Good evening, everyone.
Our societies are changing, they change all the time, constantly.
And we can - we might - agree on the fact
that the innovator is the most important person for change in our societies.
I don't agree, and I will tell you why.
But first, I will talk to you about my region.
This is Auvergne.
This is Auvergne too, and so is this.
These are local dwellers in Auvergne,
and that is the Puy de Dôme.
At the foot of Puy de Dôme lies a small town, Clermont-Ferrand.
It is into this small town that I'm taking you, in 1889.
In 1889, the Michelin brothers started a business,
Michelin&Cie, not a very original name.
They based it on an innovation developed by an English man, Dunlop,
who discovered the vulcanization of rubber.
And from this innovation - that was not their own -
they were to develop tires, first for bicycles, then for cars,
and then truck tires, airplane tires, etc., etc.
But as years went by,
at the beginning of the 20th century, when cars appear,
they had a brilliant idea: put tires on car wheels.
It changes everything!
That changes everything in terms of comfort,
it changes everything in terms of safety,
and changes everything in terms of axletree breakage, etc.
So basically, their future was bright,
those two entrepreneurs living in the small town of Clermont-Ferrand.
Well no! Well no! Why, then?
Because at the beginning of the 20th century,
when you have a car, you basically don't use it.
You are very happy and proud, you drive a little, but not a lot.
Since you don't drive a lot, you don't wear your tires out,
so there is no market for tires.
So the small company in Clermont-Ferrand remained a small company.
Then the Michelin brothers understood
that to sell tires,
they had to convince the people who had bought a car
to use it.
It will begin with the road map.
This is the first time a non-military map is made.
It explains how to go from Strasbourg to Orleans,
but it is not enough,
because, from Strasbourg to Orleans
even if you start realizing the way you are going to take,
why would you go?
So they will make an inventory of every natural or man-made wonder
you can see in France, and later in Europe and in the world, it's the Green Guide!
It's the green guide that will take people
to Mont Saint-Michel, to Arcachon Bay.
Fine, you have the road to take you there you know why you're going there,
but there is another problem: what are you going to do on the long way?
You have to stop to eat, to sleep,
and this is the red guide!
The red guide that indicates the restaurants and hotels, etc.
And the last thing they will do, perhaps the most surprising of all,
they will install every kilometer, on the main roads of France,
a kilometer marker that indicates the distance, the direction,
and the name of the nearest village.
Two small entrepreneurs in Auvergne, lost, out there,
will install kilometer marks throughout France,
so that you, who, at the beginning of the 20th century, have bought a car,
get to wear out your tires to go and see the Mont Saint-Michel bay,
and that you eat and sleep on the way otherwise you don't go on the road.
So this poses a question:
this impasse in which innovation lies,
this impasse that the Michelin brothers solved,
well, it requires a special mindset,
and we are going to use the Melcion matrix to describe it.
Imagine two axes:
a horizontal axis, which is the axis of autonomy,
freedom and the control of one's own destiny.
On this axis, entrepreneurs are all at the top,
with all the freelancers,
all the people who want to work only for themselves.
The axis of autonomy, freedom, the control of their destiny.
Imagine now a vertical axis, it is the axis of the desire for achievement,
the axis of achievement in the US way,
of the permanent need to advance one's plans
one after another, after another, after another and another.
Entrepreneurs are all at the top of the second axis too,
along with managers.
Except that, you understand, when you are at the very top of the horizontal axis,
and at the very top of the vertical axis,
you are at the top right of the Melcion matrix.
And here you have two unfulfilled needs:
the first is to continue to find solutions, again and again.
It is to transfer
innovation into practice.
And so this desire for freedom, for autonomy,
this allows entrepreneurs
to have the ideas of a transgressive business model,
because, let's not kid ourselves,
no one paid for the kilometer marks nor the printing of the road maps,
the selection of the various sites to visit in France,
nor the list of hotels and restaurants,
no one, except the entrepreneurs, who paid out of their pockets.
And once they had done this, what happened?
Well, the market exploded in France, in Europe, in the world.
Today, Michelin is a business operating in 170 countries
and with 110,000 employees.
Not bad for two little Auvergne guys who started at the foot of Puy de Dôme
or rather for their descendants!
The idea I wanted to give you today,
is that the innovator has a very important role in our society.
But those who put innovation into practice,
those who build business models
that allow to create businesses on the basis of innovation,
these are the entrepreneurs.
And so entrepreneurs have a responsibility.
You have a responsibility.
The evolution of our societies, the changes in our societies,
rest on you, the entrepreneurs!
Good luck to you!
(Applause)