The value of the product will shape the future of French industry… but which one?

Last week, the liquidation of the historic home-appliance company Brandt, with the dramatic loss of 700 jobs, hit like a bombshell.

That same week, a young video game company based in Montpellier, Sandfall Interactive, founded in October 2020, swept nearly all the possible awards in Los Angeles at the 2025 Game Awards after selling 5 million units of its latest game in six months, in a growing sector that employs more than 12,000 people in France.

Many other examples could be set side by side, but the simultaneity of these two pieces of news, as well as their contrast, once again raises the same persistent question: in which sectors, and above all how, can we secure the future of the economy, industry, and jobs in France?

Of course, there are future-oriented sectors and others that are no longer so; of course, there are sometimes insurmountable handicaps linked to energy costs or labor costs, just as there are markets for large contracts that operate as much on geopolitical criteria as on strictly economic ones, and so on.

But very often, the question that arises in the face of competition is that of value versus costs and price, or more precisely that of the value differential versus the price differential.

This will obviously not be possible everywhere, but the sectors that will continue to create jobs will be those in which companies manage to sustainably create products or services that sell profitably. The engine of employment is the product that succeeds, and the engine of a successful product is most often the relationship between the value offered and the price asked.

I have been fortunate for several years to support high-technology companies that create many jobs because many of their products succeed in France, in Europe, or around the world.

I will not comment in detail on what underpins customer value and its link to the price asked in consumer sectors such as home appliances, banking, or luxury, which are not my areas of expertise. Mine is the world of professional technological products (or B2B/B2G), where this exercise of understanding value is just as important and difficult, but of a different nature.

On this specific issue of value versus price, I have drawn two lessons from my professional experience

Firstly

The value of a product or a service for a customer follows an unavoidable rule, valid in most business sectors, from which not all the consequences are always drawn when one says “we need to create value.”

A customer does not buy value itself, but differences in perceived value, provided that these are seen as greater than the difference in price asked. Price, for its part, is a separate decision as to whether or not to directly pass on costs.

Competitiveness is therefore not only a matter of cost; it is a matter of the cost/value relationship.

This rule, which incidentally explains the success of most so-called “premium” companies and brands, has four consequences:

1. Value does not lie in the performance of the “product” itself, but in what the product brings to the targeted customers, that is, the difference between the benefits obtained and the sacrifices made
2. A customer only pays for value if they perceive it and understand what it brings them
3. Creating customer value is not enough; it is necessary to create more of it than competing products or solutions
4. At the same time, the proposed value differential must be considered greater than the price differential asked

Competitiveness is therefore not only a matter of cost; it is a matter of the cost/value relationship.

Secondly

These basic principles are not so different in the professional technology world compared to the consumer world, but their implementation is often more complex and requires the use of different methods.

B2B/B2G companies offer “products” whose development is often long and costly, and whose lifespan on the market can be very long through successive evolutions or versions. These “products” may be materials, components, services, software, machines, systems, or complete solutions. They are sold on public or private markets in sectors or industries such as electronics, construction, chemistry, IT, robotics, nuclear, rail, naval, or Aerospace/Space/Defense.

B2B/B2G companies that succeed with their “products,” even if these are sometimes sold as part of “customer projects”:

1. 1. Precisely target, even before its design and development, the market and the customers the “product” is intended for
   2. Analyze in a very detailed way the hierarchy of what “creates value” for these customers, a difficult exercise since this value varies by market or customer and is not solely a matter of technical performance: it can also relate to services, consistency in quality, customer relationships, payment models, or image
   3. Carry out a very detailed comparison, both technical and non-technical, of their “product” against competing products or solutions
   4. Carefully arbitrate, during the creation of the “product,” between several options in order to select the differentiation they want to create on a few essential points
   5. Strive to measure with equal care the cost and the “willingness to pay” for this differentiation
   6. Master technology watch, the possible integration of innovative technologies, as well as technical development in terms of development methods, financing, cost, and timelines
   7. Support their “products” throughout their entire life cycle, from design to development, from commercial launch to end of life, through continuous efforts to adapt and improve cost/value competitiveness
   8. Put in place an effective mechanism to, as the case may be, sell the “products” or “identify and capture projects,” which here relies on more rational than emotional foundations, even if the latter are not entirely absent
   9. Support this sales mechanism with operational marketing specifically adapted to raise awareness of and promote their “products”

These are some of the keys to success for B2B/B2G technological products.

France has the talent to train some of the best engineers in the world, and this is a tremendous asset for anticipating the technological future in B2B/B2G.

However, technologies alone, no matter how innovative they may be, are not enough; they must be integrated in order to turn them into products and services that succeed in their markets because the additional value they provide is consistently aligned with their price.

Let us hope that we will know how to make the best use of this asset to create more and more jobs in the economy and in industry, by further professionalizing the creation of advanced “products” offered at the right price.