In Europe, we know how to do science with money, but we don’t know how to make money with science. This observation, formulated by one of the best observers in Europe, explains the gap which continues to widen between the two banks of the Atlantic in terms of innovation. The iPhone, Chatgpt, WhatsApp carry the American flag. And yet, we are suspected, Europe knows about it in matters of artificial intelligence. But what does she do with her talent deposit, if not let him go to the large stables of the Silicon Valley? Should we remember? Multiply public supports to start-ups? Accelerate training courses in tech? Find new billions of euros for research? No doubt, but these measures do not solve the observation of failure recalled above: in Europe, we do not know how to make money with science.
How do the United States do? Two French people, the entrepreneur Olivier Coste and the economist Yann Coatanlem, provide an answer, via their study published in late 2024 by the University of Bocconi. “In the United States, underlines Olivier Coste (1), the failure rate of projects launched in large boxes of American tech is approaching 80 %. Four in five projects are planted, but from time to time, there are some A deeply disruptive that will meet success both technologically and consumers. ” Failure, the key to the success of American tech? Yes, provided you allow you. “When you do five projects, four of which fail, you earn money in the United States. In Europe, given the restructuring costs, you are sure to lose money.”
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She makes him pay dearly to her entrepreneurs
In short, Europe, which dominated the world for five centuries by its spirit of innovation since the invention of printing in 1450, not only does not accept failure but makes it dearly payable to its entrepreneurs. “In the United States, a tech company that notes after three years or five years that the results are not there, stops its project and dismisses its engineers. In Europe, restructuring requires longer deadlines and cost more Dear.” Ten times more expensive, calculate the two authors. An invoice too heavy, which slows down initiatives. “When we understand that this European delay is first linked to a profitability problem linked to the cost of failure, then the solution becomes feasible,” says Olivier Coste.
The solution? Apply the conditions of dismissal, in France, Germany and in most European countries for tech engineers, paid above 50,000 euros per year. “Reform the labor market above a certain salary threshold seems politically feasible and economically very effective,” said the entrepreneur, delighted that the idea was taken up in the compass of the competitiveness of Ursula von der Leyen . The advantage of measurement? It is simple and costs nothing in public money. Above all, it provides the start of an answer to the “big challenge”. The one to which Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber already alerted in L’Express sixty years ago: “The gap between the upperness of the North American continent and the rest of the industrial world, instead of decreasing, grows.”