Christophe Lecourtier, UBIFRANCE
Release Date: 2009-05-13
When you took up your position as Director General of UBIFRANCE in February last year the global economic outlook was very different from today and since then global trade made a nosedive. What are your priorities in the current environment?Our top priority is to communicate to French SMEs that the world today can also offer opportunities. We had a very interesting meeting with Minister Lagarde and the Chinese Ambassador to France last month, where the Ambassador noted that the Chinese characters for crisis were danger and opportunity. This is exactly what we try to communicate to French companies. Companies should not hide in their shelters waiting for the economic crisis to pass, they have to go abroad and look for opportunities. In addition to sending this message we also offer tools to do so. We offer instruments to help SMEs to travel abroad, make business contacts and possibly sign business contracts. Therefore, we have strengthened our services and slightly reduced our prices for attending international trade fairs and visiting countries with the support of our trade offices abroad. When French companies travel abroad they will find our people waiting for them who will enable them to optimize the impact of their visit. Thirdly, which is a bit more difficult, we help French SMEs to define what the places to be are. We are telling them that emerging economies are still growing; especially China is recovering very fast from the economic crisis. Also, good developments are taking place in countries such as India, Brazil and South Africa. Even through the economic situation in OECD countries is rather bad, these countries provide an opportunity for networking, business development and potential acquisitions that could potentially take place next year when we expect an economic recovery. Last year, we organized 10,000 business trips for SMEs and our target is to reach 20,000 in 2011. Even though global trade is decreasing and bilateral relations with our key trading partners are not optimal this year, there is a slight increase in the demand for the services of UBIFRANCE. Since the beginning of the year, we have seen a 20% increase in French companies asking UBIFRANCE to help them discover new markets.
Are these French companies forced to enter new export markets to absorb the decrease in demand from the French market, as well as traditional export markets for French companies, or is this change opportunity driven and future oriented?
They see that the economic situation is bad in France and its traditional trading partners. Our trade with the EU and countries such as Switzerland and Norway makes up 70% or our total international trade, while countries like Germany and The Netherlands have a far bigger market share in emerging countries. We expect that this economic crisis might be a turning point in the mindset of French SMEs. It may be a good opportunity for them to discover new markets that are beyond their current comfort zone. They have to go to Brazil, India and China to understand what is going on in these countries, and we are there to support French SMEs at the right place at the right time.
Every country in Europe has similar export promotion agencies that are helping the business community to internationalize and, of course, French SMEs are chasing the same opportunities as the Germans, British and others. What makes French SMEs unique in this international competition, and to which extent are they at a disadvantage as a result of years of looking for opportunities close to home and on familiar terrain?
First of all, it is very important for French companies to be competing with other European companies because global trade is a competition and our companies have to be able to benchmark against international standards. If you do not know who your competitors are, you will never win the competition. We are happy to help French SMEs to discover their competitors as well as new markets.
French companies offer very good products and services because the majority or our elite are engineers, so they are very innovative. On the other hand, we do not have the British, Dutch, German or Italian tradition of merchants. For a very long time we had a huge national market, in terms of population we were the biggest country in Europe, except for Russia. At the same time, France had a large colonial empire until the 1960s and we used to trade with our colonies. We had to discover first of all Europe. General De Gaulle chose Europe over the French colonial empire, especially Algeria, so we moved our focus to Europe which is a huge market today. Our focus on the Middle East, Far East, and the Americas is even more recent. At the same time, the Germans, British, Italians, and Dutch have been going to China for decades. These countries have developed well organized strategies based on the support of their agencies and ministries. Another disadvantage compared with the Germans is that we are not world champions in machine-tools engineering for industry. We have many things to offer, but we are not as prominent as the Germans in this field, which in recent decades has been driving the surge of the German economy.
People immediately understand what “Made in Germany” means, what should they think when you say “Made in France”?
Our advantage is exactly that. In recent decades we have not only witnessed a surge in global industrial capacity, we have also seen hundreds of millions of new consumers entering the global middle class. China, India, Brazil, Central and Eastern Europe, and Russia are the best examples of this development. I am not trying to be arrogant, but while “Made in Germany” may be considered as the best brand for industry, I am sure that “Made in France” is one of the world’s best brand for consumer goods like fashion, cosmetics, food products, and wine. With the brand “Made in France”, we can very easily open doors in these areas. These new consumers are very happy to buy French products as long as we make that choice available. I am not saying that we are doing that anywhere in the world, otherwise our trade balance would be very different, but I am very optimistic about what French companies will achieve in the coming years. The demand from new consumers is there, we do have the offer, and the question is how to best connect those new consumers with the French products that correspond to what they want: good products that are not only the sum of their components but that also have an intangible added value that is linked to the history of our country. Our products reflect our “art de vivre”, a way of life, and a level of sophistication. That has to be sold better than we do. Our role is to connect the French products with growing international demand. L’Oreal and LVMH are doing that everywhere in the world, but behind those very big names there are thousands of SMEs that can deliver similar products. We also have a very large industrial services industry that is already operating in China in the areas of energy, electricity, and water. The question is how we can facilitate the entry into the Chinese market for French SMEs that are already suppliers to these flagship companies. We want the leading French corporations to operate as a team with the SMEs in their supply chain. Therefore, our two main areas of focus are selling French sophistication and lifestyle, and linking large corporations with SMEs in international markets.
In which sectors do you see the greatest complementarities, and therefore the greatest opportunities, between France and China?
China has been importing a lot of technologies over the past decade to upgrade the level of its technological development, and a lot of French companies have participated in this process. For example, Alcatel Lucent has been participating in the development of China’s 3G network. Alstom operates a number of factories in China building trains and metros, AREVA has been an important partner in China’s nuclear program since 1982, and both companies are now participating in the infrastructure program that China has launched last month, and Veolia and SUEZ are involved in China’s water supply activities. EDF has large activities in China and has created a ‘Club Chine’ to support suppliers entering China. These large companies, as well as Airbus, are opening the door and are gradually bringing smaller companies to China. UBIFRANCE is the body that is helping the smaller companies in the early stages of market entry, so there is a mix between big companies opening the door and UBIFRANCE helping SMEs to pass through the door.
President Chirac played an important role in opening the door for French business and is considered as a friend of China. Last month Minister Idrac visited China and Minister Lagarde will be travelling to Tianjin for the official first flight of the A320 built in China this June, which doors does UBIFRANCE intend to open on the back of these visits?
The Chinese economy has become so large that we can no longer say that the Sino-French economic and trade relations are completely linked to politics, but it is true that the political relationship defines the rhythm of everything in China. As Minister Lagarde stated, we have a very long relationship with China since France was the first western country to recognize China’s communist government in 1964. Our relationship has gone through very good periods as well as more touchy periods because we have our own foreign policy and that we want to behave as true partners and speak frankly.
We can also be practical people, and we do feel that a new chapter has been opened in recent weeks. Our government, our leading companies and UBIFRANCE are very keen on benefitting from the current momentum in the Sino-French relationship. Prominent members of the French government and institutions, large companies with a presence in China, and the SMEs that we represent are cooperating to continuously improve the Sino-French partnership. Last year, we took just over 1,500 French companies to China, which is a record in the history of UBIFRANCE. While China is not yet a top three trade partner for France, the country is already one of the top three destinations for UBIFRANCE. This illustrates that, in addition to correcting our trade balance with emerging countries, we are directing French SMEs to our leading trade partners of tomorrow.
For centuries, France has tried to be a place where people can live a good life, which is a mix between personal satisfaction, which refers to food, wine, fashion and lifestyle, and a good social organization that is reflected in our high quality transportation infrastructure, cheap energy, clean water, good hospitals, and good education. Even though we cannot call ourselves champions of the world, we do believe that we have brand new solutions based on our experience that we can offer to emerging countries with huge cities, high economic growth and a rapidly rising middle class. We have to be conscious of what we can offer rather than being afraid that these countries could replace us as leaders in our areas of competitive advantage. The future is in our hands and the new world offers far more opportunities than we experienced in the past.
| Company: | UBIFRANCE |
| Position: | Director General |
| Country: | France |