Fifth European Business Meetings in Paris | News

The"Fifth European Business Meetings" organized by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, La Tribune and HEC, was held on March 17, at the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris. The topic this year was Europe: 20 years after the fall of the Wall.

In 1989, the fall of the Wall provided new impetus for building a politically and economically unified Europe. Will the financial crisis of 2009 strengthen this union or break it apart?

Aimed at the CEOs of France's largest companies, the European Business Meetings are designed to bring them together to think about what Europe means to French companies.

Best of European Business

The Best of European Business awards were presented at this evening's event. For the fifth year running, the BEB awards, presented by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, La Tribune and HEC Group, aim to promote the European management model, highlight winning strategies and understand what sets them apart.

In addition to the grand prize, six other prizes were awarded to French companies in two categories – large companies and SMEs – which are most dynamic in Europe in terms of growth, "Europeanness" (strongest presence in Europe in terms of sales, employees and locations) and mergers and acquisitions.

On February 9 this year, a jury chaired by Didier Lombard, CEO of France Telecom, and comprising Michel de Rosen, CEO, SGD, Vincent Mercier, CEO, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants Paris, and François Lenglet, editor-in-chief of business at La Tribune, Bernard Ramanantsoa, CEO, HEC Group, and Michel Bon, chose seven winners.

Grand prize for European business:
Pernod Ricard, wines and spirits

Growth prize:

Large companies: Alstom, infrastructure and services in energy and transportation

SMEs: Devoteam, engineering and consulting for information systems infrastructure

"Europeanness" prize:

Large companies: Michelin, tires

SMEs: Touax, leasing maritime container fleets, barges, freight cars and modular assemblies

Mergers and acquisitions prize:

Large companies: Danone, food

SMEs: Cegedim, software and IT services for the healthcare sector

Methodology:

A joint study by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and HEC Group, using publicly available information, enabled nominees to be chosen in a four-stage process:

First, an initial set of 300 leading French companies was chosen. The selection criteria were: being an independent company (no major government stake, not a subsidiary of a parent company in the same sector), generating at least 60% of sales in Europe, not being a financial holding company and not having won in 2005, 2006 or 2008.
In the next stage, the pool was whittled down to 140 companies based on their financial performance and split into two categories (large companies and SMEs).
A multi-criteria scoring model based on their presence in Europe and financial performance led to 22 finalists being considered by the jury.
The jury named seven winners.

Panel discussion "Europe: 20 years after the fall of the Wall", 19:00-20:45

To start the evening, Vincent Mercier, CEO, Roland Berger Paris, gave a talk on: "Europe: three events, three facts, three aims".

Then Valéry Giscard d'Estaing spoke about "Europe: 20 years since the fall of the Wall".

Next, high-caliber guests discussed the topic "Survival today; competitiveness tomorrow ".

Moderated by François Lenglet, editor-in-chief of business at La Tribune, this roundtable discussion brought together Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Didier Lombard, CEO, France Telecom, Benoît Potier, CEO, Air Liquide and Jean-Cyril Spinetta, CEO, Air France KLM.

To round off the discussion, Jean Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank gave us his views on "What lessons can we draw from the economic and financial crisis?"