Paris Summit Calls For Across-the-board Acceleration in Data Transformation

For the second year running, HEC Paris partnered up with Netexplo, Les Echos and La villa numeris for a one-day summit on data transformation. The January 18 Assises at Bercy debated ways to accelerate the use of data in business, politics and the economy. HEC Paris Dean Eloïc Peyrache led a five-person HEC delegation to the annual event which, this year, featured French Minister Bruno Le Maire and Secretary of State Cédric O.

11 months after the inaugural Assises de la Data Transformation, the 100%-online data summit focused on best strategies and data practices in CAC 40 companies. The 17 sessions also explored ways political, educational and economic decision-makers could contribute to the acceleration of data transformation. “We’ve moved away from questioning and experimentation to demanding practical gains,” said Jean-Rémi Gratadour, Executive Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at HEC Paris, in remarks which launched the eight-hour event.

As was the case last year, Gratadour co-presented with Julien Lévy - Academic Director of the same HEC center - an in-depth study on data practices and policies among France’s major companies. “The urgency of digital transformation,” pursued Gratadour, “translates into most companies using data in their overall strategy to gain in productivity, efficiency and, crucially, in customer-centricity.” For Lévy, the heart of data transformation lays in transforming a debt into an asset: “Companies must gather the data they accumulated in the past and use it as an active lever to create value.”

Agile Minds and Methods

HEC graduate (2006) and Secretary of State in charge of Digital Transition, Cédric O, insisted at the outset of the summit that France is on the cusp of a major economic upheaval which finds its source in data transformation. But challenges remain: “One of these,” he said, “is to build a narrative which federates and not only sweeps all our economy towards a transformation but also adheres the rest of society.” For Julien Lévy, this commitment needs to be accompanied by agile minds and methods. This agility is brought about, said the HEC Affiliate Professor, by the creation of teams federating business leaders, project owners and tech experts: “Agile methods at all levels are vital. However, while industrialization remains the objective, we must not hesitate to promote local experiences, those that are closest to our needs and professions,” he concluded.

Investing in local technology was also at the heart of Bruno Le Maire’s intervention. The Minister of Economy and Finance insisted that technological sovereignty was key to political sovereignty. “We have all the necessary intelligence. The problem resides in our past failures in investing the tens of billions of euros necessary in (this) sector. We must massively invest nowadays to get out of this situation.” This was music to the ears of the participants at the summit, both in the private and public sectors. These ranged from SNCF Group Chief Digital Officer Christophe Fanichet to Airbus Executive Vice-president, Catherine Jestin and Emilie Mouren-Renouard, the Vice-President of Air Liquide (in charge of innovation). They were present to share on-the-ground experiences of the digitalization components in their activities.

Key Educational Partnership

Last year, Eloïc Peyrache insisted on the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to Data Transformation and AI. During the 2022 edition, the HEC Paris Dean repeated his call to bring together different disciplines to answer the great societal challenges. He was invited to the event to discuss with Ecole polytechnique President Eric Labaye about the dynamism of Hi! Paris, the two-year-old center created by HEC and the Institut Polytechnique de Paris. “Our partnership has become indispensable,” he told the audience. “We are aiming at creating an ecosystem which will be at the forefront of Europe’s ambitions on digital development. With this in mind, we have brought together professors of law from HEC and professors of computing science from Ecole Polytechnique to explore, alongside our five business sponsors, ways of growing our AI impact on a European stage. For, we are committed to answer global needs but also to have a competitive edge at that level.”

Peyrache concluded by inviting all those attending to follow the next Hi!ckathon organized by both schools. This second edition will focus on AI and sustainability. It hopes to emulate the success of the inaugural event which hosted over 200 participants in a high-energy 48-hour hackathon in front of business leaders. “Last time,” noted Peyrache, “the students proposed such innovative high-tech solution that a few were taken up by the sponsors who instigated exploratory missions to apply them.”