EU-DIGEST

Europe's Mr. Entrepreneurialism - by Jennifer L. Schenker

Philippe Pouletty is a man on a mission to boost entrepreneurialism in Europe. A 49-year-old French medical doctor, he launched two successful biotech companies in North America in the 1990s before returning to France in 2000 to launch three more biotechs and to co-found a $385 million Paris venture fund, called Truffle Capital.

Yet for all of his own success as a serial entrepreneur, Pouletty worries that the Old World still isn't producing enough enduring high-fliers in the mold of Genentech (DNA), Cisco Systems (CSCO), or Google (GOOG). He has an interesting take on the problem: It's not a shortage of good ideas or a lack of entrepreneurs willing to leap into the void. Rather, Pouletty says, European venture capital firms and startups don't have enough money to work with because risk-averse institutional investors in Europe aren't placing their bets on entrepreneurialism.

Labels: Entrepreneurial, EU, France

Despite all the gloom and despair, French industry is still prospering -by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Fifty yards down the road from Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign headquarters on Rue d'Enghien, a thriving start-up company is proof that France's entrepreneurial spirit has not yet been broken by an overweening state.

France boasts an impressive array of world-class companies, many number one in their field. They include: cosmetics (L'Oréal), luxury goods (LVMH), water (Veolia, Suez), transport (Air-France-KLM), materials (Saint-Gobain, Lafarge), tyres (Michelin), industrial gas (Air Liquide), nuclear power (Areva), dairy (Danone), razors (BIC), infrastructure (Vinci, Bouygues), jets (Dassault), spectacles (Essilor), insurance (AXA), restaurants (Sodexho) and retail (Carrefour), to pick a few. In luxury goods, they are super-champions with one third of the global market, making €75bn a year in profits. Louis Vuitton's earnings were 44pc of turnover in 2005, a world record for a company its size.

Labels: Economy, Entrepreneurial, France

European Entrpreneurs: Fully Committed by -Stephanie Clifford

Let others proceed gingerly. Bülent Çelebi has set up an American-style company in Turkey, where he enjoys advantages his competition can only dream of.

Four years ago, Çelebi was far away from this smog and bustle, sitting on his porch in Palo Alto, California, and thinking about what a global business might entail. He wanted to build routers, given his engineering background, and sell to emerging countries where broadband penetration was low but rising fast. He could use American chips, and manufacture in Asia. But he thought he could gain a real advantage if he based his business in Istanbul.

Labels: Entrepreneurial, EU, Technology, Turkey