For its 25th anniversary celebration, the France Initiative network, with the support of Société Générale, commissioned an original photographic work about the enterprises assisted by its network. Two photographers travelled the length and breadth of France between March and October 2010 photographing these enterprises using a bellows camera, posing all their staff members in their workplace, in natural light, along the lines of group photos from the early 20th century. A web photo gallery has been set up to show these images:

“The enterprises photographed are headed up by those who have created or acquired them” says Jean-Pierre Worms, Chairman of France Initiative. “These men and women - who in most cases do not have a management background - have become entrepreneurs by choice, not by heritage or tradition. At some point in their personal history, they dared to strike out on an entrepreneurial adventure, after their studies, directly from employment or after a period of unemployment.”

14 years of partnership
France Initiative is a network that federates independent local organisations throughout almost all of France. Established in 1985, it currently consists of 248 platforms. France Initiative is the leading network of organisations financing and supporting the establishment/acquisition of enterprises in France.

Société Générale first established a relationship with France Initiative 14 years ago. Since then, the two networks have worked together to support project sponsors. Upstream is France Initiative, which helps to draw up business plans, provides advice, validates projects and grants interest-free microloans (called “loans on trust”) towards part or all of the funds required by would-be entrepreneurs. Downstream, Société Générale finances their investment needs and provides day-to-day banking advice to get their business off to a good start. The granting of a loan of trust by France Initiative gives credibility to a project because its approval committee is made up of a cross-section of other local businesspeople who have succeeded in their own fields (company heads, accountants, bankers etc.). This mechanism enables entrepreneurs to approach mainstream banks for loans of up to six times their original microloan, which constitutes considerable leverage (on average, a loan of trust of €1.00 enables a borrower to receive a bank loan of €6.00). Over the years, the teams of the two networks have learnt to work together and have built up strong synergies in the field.

Another example of synergy: on 3 May 2011, we will host the Annual General Meeting of France Initiative at La Défense: 248 representatives of its local branches (company heads, chartered accountants, employees of the International Chamber of Commerce etc.), all of them deeply involved in their local regional economy, will travel to this occasion.

Welcoming France Initiative to our premises reflects our image as a socially-aware bank and will help to develop good relations with this network, which brings us business from high quality creators and recreators. The Société Générale network also maintains active local relations with 108 of the 248 platforms.

Key figures
In 2009, the partner platforms of Société Générale enabled the creation or acquisition of 7,661 enterprises, which themselves directly created or maintained nearly 17,000 jobs by the end of their first year of activity.

For more information, visit the website of France Initiative and our client site.