Faced with an increasingly polarised world, it's tempting to choose sides. But the ensuing risk is of being unable to extricate oneself, trapped as we are in an ideology that leaves no room for doubt, questioning and, ultimately, progress.
Recently, I had the chance to debate not ‘face to face’ but 'with' Marie Le Pargneux, Director of Strategy and Transformation at Kéa, professor at École Polytechnique and ESCP Business School, and Gabriel Malek, founder of the Alter Kapitae association and author of the book ‘Les sensei de la décroissance’. We often disagreed, and that's good, because it brought out some real issues:

• Faced with climate chaos, is it too late to act, or is it still worth getting involved?
• Is economic degrowth the only way to avoid catastrophe?
• Is capitalism responsible for the deteriorating state of the world? Is it more part of the problem than the solution?
• So, if we want to change things, should we ‘break the system’ or help it to evolve?
• And finally, can companies bring about positive change?

While fully recognising the current ecological and societal challenges, I defended a positive vision of business and the role of the committed entrepreneur: a vocation at the service of transforming the world!
We reached some fine agreements on the question of the finiteness of resources, and some fine differences on the role of business, the usefulness of capitalism and the need or otherwise to bring about degrowth.
But the most important thing I remember is the quality of the dialogue between us, which for me is the key to respectful, virtuous and effective change... in a word, progress!

Hubert de Boisredon, Chairman and CEO of ARMOR GROUP.