History with a capital H is made up of dark hours, but also of extraordinary rebounds. The entire world is currently going through a striking ordeal, and the time is for gratitude. It is the frontline heroes who are in everyone's thoughts and hearts today. Bravo and thank you to all those mobilized to care for us, to feed us, to clean our streets, to collect our waste… Thank you to our public services, to our economic actors who continue their efforts so that, despite these difficult times, we lack nothing. We are surely forgetting many, of course… May they all be assured of our most sincere gratitude.
Now more than ever, it is time to act. How can we draw the best lessons from this tragic episode to build, tomorrow, a more virtuous economic system, based on cooperation and the sharing of knowledge, experiences, and infrastructures, to finally implement, together, this indispensable ecological transition ? Bill Gates warned us in 2015 about the viral threat without finding an echo. Let us no longer remain deaf to alerts and the need to share solutions.
Because in emergencies, models emerge. Cosmetic factories around the world are leveraging their equipment to increase the production of hydroalcoholic gel. Giants of the automotive industry like Tesla, Ford, and General Motors are converting part of their production lines to manufacture artificial respirators for hospitals. On a smaller scale, within local communities, hundreds of tailors and seamstresses are putting their skills at the service of healthcare workers to compensate for the shortage of protective masks. What if collaboration were the true, the only effective economic model adapted to the evolution of the world and its demands?
In these difficult times, more than any other, only actions matter. That is why we stand by our sponsors and our clients to act now, with a single motto: get through this crisis and prepare for the exit together.
Because we are convinced: the recovery will be green, local, and collaborative.
It is today that we see the political decisions of tomorrow being written and built: in Brussels for an even stronger Green New Deal, but also here, with BPI, the Banque des Territoires, which are activating exceptional measures to support companies whose activity is impacted by the coronavirus epidemic.
Let's hold this course.
This tragic episode certainly reminds us of the vagaries of our ecosystems and the fragility of life, but also, and above all, the power of collective commitment.
With Frank Gana, my partner, we created (RE)SET for this purpose: to act collectively to fundamentally transform economic models, making them resilient and stronger.
As René Char so aptly wrote: " We must blow on a few glimmers to make good light ". The glimmers are everywhere, it is up to us to bring them together so that the light shines brightly.
Géraldine Poivert
