Roadmap danielle desguees

DANIELLE DESGUEES BGE FRANCE, ASHOKA FELLOW 2009 http://bge.asso.fr/ https://www.ashoka.org/fellow/danielledesgu%C3%A9es

PROBLEM Entrepreneurship is not a skill that can be easily learnt, especially in a society, like the French one, where the negative connotations of failure have built-up a strong aversion to risk in the professional realm.

Following an unemployment pick in the ‘70s, for the first time the French government started in 1977 to promote entrepreneurship as a tool to break the cycle of unemployment.

Since then, Danielle has worked to support entrepreneurship with a network of advisory shops with similar practices and values, offering the opportunity to think entrepreneurially about employment opportunities.

From BGE’s observations, 80% of entrepreneurs are not accompanied before starting their businesses. Yet, with the right support, these entrepreneurs can significantly increase their chances to succeed.

IMPACT

SOLUTION To break the isolation of entrepreneurs in France, especially those in economically and socially vulnerable groups, Danielle has been striving over the past 35 years to make it possible for all start-up businesses to succeed, grow and last. For this, Danielle developed a nationwide network of Management Shops (Reseau des Boutiques de Gestion) which share the same values and practices and provide advisory services to hundreds of thousands of would-be entrepreneurs. BGE provides an endto-end set of programs including awareness raising activities and business games, skills assessment sessions though a specially-designed diagnostic, and comprehensive advisory processes mixing individual consulting with specialised training.

Moreover, the diagnostic tool she created is accessible on the Internet and allows any potential entrepreneur to assess his/her skills and competencies to carry out a project.

Two innovations she created over the last years are the Entrepreneurship Bus through which BGE reaches entrepreneurs in their own communities and places where they operate and the so-called nursery incubation program, which enables project developers to test their project on the market for up to one year with no risk and no need to register their company but using a specifically designed registration number for enterprises to test theirproduct or service.

With 120,000 new businesses created over the last 35 years, 79% of which still operating after 3 years, BGE is the historic leader in supporting entrepreneurship in France.

Today the BGE network includes over 450 RBGs (Management Shops). BGE network employs nearly 1,000 professionals, 1,000 , free lancers and 10,000 volunteer entrepreneurship advisors.

Together, these stakeholders support 12 percent of business creations each year.

In 2014, RBGs welcomed over 80,000 would-be entrepreneurs and thanks totheir support 17,100 enterprises where established, thus creating 28,600 new jobs. In 2000, BGE adopted a quality certification policy for the 450 shops in the network. A recent study by McKinsey has evaluated the economic impact of BGE in Ile de France to € 8.3 million in 2010, with an estimated impact of € 182 million if all firms that received support by BGE in France.

ROADMAP DANIELLE DESGUEES

VISION Danielle is convinced that entrepreneurship is a source of economic and social wealth and the way entrepreneurs are accompanied (or not) has a high impact on national economy, as micro companies represent 80% of the businesses with employees.

BGE supports project managers wishing to establish businesses, to bring the majority of its contractors at a rate of sustainability and business growth above average, and it also encourages micro companies to hire more socially vulnerable people tapping into contract aided by the state .

With the support of

ROADMAP DANIELLE DESGUEES SCALING STRATEGY The scale up model of BGE follows a partnership and dissemination model, looking for local partners interested to adapt BGE methodology to their local context and using all materials and know-how in an open source approach. To ensure an effective transfer of the methodology, BGE has developed a series of targeted trainings for each specific component of their work, such as the use of the diagnostic tool, the customised support to develop business and commercial plans, or the various games patented by BGE. SHOWCASE

FIND PARTNERS

SCALE

MEASURE LOCAL IMPACT

SCALING BGE IN SPAIN Following Danielle’s visit in Spain aimed at presenting her model to local organisations, Ashoka took the role of facilitating the creation of a consortium of organisations interested in replicating and adapting BGE model in Spain. Fondacion ICO joined as a key sponsoring partner and contributed with 35 000 euros for a first local replica, while Fondacion Emplea took charge of implementation through its network of employment agencies and contributed 25000 euros.

Following a 4-day workshop in Spain in October 2014, 7 pilot organisations created a network, REDANIDA, and started a pilot project to implement the methodology. By April 2015, they had assisted 27 people with business support and counseling and 5 of them are currently starting their enterprises. By the end of 2015, a number of 62 people are expected to benefit from BGE approach in Spain and receive support to launch or develop their enterprises. As a result of these first positive outcomes, a new round of funding is under discussion to extend the pilot program by one year.

SCALING BGE IN ITALY Aware of the potential of the BGE model to tackle the youth employment challenges in Italy, Ashoka invited Danielle to present her work at “Innovate to Restart” event in Milan on February 26, 2015 and where she had the opportunity to start discussions with several local organisations interested in hermodel.

In May, Ashoka and Danielle were also invited to a national fair on innovation,entrepreneurship and employment held in Trento on the side of the National Festival of Economics. There, Danielle met with Stefano Radaelli from Consorzio Mestieri who later committed to replicating BGE model across their network in Lombardy region.

Together with Ashoka, Consorzio Mestieri is currently working on a EU-funding proposal and taking the first steps in preparing a training for local staff with the support of BGE in the beginning of 2016, while adapting the key materials to the local legal and fiscal context.

Should you be interested in helping Danielle to scale in one of these countries or partner with her,write to Ashoka Spain – comunicacion@ashoka.org or Ashoka Italy - italy@ashoka.org!

With the support of