BEB France: a grand affair
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Tuesday's Best of European Business award ceremony in Paris was a grand affair with over 800 guests from the top tiers of business and politics | ||
In 1989, the fall of the Berlin wall gave a new boost to the political and economic development of Europe. 20 years later the million dollar question is: Will the financial crisis strengthen this union or lead to its breakdown? This was the central issue of the 5th "Rencontres de L'Entreprise Européenne" (European Business Meetings) hosted on Tuesday evening by Roland Berger Paris, the economic daily "La Tribune" and the "Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales" HEC. The exceptionally successful event at the Museum of Architecture and Heritage in Paris brought together prominent figures from the European Union and leading French companies. The two central acts of the evening were an exciting debate on "Europe, 20 years since the fall of the Berlin wall", and the award ceremony for the 2009 Best of European Business awards in France. | ||
"A global illness" Two key-note speakers kicked off the debate about Europe's status quo and future: Vincent Mercier, CEO of Roland Berger Paris, and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the Europe-minded former French President. In Giscard d'Estaing's words, the financial and economic crisis is a "global illness" that cannot, however, be healed on a global scale but must be dealt with at a regional level. A roundtable discussion ensued on how to survive the current crisis and regain competitiveness for tomorrow that brought together a top-notch panel: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Didier Lombard, CEO of France Télécom, Benoît Potier, CEO of Air Liquide, and Jean-Cyril Spinetta, CEO of Air France-KLM. To conclude the debates, Jean Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, outlined his views on the lessons that have to be drawn from the current financial and economic crisis. "We need to distinguish clearly between the many errors that have occurred and address them vigorously, and the elements that have turned out to be good," he said. Trichet listed three strong points that "will help us with this reconstruction work": monetary union, a macroeconomic policy framework oriented toward the medium term and Europe's open approach to business. | ||
"Prix de l'Entreprise Européenne" The French "Best of European Business" awards, presented for the fifth year in a row, aim to promote the European way of doing business, to highlight winning strategies and to understand their specifics. In addition to the "Grand Prix" of European business, six other awards were handed over to French companies in three categories: Growth, Europeanness, Mergers & Aquisitions. Each category had a winner from the realm of global players and one SME awardee. The award winning companies were: | ||
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This year, the BEB France jury was chaired by Didier Lombard, CEO of France Télécom, and comprised Michel de Rosen, CEO of SGD, Vincent Mercier, CEO of Roland Berger Paris, François Lenglet, economics editor-in-chief of La Tribune, Bernard Ramanantsoa, CEO of HEC Group, and Michel Bon of Vermeer Capital Partners. | ||
In the run-up to Tuesday's event, "La Tribune" and Roland Berger had jointly published six articles on the impact the fall of the Berlin wall has had on Europe. More specifically, the stories looked at three countries (Germany, Poland, Spain) and three industries (telecommunications, utilities, automotive). In Tuesday's "La Tribune", BEB juror François Lenglet had posed two questions that became supremely relevant to the discussion later that night at the Museum of Architecture and Heritage: "Have we Europeans lived up to the promises the white night of November 9, 1989 held for us? And don't we risk to build new walls in Europe if we return to the categories of 'The State' and 'the Nation'?" |
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