A central thesis of the White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness and Employment is that the sources of competitivity have changed. The wealth of nations is increasingly based on the creation and exploitation of knowledge. The shift towards a knowledge-based economy is reflected in particular in the externalization of certain activities by industrial firms and by the faster growth of services. More generally, the key elements for competitiveness, that are now of greatest importance, are no longer confined to the relative level of the direct costs of the various factors of production. Even more crucial is the capacity to incorporate all of these elements into coherent strategies.
Organizational capacity is thus one of the key components of a firm's competitiveness.
This type of investment is becoming the key element in bringing about growth that is durable, creates skilled jobs and is economical in its use of resources. The European authorities have officially decided to implement a horizontal and volontarist policy mainly intended to sustain the whole industry rather than specific sectors. If the efforts of public authorities are to bear fruit, firms must remedy the low level of their own investments in technological research, development and innovation. Promoting generic technologies, such as new materials, biotechnology, information technology, whose characteristic is that they do not only concern specific firms or sectors but the whole industry, so that intersectoral perverse effects are minimised. Strengthening training, through specialized centers of higher education.