest rates rather than more QE is the tonic required. with a fiscal deficit. US performance is stronger than Europe’s thanks to its more dynamic and competitive The UK’s relationship with the EU will be a major economy, but its recovery is weak by historic standards, UK policy issue over the next few years as it pushes for a and frequently plagued by political paralysis. more liberal regulatory environment for business. I KF info - january / february - 81

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legal forum

A year in review he Legal Forum is approaching the first anniversary of its launch, having had a full and productive year. Progress continues apace on the guidebook on legal issues in Franco-British environments, with each of the subcommittees – Litigation, Director’s Duties and the Bribery Act – presenting reviewed and advanced draft versions of their sections at the latest session. The publication and launch of the booklet is envisaged for early 2014. The first Annual Legal Lunch, held on 17 October at the Connaught, was a great success and very well attended, not only by legal professionals but also many from the wider business community. Speaking on the formation of the UK Supreme Court, its first and immediate past President, the Right Honourable The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers KG, PC, entertained the gathering with his witty story-telling style, and answered questions with aplomb. At two of the most recent sessions, presentations were given on topical legal issues: Jacques Buhart and Jacob Grierson, respectively Partner, and Head of the Paris office and Partner at McDermott Will & Emery, tackled the issue of the French Blocking Statute, which imposes stringent restrictions upon French nationals and residents when complying with foreign courts’ requests for evidence/

Lord Phillips with Olivier Morel, Legal Forum Co-chair

documents that could be harmful to French interests. This perfectly illustrates the different approaches of common law and civil law to civil litigation. Co-chair Michael Butcher gave a presentation on the workings of a Legal Department of a UK subsidiary of a French company, and the many challenging issues this raises. He provided useful examples and practical tips of the ways in which such challenges could be overcome, for the smooth operation of the legal function across two jurisdictions and the benefit of the company as a whole. This is a topic close to the hearts of many of the Legal Forum members, particularly in-house legal counsels. I KF

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HR Forum

Legal Forum

When: 15 January, 8:30-10:00am Where: The French Chamber of Commerce Chaired by Rose Gledhill, HR Director – Northern Europe International SOS Open to HR Directors and Managers

When: 31 January, 9:00-10:30am Where: The French Chamber of Commerce Co-chaired by Michael Butcher and Olivier Morel, Partner & Head of International Corporate Investment, Cripps Harries Hall LLP

SME & Entrepreneurs Club’s Annual Brainstorming Session

Climate Change Forum

When: 16 January, 8:30-10:00am Where: The French Chamber of Commerce Co-chaired by Frédéric Larquetoux, Senior Manager, Financial Accounting Advisory Services, EY and Sébastien Delecour, Managing Director of Doublet UK. Open to all SMEs and Entrepreneurs

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When: 4 February, 10:00am-12:00pm Where: The French Chamber of Commerce Chaired by Richard Brown, Chairman, Department for Transport Franchising Advisory Panel. By application only For more information, please contact Karim Mijal at kmijal@ccfgb.co.uk or 0207 092 6638

f o rt h co m i n g e v e n t s

16 Jan

18.30 - 20.30

Rendez-vous chez... Aubaine At: Aubaine, 31 Dover Street, London W1S 4ND Sponsor: Aubaine Cost: £25 + VAT per person Start 2014 à la française and celebrate La Galette des Rois with us! Experience this popular custom and taste the delicious King’s cake, an almond-puff-pastry-cake and you may become the King (or the Queen) of the day! Meet new business contacts from a wide range of industry sectors and discover Aubaine’s gastronomy and savoir faire. Combining the elegance of a Parisian salon with the relaxed ambience of a Provençal bistro. Participate in a lucky draw and take a goody bag home. contact: Kim Darragon on kdarragon@ccfgb.co.uk or call 020 7092 6642

At: Ciné Lumière, French Institute Cost: £45 + VAT pp including buffet dinner Dress code: Business attire Two entrepreneurs talk about their experiences, set backs and routes to success.

Jan

18.00 - 21.00

The debate will be moderated by Marc Roche, the London Bureau Chief for the French newspaper Le Monde, who has been based in London since 1985.

For the first edition, join 200 participants to hear from:

Nathalie Gaveau

Arnaud Vaissié

Founder & CEO of Shopcade

Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of International SOS

A serial entrepreneur motivated by an urge to create and innovate

A visionary entrepreneur driven by passion and conviction

contact: Karim Mijal at kmijal@ccfgb.co.uk or 0207 092 6638

11 Feb

19.00 - 21.00

Say Cheese... and Wine At: La Cave à Fromage, 148-150 Portobello Road, W11 2DZ Sponsors: La Cave à Fromage and Wine Story Cost: £25 + VAT per person Inspired by INFO’s cheese and wine column with all its tantalising pairing, this gourmet cheese and wine tasting is a chance to try the real thing. Discover exceptional cheeses, expertly paired to complimentary wines while meeting new business contacts from a wide range of industry sectors. Exchange with fellow members and build your business in a friendly setting. contact: Kim Darragon on kdarragon@ccfgb.co.uk or call 020 7092 6642

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f o rt h co m i n g e v e n t s

Mar

Rendez-vous chez... Léon de Bruxelles At: Léon de Bruxelles, 24 Cambridge Circus, Charing Cross, London WC2H 8AA In partnership: Léon de Bruxelles Cost: £25 + VAT per person

18.30 - 20.30

Located in the very heart of London’s Theatreland, near to Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square, Léon de Bruxelles is now open in London, celebrating 120 years of cooking world famous Belgian cuisine. Indulge in a wine, beer and canapé reception at this authentic Belgian ‘brasserie’ while networking with business contacts from a wide range of sectors. There will also be a lucky draw.

contact: Kim Darragon on kdarragon@ccfgb.co.uk or call 020 7092 6642

13 Mar

18.30 - 21.00

Member to Member Cocktail and Exhibition 2014 At: Pullman London St Pancras, 100-110 Euston Road London NW1 2AJ Cost: early bird tickets until 31/01: £30 + VAT Normal prices: £40 + VAT for one person; £60 + VAT for two people As the Chamber’s largest cocktail with over 200 participants, this event gives companies the opportunity to promote their products and/or services in person to other members from the Franco-British business community. It also provides extensive networking opportunities with representatives of very varied sectors, from SMEs to blue-chip companies. You can participate to this unique event and… • Encounter a wide variety of exhibitors • Discover the Member to Member Booklet with exclusive offers • Network with the other participants To book a stand or for more information, contact Suzanne Lycett on slycett@ccfgb.co.uk or call 020 7092 6651

Women, Inspiration and Leadership Guest speakers: Dame Helen Alexander, former President of the CBI and Laurence Parisot, former President of MEDEF (French equivalent of the CBI) At: TBC Cost: Early bird tickets until 15/02: £30 + VAT Normal prices: £40 + VAT pp; £60 + VAT for 2, including cocktail

Mar

18.30 - 20.30

Dame Helen Alexander Laurence Parisot

Two women with incredible career paths share their experiences and inspirational insights on getting to the top in an interactive debate.

contact: Kim Darragon on kdarragon@ccfgb.co.uk or call 020 7092 6642

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ÂŠ photo credits: VINCI, Crossrail, BBMV and MVB photo libraries

CONSTRUCTING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE At VINCI Construction Grands Projets, we engineer solutions that are not only financially competitive, but also work in a way that is sustainable for the planet. Sustainability goes beyond the care we take in protecting our people and our environment. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also a commitment to offer new solutions to our clients and stakeholders. We nurture Innovation. Every two years, the VINCI Innovation Awards get increased entries, reaching 2,075 in 2013. These awards reflect the core values of the group and we are proud at VINCI Construction Grands Projets that the Lee Tunnel project (Thames Water) was awarded the Grand Prize in the UK & Ireland. To learn more please visit www.vinci-construction-projects.com/british-isles

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