Developing new forms of organisational governance to tackle societal challenges

Developing new forms of organisational governance to tackle today’s complexities could be seen as the common thread running through Sébastien Soriano’s career: first as chief of staff to the French Minister for SMEs, Innovation and the Digital Economy; then as chairman of Arcep; and finally as CEO of the IGN, the national mapping agency which, since 2021, has been required to make its data openly available (open data)… without any real financial compensation. Producing maps of the territory not as it was, but as it is likely to be, at regular intervals rather than once every fifty years, represents a radical change. It therefore becomes necessary to rethink the governance of production (an ecosystem bringing together public and private sector actors and civil society), the means of production (including AI and space technology) and the uses – both civilian and military – for the benefit of public and private decision-makers who need a digital twin to anticipate and simulate. The ‘commons’ thus created collectively to address the nation’s major challenges are also a genuine lever for sovereignty.