There’s only one route to innovation and income growth, and this is it.

Human capital is our most prized resource – an almost infinite resource, if we are capable of developing it to its full potential.

 The globalization of trade and commerce since the late 1980s has led in parallel to a globalization of the labor market in order to meet the huge needs of emerging economies. It is what we call today the "war for talent". At the same time, a global market for higher education has developed, driven by new, common diploma standards: schools and universities need to work harder than ever to attract the best students.

 Competition is stronger than ever

 This competition has become even more intense with the digital revolution and the rise of industry 4.0. Countries and companies the world over are aware that they need to attract those who have the highest potential - in the fields of artificial intelligence, big data, connectivity, cyber security, among others - and train tomorrow’s talents if they want to be a leader on the cutting edge of innovation.

  “Countries and companies need to attract those who have the highest potential and train tomorrow’s talents”.

Emerging countries have long been focused on the construction of their economy, but they are now also beginning to treat education as a priority – with often spectacular results. China has thus built one of the most successful university systems in the world (nearly 7.5 million graduates in 2017, twice as many as in 2007). This focus on universities as well as on heavy investments in R&D has led to it becoming one of the world’s most innovative economies – the country climbed five places in the 2018 Global Innovation Index. China now ranks ahead of countries such as Canada and Norway, to name but a few.

 The governments of India, Brazil and Russia manifest similar intentions – as do all countries that want to accelerate their growth in the coming decades.

 More education means more prosperity

 More education leads to more innovation… and therefore, more prosperity. 1992 Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker was the first economist to establish a clear link between investments in education and income growth, at both an individual and a national level. Relative to companies, his enlightening concept of "human capital" explains why companies that invest more in training encounter more success.

 Gary Becker's analysis is obviously even more relevant as the ongoing spectacular digital transformation unfolds; contemporary individuals need to master numerous, diverse and constantly evolving skills, as do companies and modern societies.

 Companies have an educational mission

 As Chairman & CEO of Thales, but also as a citizen and as a father, I believe more than ever that our investment in human capital needs to evolve and intensify for everyone’s benefit.

 How? I will talk about what I know best: businesses. I believe that a company can only be and remain innovative if it takes its role in education very seriously.

 There are different ways to do this. We know the strength of the German model, with its apprenticeship programs for teenagers starting at age 14. A few years ago, the CEO of one of the largest German car manufacturing companies started out as an apprentice – demonstrating if need be that companies can train and foster talents, setting no limits on their ambition other than their own commitment and desire to learn. 

“A company can innovate only if it takes its role in education very seriously”.

 Another method that we favor at Thales is to collaborate with academic ecosystems around the world. We support ecosystems with, of course, an aim of economic development, but above all for reasons relating to our most ambitious mission, which is of designing, developing and implementing technologies that will concretely improve the daily life of all, i.e. to make technology assist mankind.

 What we do in Canada is emblematic of this approach. Montreal is a fantastic hub of intelligence and knowledge, structured around prestigious universities and driven by a generous vision – the "Montreal Declaration for a Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence". That’s why we chose to set-up a global research centre in Artificial Intelligence eXpertise, CortAIx, and a new extension of our Digital Factory.

CortAIx researchers thus collaborate closely with researchers from the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms (MILA), the Institute of Data Valorization (IVADO) and the Vector Institute of Toronto to develop tomorrow’s technologies whilst honoring ethical principles.

Similarly, the company's commitment to the ENCQOR project (evolution of cloud services in the Quebec-Ontario corridor for research and innovation) is also based on partnerships with academic and research institutions. The ENCQOR project will boost innovation and enable the successful deployment of 5G across all of Canada,

 This approach is the model for the dozens of academic partnerships we established around the world. In France with the CNRS and top engineering schools, in the United States with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in China with several universities in Beijing and Hong Kong, in India with the Institutes of Technology in Bombay and Delhi, as well as in many other countries.

 Science has the power to make people wonder

 A third way is for tech companies to commit to helping children and teenagers discover the infinite reservoir for amazement and intelligence that we now call STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

 When it was launched 20 years ago, I was impressed by the 1992 Physics Nobel prize winner, Georges Charpak’s initiative (“La Main à la Pate”) to renovate and promote the teaching of science and technology in France’s primary and secondary schools. The initial idea was absolutely luminous: to teach children how to observe and experiment so that they could develop their understanding of the world, their ability to work together and ultimately make smarter, more confident and more creative adults.

 It is an ever- inspiring success; and I was very happy to see the Thales Foundation reward an initiative launched by this structure to help students from 12 primary school classes in Chatenay-Malabry build and program small robots.

“Stimulate the curiosity of young students who may become tomorrow’s researchers and engineers”.

 This same societal and educational generosity has led to dozens of Thales technicians and engineers getting involved in projects all over the world. In England, in Crawley, with the Saint Wilfrids School as part of the Arduino Challenge; in Germany, in Arnstadt and Ditzingen, to introduce children to scientific and technical careers; in the United States, in Arlington, to help middle and high school students build mini rockets for the Team America Rocketry Challenge. Because our employees know the emancipating power of science education, engineers and technicians give their time to primary and secondary schools organizing workshops and competitions that stimulate the curiosity of young students - who may become tomorrow’s researchers and engineers.

 For a new Age of Enlightenment

 In his famous 1784 essay What is Enlightenment? philosopher Emmanuel Kant urged his contemporaries to have "the courage to use their own understanding and reason” to master their destinies. At exactly the same time, mathematician Jean d'Alembert and philosopher Denis Diderot proposed with their Encyclopedia a prodigious display of the science and technologies of their time, with the same generous ambition of educating and emancipating mankind.

 The ongoing digital transformation will require upcoming generations to possess more extensive scientific and technological skills than ever before. As tech companies are full of generous, curious, inventive and very well-trained talents, they must be ever more involved in creating a new Age of Enlightenment, through education and collective research, for the benefit of all.