Hélioscopie, the key to success

Hélioscopie specializes in the design and manufacture of medical implants for the treatment of obesity (30,000 Héliogast® rings fi tted since October 2000). It has recently launched a new product, the Héliosphère®, a temporary non-surgical intra-gastric balloon system for the treatment of obesity. Hélioscopie has also just opened an oncology department.

Its Héliosite® range uses a central venous catheter to administer drugs or nutritive solutions directly. Based in Vienne, the fi rm was started in 2000 by four people working in a 30 sq m offi ce. It now employs 60 people with €6.1m annual sales. Exports currently account for 55% of revenue but are set to increase in the coming years with access to the markets in Australia, Canada, Mexico and Brazil.

The secret behind such spectacular growth is substantial investment in R&D (13% of revenue), constant efforts to improve quality (ISO certifi cation) and close partnership with the medical community. The fi rm has already organized training courses for some 1,500 general practitioners and 500 gastro-enterologists.

It has fi led some 30 patents too, in just fi ve years. This success story is a perfect illustration of the dynamism of small French companies and their industrial know-how.

Cazeneuve, 100 years and a new lease of life

Cazeneuve (€6m sales for 50 employees) has just celebrated its fi rst centenary. Now part of the Cato group it has always been based near Vienne, designing and manufacturing lathes (conventional, numerical control, for teaching, etc.). It works for large companies in the aeronautics and automotive sectors and smaller engineering fi rms specializing in the production of prototypes. It has also developed the Retrofi t system for modernizing older lathes, adding programming control. This offers a cost-effective way of combining the equipment’s original mechanical qualities with scope for carrying out complex machining operations in a short period of time.

Building on its success Cazeneuve and the Cato group have shifted the focus of their development strategy to exports to high-growth industrial countries, while boosting synergies between the know-how and sales savvy of the group’s various units.

Offering the world market innovative products is a way of shifting the focus of competition away from merely cost and towards technological progress. Innovation only yields a lasting competitive advantage when it is based on products deploying cutting edge technologies that are diffi cult and time-consuming to copy. In the context of a world market Minalogic consequently also represents an effective means of discouraging fi rms from relocating production.

Staying ahead at all times

The ability to innovate is a prime asset, but it is no longer suffi cient in itself to retain a competitive edge. It is no longer enough just to design innovative products. Companies also need to stay ahead of the competition at all times by innovating quickly and frequently, keeping time-to-market as short as possible. To achieve this capacity for innovation coupled with a speedy response to market demand, resources must be pooled, synergies nurtured and an offensive industrial stance developed, guided by ambitious technological vision. Only by sharing

resources from industry, research and training is it possible to construct an offering of international stature. In this respect Minalogic is, and long will be, a decisive force driving offensive industrial policies.

Grenoble-Isère’s powerful industrial fabric

The Grenoble-Isère micro and nanotechnology centre, often quoted as an example on account of the world-class expertise it has developed and its pioneering approach to microelectronics, is a particularly productive melting pot. Over the last 50 years a remarkable system has developed fuelling innovation. Its quality and diversity owe a great deal to a long-standing tradition of cooperation between industry, research and training, with unswerving support from the local authorities. The resulting synergies have produced some spectacular industrial success stories, laying solid foundations for future invention. Setting up the Minalogic centre will make them all the more durable, capitalizing even more effectively on innovation in industry.
Combining micro and nanotechnology and embedded logic holds the promise of innumerable openings in the world

market for high-added value products and services such as imaging, connectivity, mobility, energy, healthcare but also less obvious sectors such as textiles. In other words, the aim is to put the em phasis fi rmly on product differentiation thanks to miniaturization and increasingly smart functions.

Minalogic already on the rails

For a project on this scale AEPI, the Grenoble-Isère Economic Development Agency naturally played a key role in putting together the application and fi nalizing the project, supplying the necessary administrative and logistics resources and coordinating the steering committee. The agreement with the government setting up the competitivity centre was signed at the beginning of the autumn, and the bodies responsible for its governance and coordination have now been appointed. Three projects are already on the starting blocks, ready to roll, and six more are set to follow by the end of 2006. In short, Minalogic is already on track!

The Isère department and more particularly the Grenoble area have not only attracted talent in research and industry, but also in the arts. Among the star performers three internationally reputed artists have contributed for many years to promoting the area’s good name, at home and abroad.
The three men are Jean-Claude Gallotta, Marc Minkowski and Laurent Pelly, who while pursuing very different careers share the same passion for art.