Kick-off for "Destination ETI", the new acceleration programme for 34 French SMEs!

Press Contacts

Visit our media section and follow the link "Press contacts"

This Thursday, 26 October 2017, Alstom hosts the first session of the new reinforcement and acceleration programme "Destination ETI" at its global headquarters in Saint-Ouen.

Pacte PME, specialised in stimulating cooperation between key accounts and French SMEs since its creation in 2010, is launching the second edition of its strategic reinforcement and acceleration programme for French SMEs.

Following the success of its first edition in the aeronautics industry last year (30 SME managers accompanied for thirteen months, with the support of three major contractors from the sector: Airbus, Safran and Thales), Pacte PME will now accompany 34 company managers from several sectors: one third of companies from the railway industry, one third of companies from aeronautics, one third of companies from other industrial sectors and services.

The new programme, called "Destination ETI", has the financial support of JP Morgan Chase Foundation and Alstom. It is based on the strategic and educational engagement of sixteen industrial, financial, academic and associative partners: nine major groups (Airbus, Ariane Group, Alstom, BNP Paribas, RATP, Safran, Schneider Electric, SNCF and Thales), a leading management school (ESCP Europe), 3 associative networks (Afmae, Richelieu Committee, Sport dans la Ville), 1 public support organisation for export (Business France), 1 competitiveness cluster (Astech) and 1 sector-based professional federation (the Federation of Rail Industries).

For François Perret, Director of Pacte PME, "the originality of "Destination ETI" is twofold. Firstly, 9 key accounts are directly involved in co-constructing and co-animating this innovative educational device. Secondly, through this initiative, we want to encourage the economic growth of the companies we are accompanying as well as the programmes genuine social impact. In fact, one-third of the accompanied businesses are located in economically and socially sensitive urban neighbourhoods, while about ten beneficiary companies are led by women, which should, in the future, help them to become ambassadors for entrepreneurship in their respective fields."

Olivier Baril, Director of Purchasing at Alstom, adds: "Destination ETI represents a major opportunity for the rail industry to accelerate its support of SMEs in the face of todays new challenges, from digitalisation to internationalisation. Our common goal is to strengthen collaboration between SMEs and major groups, for ever greater efficiency of the railway sector."

The educational programme, co-constructed and co-facilitated by Pacte PME and its partners, will consist of twelve sessions (one per month for a year from October 2017 to November 2018) aimed at reinforcing the company managers strategic and managerial expertise to accelerate their transformation. The first four proposed themes of reinforcement will be: "understanding and mastering the administrative and regulatory environment of the entrepreneur" (October 2017), "choosing your growth model and measuring its impact on company management" (November 2017), "building the business of the future: digital and artificial intelligence" (December 2017), "reaching international markets faster and more efficiently " (January 2018).

In addition to these group sessions (in the form of conferences and educational workshops in small groups), an individual approach will be adopted, based on an initial strategic diagnosis of the SME as well as on long-term coaching by a CEO, usually from an ISE (intermediate-sized enterprise), for each company manager participating in the programme.