Page 55 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

22 1 Unique, Multi-generational Development: A Lesson in Forward Planning

Fig. 1.12 The research
structures making up Europol'Agro
Europol’Agro

Université ARD INRA
de Reims

and propose an ambitious project in the plant-based biorefinery sector. In July 2005,
the project was awarded the label International Competitiveness Cluster. The
Industry and Agro-Resource Cluster (IAR) was born. 15
However, the IAR cluster had to obtain added authority, particularly by
attracting major universities and schools to Champagne Ardenne. Its strength was
that it could offer, at the Bazancourt-Pomacle site, the genuine large-scale experi-
mental resource they needed. The project was a success, and was strengthened in
2011 with the arrival of Ecole Centrale de Paris, followed AgroParisTech in 2011
and finally NEOMA Business School in 2012.

Conclusion
We have seen in this chapter that agriculture in Champagne, which today is
considered highly advanced, owes its development mainly to the determination of
professional people, to their ability to make use of technical progress and to joint
together to adapt to environmental changes. The particularly strong dynamic of the
agricultural cooperative has been crucial in this exceptional development, in terms
both of agriculture and of its extension, industrial processing and innovation. The
Bazancourt-Pomacle site is both the result and the symbol of the determination of
local farmers to develop new regional outlets by optimising their use of cutting-
edge technologies. The success of the site, considered as “the archetype of a
territorial biorefinery,” would not be what it is today without the unshakeable
commitment of the farmers of Champagne to agricultural cooperatives supporting
the notion of “patient capitalism.” This determination and this commitment have
developed over time, which is why this analysis of the success of the Bazancourt-
Pomacle site could only begin by a review of its history.
In managerial and organisational terms, a number of lessons are to be learnt from
this analysis.
The Bazancourt-Pomacle biorefinery is the result of a unique, incremental,
unplanned process. Even if a number of visionary leaders foresaw its potential,
there was no initial master plan. A project, perhaps, but without a design.
The biorefinery is the result of an intergenerational process: even if we take 1946
as the starting point, almost three generations have succeeded each other during its
development, in some cases different generations in the same family. 16

15
As part of the official launch of competitive clusters and the creation of the Agency for Industrial
Innovation (AII), President Jacques Chirac visited ARD August 30, 2005.
16
The de Bohan family, for example.