2023-07-10 11:00:00
Among the most interesting speakers, two guests stood out: Véronique Bédague (Nexity) and Sophie Binet (CGT). The first, during a round table on “What choices for society?”, warned that we would have to go through a very tough period before the situation improves – which is why hope should be cultivated, l eye fixed on the horizon. “The energy renovation is going to be extremely uncomfortable: today, the owners do not know how much it will cost them, when the work will have to be done, or how to go regarding it. In the city too, there will be a transition period before there are really fewer cars and more islands of freshness. For a while, thermal cars will be banned in the city. It will be uncomfortable. Finally, let’s say it: the energy transition will increase inequalities. Renovation energy is expensive. Some will be able to afford it, while others will not. Young people too: today, they cannot buy. We treat them badly. It is uncomfortable for them, and for their parents”. But Véronique Bédague remains firm: even if this observation is difficult to hear now, “the society we are drawing is really nicer than the one we have today. It must be said!”
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Sophie Binet was taking part in the Rencontres for the first time as general secretary of the CGT. During a debate on the rebalancing of power in the company, she called for the number of salaried directors, today isolated and “on a jump seat rather than on a full-fledged chair”, to increase sharply. , to reach 50% of the board of directors in the private sector. In public companies, it rather proposes a third of salaried administrators and a third of user representatives. It also calls for the presence of these salaried administrators in the audit committees and especially in the remuneration committees, “we need a price increase/salary increase loop, and no longer a price increase/profit increase loop”. Pierre Ferracci (Alpha Conseil), agreed with him, emphasizing that: “in the countries of the North and East which practice this type of co-determination, the dynamics of companies are not slowed down by the sharing of power in the company”.
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Artificial intelligence in debate
Bruno Le Maire, for his part, gave a very offensive speech during a round table “Sustainable growth, do we really have a choice?”, calling for a return to the fundamentals which allow a certain optimism: “we are approaching full employment , we are relocating factories, we are the leading financial center in Europe!” For the short term, the Minister of Economy and Finance assured that it was possible for the European Union to develop its own artificial intelligence system (OpenAI) within five years. According to him, this would help improve the productivity of an economy that “lacks momentum”: “Thanks to generative artificial intelligence, we will be able to regain productivity and be more efficient for the first time in several generations”. Better: “Before laying the foundations for the regulation of artificial intelligence, I plead in favor of the innovation, investment and the goal of having a European OpenAI within five years, with the necessary calculators, scientists and algorithms. It’s possible”. As for the long term, Bruno Le Maire places his hopes not on decline, “a dead end”, but “on the objective of becoming the first green economy in Europe by 2050”.
Other business leaders were content to assure that they would all have to pay more for their services, without any immediate solutions. The stormy Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of TotalEnergies, is one of them. Throwing a spade at his neighbour, Catherine MacGregor, boss of Engie, the boss of TotalEnergies said, “I hate doing Madame Soleil. I predict that, because of the energy transition and that we are investing less, fundamentally, in fossil fuels, and in particular oil, the price of oil will remain high for a long time […]. On the other hand, gas, as there was panic and we are investing everywhere, at the end of the decade there will be too much liquefied natural gas”. And on green energies, the boss showered the optimists: ” it is certainly nice to decarbonize solar energy, but it is intermittent, and it is an increasingly complex system to handle”. In short, “carbon-free energy will cost more than today”, a- he insisted, “Don’t tell people that because the Sun is free, it won’t be expensive.”
What we can remember behind the scenes
As in previous years, the informal meetings took place at the Ephémère café. The major Parisian consulting agencies had all come to Aix in particular force: Stéphane Fouks (Havas), with a team of 35 employees, Forward (formerly DGM Conseil and Avisa), with its main thinking heads (Michel Calzaroni and Christian d’ Oléon), Image 7, Orson, Hopscotch… So much so that behind the scenes, fatigue was felt. “Too many agencies!” growled one executive, struck by the parade. The situation has almost become grotesque: many communicators have set up veritable camps at the Café Ephémère, laying hands on the folding chairs, jealously guarding entire tables that have often remained sadly empty, and condemning other users of the Rencontres to the dangers of the wandering and sunstroke.
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“We are here to support our customers”, tries to excuse a young com consultant. “Customers are no longer children,” retorted the communications director of a large financial group, who looked in vain for a corner of a bench to sit on. “And they don’t need a delegation of 20 people,” she sighs, especially when many are already coming with their close guards.
This edition, just as “CAC40” as the previous year, marks a clear trend since the birth of meetings in 2001: “it has become more and more business over time” notes a long-time observer. Many bosses have thus been identified – Thomas Buberl (Axa), Florent Ménégaud (Michelin) wearing a Bibendum cap, Valérie Baudson (Amundi), Augustin de Romanet (ADP), Marguerite Bérard (BNP Paribas), Thierry Déau (Meridiam), Jean-Dominique Sénard (Renault-Nissan), Jean-Pierre Farandou (SNCF)… hold a lounge in the shade of an umbrella, exchanging a few words with their executive counterparts, or receiving a court of bankers business executives, com’ advisers, journalists, start-ups and admiring members of the public. And, more rarely, as was the case with Eric Lombard (Caisse des dépôts), talking at length with young students present on campus.
“Some even came when they weren’t speaking on round tables, just to make appointments,” slipped a source.
Also, in an attempt to counter this development and revitalize the debate of ideas, the Circle has experimented with a new format. Named “controversy”, it opposes for half an hour two speakers with different backgrounds on divisive themes, such as “ethical finance or fake finance?” ; “can the world get out of patriarchy?“; “wages versus profits, an inevitable conflict?“, “grandpa boomers, a burden for savings?”.
Great interpersonal game
Other meetings were held discreetly in the surrounding hotels, but this time once more we were able to witness the great interpersonal game, rumors and influence. Some were credible – according to a union official, Elisabeth Borne, expected on Sunday, would have canceled her visit to Aix “blocked in Paris by the composition of the new government”. Others were much more risky and unfamiliar with local realities, “did you know that Christophe Castaner was going to take the town hall of Marseille to be able to give it to Emmanuel Macron when he is no longer president?”
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The riots were largely absent from public debates, even though Marseille, the third largest city in France a few tens of kilometers from Aix, was one of the most heavily affected. But, in off, they were on everyone’s lips, sometimes under the pretext of humor – “and then, you claim to manufacture unbreakable showcases when they do not resist the first throw of a stone?” – sometimes to express a muted and very shared concern. “All of this will bring us the RN to power in 2027. But me, how am I preparing, as boss? What am I anticipating?” Asked a worried man. No politician might answer.
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