OK folks. I keep telling you that government is getting into entrepreneurship way too deep. Well here is an amazing story from the Wall Street Journal (via Government Bytes blog site — you have to be a subscriber to get the full piece from WSJ):
Formerly a 100% state-owned phone monopoly, France Telecom is trying to convert itself into a pan-European Internet and mobile-phone company. But it must navigate a technology revolution with a work force that is almost impossible to reduce by layoffs. Two-thirds of France Telecom workers have civil-servant status that guarantees them a job for life, and the rest are protected by strict French labor laws.
To encourage voluntary departures, France Telecom has subsidized a magician, backed the opening of a scuba-diving shop in Martinique and sent a promising baritone to opera school….
If the business ventures fail in the first three years, the budding entrepreneurs can return to the company. “You would not believe the number of pizzerias and other little businesses France Telecom gave birth to last year,” says Olivier Barberot, senior vice president for human resources.
So you have no risk and they promise to take you back if you fail. Now that is why I am afraid of socialized entrepreneurship!!
This is a disease that is just way to prevalent in Europe. I was involved with a bunch of European Young Entrepreneurship projects back in the 80s, when all of a sudden the governments in Europe decided that Entrepreneurship was a a good idea. The only thing good that came out of it for me was that I moved from being a social democrat to a libertarian.