Remember those employee strikes galore when Indian banks first tried to computerise? Actually the very first time people were afraid to use a machine thinking it might replace their jobs was when Frenchman Blaise Pascal invented the mechanical calculator called Pascaline in 1642. To honour his role as a precursor in computer technology, there?s even a computer language named Pascal.
Some of the world?s most spectacular inventions emanated from France. But are these inventions done for charity donations? France has largely not been able to fructify her inventions for financial gain, while other nations have taken those inventions forward for social and economic advancement.
Invention without execution makes you a loser. Much before World Wide Web was introduced 1994, the French enjoyed Minitel, the world?s most successful videotex online service accessible through telephone lines since 1982. French Post launched this online service, handing out millions of terminals free to telephone subscribers. Minitel allowed users to make online purchases, train reservations, check stock prices, search the telephone directory, have a mail box, and chat in a way similar to what?s possible through the Internet. About 25 million of France?s total 60 million population had used the Minitel network. But today when you look at the top ten countries with the highest computer usage, France does not figure in the list.
Influential French inventions modernising our life in medicine, communication, computers, transportation, clothing, arts, entertainment, food, physics, chemistry, mathematics, weapons, military, even sports, have come over a few centuries. Blind man Louis Braille invented the Braille system for the blind to read and write. To keep Napoleon?s troops well-fed in far-flung places Nicolas Francois Appert invented canning in 1809. Louis Pasteur invented pasteurisation to sterilise food, kill contaminating micro-organisms. Undersea explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau invented the aqualung in 1943 for divers? oxygen supply underwater. Today?s standardised metric measurement system was invented in Paris Academy of Sciences in 1790, oxygen was named by Antoine Lavoisier in 1778. Tailor Barthelemy Thimonnier perfected the sewing machine in 1830. American Isaac Merrit Singer turned it into big business. Among women?s garments, Herminie Cadolle made the bra in 1889, Coco Chanel the little black dress in 1920, Louis R?ard the bikini in 1946, and Guy Cotton the raincoat in 1960. Father Marcel Audiffren invented refrigeration in 1894 to keep French monastery wines cool. American company General Electric capitalised on it in 1911, manufacturing refrigeration machines for homes.
Individual transportation was another convenience the French gave us. Nicholas Joseph Cugnot physically drove the first self-propelled car in 1769. ?douard Michelin invented inflatable tyres in 1895, Louis Renault invented the drum brake in 1902, while French-born Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine, and Gustave Trouv? the first electric automobile in 1881. So where does France stand among auto majors? In the 8th and 10th positions, overtaken by Japanese, American, German and Korean companies. In water transport the steam boat came from Denis Papin in the 19th century and the first outboard motorboat by Gustave Trouve. Pierre Michaux and Pierre Lallement developed the bicycle in 1864, but France figures nowhere among the best or biggest manufacturer today, Taiwanese company Giant wins. Frenchman Rinaldo Piaggio invented the scooter in 1884, but world leader Piaggio is an Italian brand today. Even in air transport, the first flying helicopters were experimented independently in 1907 by Louis Breguet and Paul Cornu. Brothers Joseph and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier designed the hot air balloon and Louis Sebastien Lenormand the parachute in late 18th century.
Extreme right rises as recession weapon. When General Charles de Gaulle became French President after World War II, he nationalised most industries. Through liberal laws he provided good living comfort with free medical and education facilities for citizens. The people became totally dependent on the state, their only desire was to work less, get better leisure. The small and medium enterprises started vanishing. Selling sophisticated luxury goods to the world?s rich has remained a French preserve. But this cannot be a country?s backbone. When the government molly-coddles people, the backlash can be non-productive corruption, as we?ve seen with India?s 100 days of work for poor people. In many cases people work only two hours not eight hours, sharing the booty with the job-doling official. The result? Farmers are experiencing exorbitant daily labour charges to do sincere work for eight hours.
In Europe?s recessionary wave where Greece, Spain, Portugal even the UK is suffering, the German economy stands tall on the strength of her SME manufacturing base. German SMEs give financial and political stability, and export globally. Whenever a country?s economy deteriorates, jobs become scarce, citizens become protesters and the political fallout is rise of insular extreme rightism. That?s just happened in France?s first round presidential elections on April 22, 2012 when the extreme right party unexpectedly got 19% votes among 10 candidates. The more recession grows, so will parochialism. Indian business houses focusing on Europe have to observe this movement. It cannot be a permanent, but will have high volcanic eruption from time to time.
Typical French inventive characteristics are worth emulating. They include embracing the new, constant effort to differentiate work, be curious, find out more. In fact modernity is characterised by the aspiration of freedom, equal rights and brotherhood that translate to the 1789 French Revolution motto of liberty, equality, fraternity. However, during Sarkozy?s presidential term 3,50,000 jobs were lost; the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter 2011 was 9.4%, close to a 12-year high. This proves that when invention is not put into the execution of industrialisation, even an inventive country like France has to battle a crisis, having lost the inventive SME spirit and the AAA S&P rating from long years of financial indiscipline. When invention becomes charity the country suffers economically.
Shombit Sengupta is an international Creative Business Strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com
