To offer project initiators the best prospects for their innovative ventures, what could be better than an efficient chain of experts, working hand in hand, in their respective fields of interest ? From technological perfecting to financial support, the CEEI, Normandie Incubation and Synergia are intensifying this “unique, multi-outlet network” approach. The result; improved resourcefulness for detecting innovation and “producing” business leaders.

The White Paper’s 10 proposals | Retis, the innovation network | Innovating: two ideas for combining talent | “In Nantes, Atlanpole is at the heart of innovation” | Without Normandie Incubation, I may well have given up

The White Paper’s 10 proposals
Entitled, “Innovation: our future”, the Retis network’s White Paper, “10 proposals to encourage innovation in France”, is a 140 page document (1). “Innovation is a major national issue, and a battle that we absolutely need to win,” explains Francis Bécard, chairman of the Retis network. This white paper is just one more brick in the wall. It is the result of prospective deliberation and collective expression and has mobilised the entire network. We anticipate that, among the ideas taken out of a few drawers, many are just waiting, and deserve, to be developed, adapted and reformulated - and that all of the new ideas which have emerged in this document will not go unheeded.”
The 10 proposals are as follows:
• Improve project detection within laboratories
• Towards a successful « Entrepreneur-Study » career path
• A unique multi-outlet network
• Certification of coaching organisations
• Increasing the flexibility and independence of coaching organisations via private status
• Rendering private investment possible
• Decompartmentalising research and enterprise through shared work contracts and relying on corporate sponsorship
• Facilitating the task of Business Angels
• Implying stock market listed businesses
• Developing societal commitment from major companies towards innovative SMEs. (1) The Retis White Paper is available at the reception desk of the Plug N’Work enterprise zone, in the Effiscience Science Park. It is also downloadable from the Retis website.

Retis, the innovation network
CEEI, incubator, technopole: three innovation tools reunited within one network, Retis. Plus over a hundred member organisations throughout the country. “In 20 years, Retis has already made great headway in the complex field of innovation coaching, new project emergence and value business creation,” highlights its chairman, Francis Bécard. According to the network’s own figures, some 12,000 business creations and collaborative projects have emerged. Over and above its capacity to federate, the network is also looking to put forward proposals.

Commissioned by the Minister Delegate for Industry, Retis published a report early 2007 summarising its deliberation on how to improve gateways between grandes écoles higher education institutions and support networks for innovation and business creation in order the generate a “new entrepreneurial culture”. Lately, in June 2008, the network published a White Paper on innovation including 10 key proposals (read boxed article).
The 3 tools:
• CEEI: European Enterprise and Innovation Centre
Detects and accompanies innovative business creation projects or projects to develop existing businesses through innovation.
The 33 CEEI’s (including Synergia in Caen) have been certified by the European Union via its EBN (European Business and Innovation Centre Network) for which Retis is the national representative. 4 further CEEI’s are currently under development in Cherbourg, Alençon, Rouen and Le Havre.
• Incubator
A direct result of the 1999 law on innovation, the incubator’s mission is to encourage the emergence and the realisation of innovative enterprise projects, either directly initiated by or associated with public research laboratories.
Retis reunites 32 incubators (including Lower Normandy’s “Normandie Incubation” and Upper Normandy’s “Arceval”), registered by the French Minister Delegate for Research.
• Technopole
A vehicle for implementing territorial development policies based on innovation. By encouraging cross-fertilisation, the Technopole provides business premises, active coordination and reunites skills.
In France, there are 50 Retis certified technopoles, including Cherbourg-Octeville and Synergia in Caen.

Innovating: two ideas for combining talent
• Soon to see the day. Backed by the Ministry for Industry’s DGE - Directorate General for Enterprise and initiated by the Retis network, a brand new competition is soon to be launched to encourage collaboration and amalgamation in innovative projects. The idea is to reunite distinctly different skills. In order to succeed, teams will need to associate at least three talents. For example, a combination of an engineer, a medical student and a business school student. Francis Bécard, chairman of Retis regrets the fact that, “the key weakness within organisations is often the team, not the project. And that French higher education is far too compartmentalised.”
• Codename: Spinnove. The idea behind the project is for a team combining several skills to work within businesses on ideas, hitherto undeveloped or likely to be abandoned. The team comprises a final year engineering school student and management school student. This two-man team’s mission is to build a business case (feasibility study performed before the business plan) for the application of a concept or technology which is currently “out of order”. Following a pilot experiment in 2007, this project, which benefits from DGE backing, will be launched, with help from Retis, throughout France in 2008-2009. “A propitious impetus needs to be created. Large companies have ideas but are reluctant to take risks. This idea of associating university and grandes écoles to create spin-off is an intelligent one,” adds Francis Bécard.

“In Nantes, Atlanpole is at the heart of innovation”
Atlanpole is France’s only technopole to combine both an incubator and a CEEI. Atlanpole’s President, Jean-Marc Ayrault, also Deputy-Mayor of Nantes, explains the success of this unique network.
You have reunited the 3 key ingredients in Nantes (incubator, CEEI and Technopole). So what are the advantages of such a strike force?
Atlanpole is the Nantes Atlantique economic and university technopole, endowed with a European Enterprise and Innovation Centre and responsible for the Pays de la Loire business Incubator. It also either coordinates or is a partner in several competitiveness clusters. The resulting shared skills and resources (or “strike force”) augments the interconnections between higher education, industry and research, hence encouraging/boosting innovation throughout the region. Over the past 10 years, Atlanpole has professionalised new jobs which are essential to developing innovation: incubation and engineering for innovative projects, be they individual or collective. Such professional excellence has rendered Atlanpole a well-proven tool serving innovative enterprise, competitiveness clusters and its associated territory.
So what results has the Atlanpole network achieved ?
Today, the Atlanpole network comprises some 300 innovative businesses, representing over 20,000 jobs. Each year, the Atlanpole team assesses around a hundred new innovative business creation projects. Twenty effectively benefit from coaching over 5 years and 10 to 12 businesses are created each year. Atlanpole has contributed, over the past 20 years, to creating around 200 innovative businesses.
Are local authorities still able to contribute to economic development?
Atlanpole is an excellent example of the commitment of regional authorities towards economic development. They have collectively been supporting Atlanpole for 20 years now. Thanks to this collective approach, Atlanpole obtains solid commitments (construction of enterprise zones, deliberation on funding, leadership in emerging sectors, organisation of international conferences…). Hence, local authorities can anticipate economic change within their respective territories. Organisations such as Atlanpole are at the very heart of innovation, capable of identifying the economic fabric’s potential and its vitality. It is committed to coordinating this “breeding ground” and to optimising it with the help of local and regional authorities.

Without Normandie Incubation, I may well have given up
At the age of 35, Gaël Duval is currently enjoying his second business adventure, with Ultéo, a software publishing company. And although his experience is vast, coaching within the incubator has enabled him to save precious time. With Ultéo, Gaël Duval has been developing his software publishing project for two years now. But for this Caen-Born DESS graduate in Computer Science, this is not the first innovative business experience. He even made a great impression in 1999, when he created Mandrakesoft with two Parisian associates. “At the time, we had designed an operating system whose conviviality enabled Linux to be popularised among private users.” Before long, this innovation was noticed in the United States and the company met with rapid and remarkable success. In 2001, with 150 employees, Mandrakesoft hit the stock exchange, in the open market. Having sold most of his shares, Gaël Duval is now embarking on a similar project. He created Ultéo (7 employees) in 2006. This budding enterprise is currently under Normandie Incubation’s wing. “I needed coaching on the project’s economic development. Here at the incubator, Laurent Protin very quickly puts me in touch with the right people. He also put me on the right track to find experts who helped me to perfect my project and to win Oséo’s national competition in 2007, which in turn has enabled me to obtain a 50% grant for my R&D activities. The same applies to finding investors. The incubator has introduced me to an entire network. Without its help, I may well have given up.”

Within a context of fierce international competition, the battle for innovation is crucial for our economy. An essential ingredient for success for our businesses. Thus is the credo that 113 organisations throughout France have decided to adopt, via the Retis network, created 20 years ago (read boxed article). Reuniting, across the country, CEEI’s (European Enterprise and Innovation Centres), Incubators and Technopoles*, around a common initiative: to network expert structures in appropriate fields of interest and located nearby project initiators. “Retis reunites a number of organisations, each and every one of them committed to its profession. Henceforth, each territory is adequately covered and excellent communication has been developed including permanently shared experience and feedback, be it for success stories or disappointments,” explains the network’s chairman, Francis Bécard. For its 20th anniversary, Retis is working full steam, boasting rather flattering figures:, “in 2007 alone, around 10,000 entrepreneurial ventures benefited from assistance from Retis and in 20 years, some 12,000 business creations and collaborative projects have been launched.”

“A unique, multi-outlet network”

Behind this excellent score, there is of course Retis’ member organisations’ capacity to mobilise local impetus, to provide expert advice and coaching up to project realisation, in other words “to produce a business leader who is ready to penetrate the socio-economic fabric on a long-term basis”, adds Pascal Hurel, Director of Synergia (Caen la Mer’s economic development agency). Synergia, a certified “technopole*”, created its CEEI in 1998, with the two key missions of detecting and coaching innovative projects (see boxed article). Technopole and CEEI: two development tools coordinated by Synergia, which recently moved to the Effiscience Science Park, within its Plug N’Work building, working hand in hand with the region’s business incubator, Normandie Incubation. Together, over the years, Retis’ member organisations have succeeded in creating and maintaining, in their respective fields of interest, a genuine impetus of exchange and partnership involving players from research and finance, together with the region’s driving forces (local authorities and major companies). “We have been the forerunners for the last ten years with our idea of a unique, multi-outlet network”, highlights Pascal Hurel. In other words, “creating unique regional innovation networks by federating associated players, on a territorial level and on a partnership basis. We could even refer to cross-fertilisation or simply reuniting skills. The CEEI, the Incubator and the Technopole rely on a vast local and regional partnership reuniting research, higher education, local and regional authorities and innovative businesses.”

“Behind each project, there is a tailor-made network”.

The network’s strength lies in its ability to rapidly mobilise experts in the key fields involved in innovative business creation and coaching.

The network’s strength lies in its ability to rapidly mobilise experts in the key fields involved in innovative business creation and coaching. The same applies in Nantes. As confirmed by Jean-François Balducchi, chief representative of Altanpole, which reunites (a unique situation among France’s Retis network) a technopole, a CEEI and an incubator (refer to the interview with Jean-Marc Ayrault on page 13), “At Atlanpole, with these three tools, we have succeeded in creating a genuinely dynamic network . Our aim is constantly to optimise. Everything is interlinked. Hence, there is a certain continuity in the innovation chain. And business is looking good.”

From project detection to assessment, up to creation and accommodation, via training, economic and technological perfecting, project engineering or funding (see graph), each of these essential ingredients is blended and concocted with help from established experts. Double stakes: both in generating a positive reaction towards the project initiator and the required credibility to facilitate obtaining public funding. “To transform a technological project into a job-creating business, a dense network of partners is essential,” explains Laurent Protin, Director of Normandie Incubation, Lower Normandy’s business incubator. “Even just to fully grasp any project that lands on my desk, I often need help from specialists”.

“Acting as an assembler”

Far from cut off from the outside world, Laurent Protin and his team have developed the habit of rapidly organising, for project initiators, a joint appointment with key partners: Competitiveness clusters, Oséo, laboratories, Synergia and the Regional Council. “It’s reassuring for the project initiator and it enables us to jointly validate a business approach.” Then comes the coaching period, “we personally provide only part of the services we offer. In extremely specialised fields, such as innovation taxation or sales strategy, we rely on a network of experts. In brief, we are a bit like a general practitioner who refers his patient to a specialist when required. For each project, we develop a small, tailor-made network. It’s one of the essential ingredients of our job.” Since it was created in 2001, the incubator’s efficiency has increased thanks to this network approach: 160 jobs created, around 30 currently active businesses and the proof that the mechanism is profitable. And when the time comes for young businesses to go it alone, the network can still rely on Emergence, an enterprise zone offering further post-incubation coaching to many a young innovative business.
Back at the CEEI, Laurent Jossier also has his own idea of working logics. “First of all, we detect good ideas. We then readily transmit portfolios to the most appropriate structures for their advancement. For example, technological projects are dealt with by the incubator. The list of Laurent Jossier’s day-to-day partners is long: the Regional Council (MIRIADE), the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Chamber of Trade, Oséo, Normandie Incubation, PFIL (Local Initiative Platform), regional Business Angels…

“Our role is to facilitate and to assemble.”

Within the Retis network, players are also escorts. They exchange their experience, train together, harmonise working methods. “When creating new businesses, one of the main risks is isolation and exclusive domains,” warns Pascal Hurel, who constantly strives for “shared project organisation, just like a business, with its departments and expert services, but following a unique strategy.” Somewhat the opposite of a one-stop service, “which is really a myth… or how never to find the right skills at the right time.”

*Technopole - refers to a centre of high-tech manufacturing and information-based quaternary industry. In the current article, this term is also used to describe the effective development and promotion of a conurbation’s associated potential, which in the case of Caen la Mer, is ensured by its development agency, Synergia.

For further information on the Retis White Paper
Tel: 03 25 83 21 88
E-mail: info@retis-innovation.fr
Website: www.retis-innovation.fr

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