In the edition of 17 to 23 December 2009, Le nouvel Economiste talks about the journey of this entrepreneur who has, like the title of the article, “the conqueror’s perspective”. The weekly newsmagazine emphasizes how Nicolas de Tavernost has tactfully succeeded in transforming his business model “into a more robust version, one less vulnerable to advertising ”. The competitors are “pugnacious”, the strict regulation of that sector is a source of “constraint”, the advertising market is “in a setback” and yet M6 is able to publish “quarterly results [that] read like victory announcements”.

Nicolas de Tavernost

Diversification is the keystone of this success. “We are now realising less than half of the total revenues figures of the group with the M6 channel,” explains Nicolas de Tavernost. Le nouvel Economiste emphasizes the wealth of this diversification: audiovisual rights, online revenues, the sale of audiovisual rights, catch-up and other platforms, video-on-demand, satellite channels, cable and DTT, as well as the Girondins de Bordeaux football club, credit cards and mobile telephony. The weekly newsmagazine also notes how the results are starting to pay off: “revenues figures growing by 9 per cent over the third quarter of 2009 and assets of over EUR 28 million in comparison to the group’s debt. Consequently, there has been more growth of the share price than what was generally forecast, by 50 per cent since the start of the summer – EUR 12 to 18 -, which makes the group’s capitalisation hover more closely to that of TF1; the subsidiary of Bouygues controls more than 50 per cent of the advertising market while the subsidiary of the Bertelsmann group holds one quarter.”

Le nouvel Economiste talks about on the management style of the chairman, who it describes as an “orchestra conductor of this multiform business [who] ensures harmony amongst the many different entrepreneurs.” While Nicolas de Tavernost reaffirms the benefits of decentralisation, he nevertheless admits to having a “permanent duty to interfere” and that it is his “conception of democracy”. To explain this more clearly, he gives the following example: “Contrary to what one may believe, seeing us from the outside, we are not at all a group. There is a lot of decentralisation in terms of managerial responsibility. After that, one has to ensure two things: that it is consistent with the growth of the company, and secondly, and it’s my job, one has to facilitate the synergy between them – that the home shopping group maintains close communication with the M6 channel, which maintains close communication with the Girondins de Bordeaux if there are operations to be carried out together. So there is this need to make everyone work together and above all to make sure that they never hesitate to imagine what they can bring to one another.”

Nicolas de Tavernost sums up for Le nouvel Economiste what “M6 culture” is: “ To develop profitable activity – this is in our genes. I always say: we don’t have the means to lose money. We fought for existence at the start. So we have now a culture of profitability more than one of revenue figures. Secondly, attempting to stay ahead, therefore anticipating. Thirdly, a fairly large sense of interdependence, which also includes the managers.” The article ends with an anecdote that recounts how every evening, M6’s Chairman of the Management Board consults a page that informs him on the audiences for the programmes being broadcast in Germany, Italy and Spain because “he loves television and is looking for nuggets”.

To read the complete article (in French), click here.