Third edition of REF: when business leaders think about how to “shake everything up”

La REF 2024, une journée de réflexion sur l'adaptation des entreprises, organisée à Mauguio par le Medef Hérault Montpellier. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

Le Medef Hérault Montpellier organise, ce jeudi 12 septembre, au domaine des Grands Chais, à Mauguio, la troisième édition de ses REF, ses Rencontres des entrepreneurs de France.

This third edition of the Ref (Rencontre des entrepreneurs de France), organized this Thursday, September 12 by Medef Hérault Montpellier, begins with a cry of alarm. That of Bruno Arcadipane, vice-president of the national Medef.

“Since July 7 (the date of the second round of legislative elections, following the dissolution of the National Assembly, Editor's note), there has been no more investment in France”, he told the large audience. A way of saying that, due to the lack of government, economic activity is blocked.

The adaptation challenges facing employers

A sign of concern shared by many business leaders in France and Occitanie, and which gives the level of morale of the bosses. But the meeting like the one that Medef Hérault Montpellier has been organizing for two years, must also serve to show the dynamism of the economic actors.

“It's a day of reflection”, decides Jean-Marc Oluski, its president. And behind the somewhat provocative theme of this 2024 edition, “We're shaking everything up!”, there are also the challenges of adaptation that employers face, which need to be discussed.

The “damage of our productivist economy”

“We're shaking everything up” is first and foremost dictated by the evolution of the society, of the world. That regarding the way of consuming wealth. Including by the company. Economist, Aurélie Piet speaks of the “the damage caused by our productivist economic model, while we have never lived in a rich world so much”.

According to her, it is a question of “rethinking growth at all costs, this exponential volumetric growth of always more”. If “frugality for companies is not something new”, as Marion Polge, a researcher at Montpellier Management, pointed out, the issue, today, is to adapt to the “new pillars” of the economy.

“We need artificial intelligence”

Among these pillars that require companies to adapt, to “shake up”its usual paradigms, there is the increasingly important place taken by digital technology and artificial intelligence. “France is an open country, we need artificial intelligence”, insisted, during his introduction to the day, Bruno Arcadipane.

The need for the “great technological leap” is shared by all. “Many people think that AI is still very far away, that it is muddy, observes Benoît Tabaka, Secretary General of Google France. But it is already here. We have reached a breaking point in terms of innovation.

“Simpler and less expensive solutions”

He recognizes that this break is achieved “by default”. “It is imposed by the reflection led by the head of the company on what needs to be changed in his company”, he explains. He adds: “AI and technologies are available to be more competitive”. “These are simpler and less expensive solutions for the company”, insists Robin Rivaton, CEO of Stonal and co-chair of Comex 40 of Medef (which brings together young business leaders).

Benoît Tabaka recalls the conclusions of a recent study on the subject from an economic point of view. “It estimated that the use of AI could generate between 200 and 250 billion in terms of GDP gains in France”. The company, which must think about evolving and renewing itself, can find an extraordinary lever for growth there. It remains to appropriate it.

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