A look back at the Prospective Day on “Sharing Economy and Uberization, reinventing our Business Models” A look back at the Prospective Day on “Sharing Economy and Uberization, reinventing our Business Models”
20/07/2017News
Consumers are moving away from possessing everything by sharing their assets, products or services on peer-to-peer platforms that are challenging established businesses. In the light of this trend, it is becoming more difficult to remain in touch with consumer expectations, which is the key to success.
The day’s proceedings were opened by Ana Busto, Executive Vice-President in charge of Brand and Communication, and sponsor of the event. She emphasized the importance for the Group of considering the sharing economy as a reality that is transforming our business models, the brand and the qualities that make up the brand (simplicity, trust, etc.). “Uberization is an opportunity for our Group, which, in its own way, is a collaborative platform that connects our customers with projects, technologies and numerous types of service providers. In fact, ENGIE has all the necessary qualities and capacities it takes to uberize other sectors.” In conclusion, Ana Busto invited the audience to adopt a positive attitude to the sharing economy and to think about how we can take things further in this direction.
Opening of the prospective day by Ana Busto
The morning was spent listening to a variety of points of view and experiences that helped the audience to understand the main challenges of the sharing economy and to identify its key factors of success. Christian Busch, Professor at the London School of Economics, explained the fundamental changes underlying the workings of the sharing economy. He believes that this economy is founded on a shift in the perception of needs and a change of mindset. He then insisted on the role of the culture of innovation in businesses, of coopetition and of communities and ecosystems in this process.
Once the basics of our understanding had been outlined, the rest of the morning was spent listening to inspiring external feedback, representative of this platform-based economy. The variety of the represented sectors, from banking and real estate, to automotive and DIY, highlighted the diversity of the initiatives in this field.
Xavier Laurent from the Crédit Agricole spoke about the principles and the workings of the Blockchain uberization tool, a transparent and secure information storage and transmission technology that functions without a central controlling entity. HABx’s CEO, Benjamin Delaux, presented his platform that enables future buyers to personalize their homes in advance of property development programmes at a very competitive price in the Paris region and Toulouse. Christian Lambert, Managing Director of Drive Now, BMW’s and Sixt’s car share service in Brussels, then explained how their technology enables drivers to hire a car by the minute, to leave it wherever they like in the city and to avoid paying for parking. Finally, Augustin Verlinde, founder of Frizbiz, a platform where private customers can exchange DIY services, explained his concept of “jobbers”, or handymen who help private customers with simple jobs about the house (DIY, gardening, painting, plumbing, etc.). – and his C2C activity.
After a lunch spent deep in conversation, the early afternoon was set aside for regulators and city authorities, two important stakeholders. Juan Delgado, Director of Global Economics Group, repeated that the sharing economy is based mainly on platforms, which already existed, but have grown on an unprecedented scale with the advent of digital technology. He then pointed out the issues raised by the arrival of collaborative players on markets already occupied by traditional operators that are subject to other forms of regulation, and the need to rethink these regulations faced with the breakaways in business models.
The City of Amsterdam then presented its approach to the players in the sharing economy as a collaborative city that favors the sharing of resources between its inhabitants. By way of example, the audience discovered how the city authorities have entered agreements and partnerships with platforms like Airbnb. These agreements stipulate that it is no longer possible to let flats in Amsterdam for more than 60 days per year to holidaymakers.
The final session was given over to a presentation of our Group’s initiatives in this sector. Vincent Schachter, from ENGIE Fab, introduced the energy communities and the corresponding new business models. The audience discovered Sonnen’s storage systems in Germany and the energy supplier’s SonnenCommunity, which is the country’s first decentralized energy community, whose members produce and share their own energy.
Harry Mylonadis, from ENGIE International FM, presented the new opportunities for growth in facility management, with the “building as a service”. ENGIE Lab Laborelec’s Cathy Crunelle spoke about decentralized energy and the pilot Peer2Peer energy community in Belgium. Isabella Nameche presented ENGIE’s Ajusto platform (a customer web site and application for professionals) for on-demand home services, which operates like a marketplace between consumers and professionals for jobs about the house (repairs, installation, maintenance, etc.).
Closing of the day by Didier Holleaux
The event was closed by Executive Vice-President, Didier Holleaux. He echoed Ana Busto’s words at the start of the day by confirming that the sharing economy is already a reality for ENGIE. He illustrated his point with a few of the initiatives already taken by the Group, such as the energy communities in Europe and the United States. He also confirmed Christian Bush’s opinion that these initiatives must be facilitated by nurturing a culture of cooperation and the right to fail, which enable us to learn from everyone’s experiences, whether they succeed or fail. Finally, he encouraged employees to take action by overcoming any organizational obstacles. “We know where the future is leading us. The most important thing is to get there.”
We are now announcing that the next Prospective Day will focus on “Gas in the DNA of ENGIE, key enabler of energy transition”. The date will be communicated to you soon.
> Details of the day’s programme (in English)
> The speakers’ presentations in the event’s Yammer group
> Videos of the presentations will be published on the intranet before the end of the month.