Can French tech finally build a business culture?
French Tech has historically been built around a strong product culture, driven by the excellence of its engineers. But in a context where technological performance becomes less differentiating, this approach shows its limits. The ability to articulate product and market, in other words to develop a business culture, is now becoming decisive for companies.
There has always been a taste for technical performance in French tech. A “product” culture driven by brilliant engineers but who, very often, assume that the intrinsic quality of the product is enough to guarantee its success. Business culture goes beyond this belief. Far from an obsession with figures and profitability, it allows the product to be confronted with reality, that is to say with customers and a market.
A cultural heritage
In France, engineering is valued more than economic success, sometimes perceived as secondary, or even suspect. As the philosopher Max Weber showed, certain cultures linked to Protestantism such as that of the United States have historically associated economic success with a form of accomplishment, explaining the central place of business culture in society. A telling example of this business culture: Jeff Bezos who had established at Amazon an “empty chair” during meetings, supposed to represent the customer, to constantly remind us that each decision had to be made taking into account its value on the market.
Conversely, European culture linked to Catholicism has placed more emphasis on the quality of the work itself. This discrepancy continues, implicitly, to influence the way in which our French companies think about the market. For a long time, this heritage was not a handicap. There was a form of European technical superiority which allowed us to believe that the best product would always end up winning out.
Lack of business culture, an underestimated risk
But in a context of increased competition and technological acceleration driven by artificial intelligence, this approach no longer works. The United States has long structured companies capable of quickly transforming innovation into market domination. And now, Asia, in addition to being competitive on costs, is also competitive on technology.
At the same time, with the rise of artificial intelligence, producing a solid technical level is becoming more and more accessible. This competitive pressure then forces us to look elsewhere than at the product itself, by thinking first of the market, and therefore by adopting a business culture.
Marketing on the front line
In many French tech companies, this shift remains incomplete. Even if more and more marketing directors sit on the COMEX, marketing often remains confined to an execution role to support and make visible what has already been decided.
But marketing is what connects an offer to a market. Which requires understanding customers, formulating a value proposition and making choices, sometimes to the detriment of technical optimization. Because the most efficient products are not necessarily the most technical, but those which succeed in attracting customers and being profitable.
Marketing managers must therefore become aware of their mission by actively working on the levers to improve the match between the offer and the market. They must also participate in the dissemination of a market-oriented corporate culture among general management, technicians and salespeople. As for management, they must support marketing managers in this empowerment process.
Signals of evolution still fragile
Things evolve, of course. We are gradually seeing the emergence of more hybrid profiles, trained in schools that mix engineering and business. Some founders also integrate the question of the market earlier. Some companies, like Mistral AI, show that it is possible to combine technical requirements and strategic clarity. These trajectories still remain in the minority and they must be encouraged.
The expected shift will be above all cultural and cannot happen overnight. By valuing economic success differently, by putting the customer at the heart of the models, and therefore marketing at the heart of strategic decisions, a true business culture can emerge. Ultimately, this will be the very condition of our tech sovereignty.
Â
