ESCP Europe CEOs Studio with Arnaud de Puyfontaine CEO of Vivendi

But thank you very much indeed. Very good evening to all and I just learned that I had to make the speech in English. I'll try to be well. So hope that's a good question. I don't have the answer. I guess that probably this is because that's a fun job. When you see this corporate presentation, which is an interesting one, when we are talking to our stakeholders, I do think that it gives the level of energy and fun that at the end of the day, rather than to ask the question 'how do you do that?' you just do it, and that's fun. Yeah.

Thank you very much. No, I've been just to step back a little bit. I didn't change since 27 years. Yes, we've been knowing each other for like you know, pulmo gets over weeks, and thanks for all the promo gates we're in here tonight. And by the way, for all the students who are watching us, I mean one day you're going to be a promo 2018, and I think Arno and I can hope that you're going to be like promo idiots, happy to see you each other regularly for the next 30 years. So let's hope you'll be use discover how great it is to share. So I think I know Frank our Dean likes this, I mean he likes this feeling, the feeling of sharing. I mean we like to see each other not only every five years, but we've kept this community thing, and this is true, and this is all the more true for our Arnaud, who's always been, when anybody in his promo class of 88 had anything to ask or say, it's always been possible to have some talk and to see Arnaud about any subject. And this is to thank you for this honor tonight because this is not the case of every CEO on earth. So thank you for this sharing with our class and thank you for this sharing. Thank you, you made the answer then.

So yes, I mean as it is a fantastic business school, I had a great time, great friends, and I think that it is as easy yesterday we were gathered together so we have to enjoy every minute. And I think that when you belong to a community you can be proud of this community, and when you can act and behave just to make the community greater, especially with a project which is absolutely fit for purpose as regard to the challenging economy and world in which we are living, I guess that being able to help each other and to spend time together is something that has no value.

Coming back to your question about managing creative talents, Vivendi is a well-known company that went through peaks and troughs over the past decade and more. Today, what with Andy, it's important to say that even with an 11 billion euro turnover, it is divided in different businesses. We are the worldwide leader in music industry with a 40% market share. We are making 5.5 billion euros in the music industry, and we've got Canal+ Group and Canal+ in France, pay TV, free TV, international business which are growing very quickly, especially in Africa, Vietnam, and Poland for the time being. And we got a production company specialized in TV series and film called StudioCanal. This is a company which is currently entering a new era. Well, two years ago, in June 2014, the previous management team and board decided to split the telco operations and the media operations. And on June 2014, the new chairman and number one shareholder of the company, Vincent Bolloré, have been elected, and a new chief executive has been nominated, myself. So we've been on a journey which has been pretty intensive over the past nearly two years now, and we're going to talk about that. I'm sure we've got a good mission and vision, our vision is clearly to make Vivendi be a worldwide leader in terms of media and content. This is a French-born company with a solid implementation in Europe, but with a worldwide ambition. And the industry, as we see it, the creative industry is going through a lot of changes, radical changes. I like to call that like a Darwinian step. It's a reinvention of what the business is going to look like in a few years' time. But despite all this environment, at the very heart of the business, we are making business for the capacity to attract talent. That's true for actors, that's true for directors, that's true for producers, that's true for singers, that's true for artists. And tomorrow, if we build, which I hope, a solid business in the game industry, that's going to be true for developers, that's going to be true for people creating creatively focused on bringing entertainment and nice-to-have content to users. And to do that, you have to put this creative environment in a context which is creating a business. Because creative business: you've got two things, creativity on the one hand and business on the other end. And I guess that creativity without business, it's called philanthropy. And business without creativity, when you are in the creative industry, you're just nothing. So if I take an example, we've got an example which is in the fashion industry. You take the story of Gucci. Gucci was in the doldrums, and there is a couple, and the couple was Domenico De Sole and Tom Ford. Tom Ford from the creative side, Domenico De Sole from the business side. They made from a business which was just going south and nearly bankrupt, they just realized that it's a killer vision, but they've been this kind of very healthy combination of working together to create the right momentum which has given birth to one of the leaders in the industry. But you can take the same thing with, when I was young, yesterday, see the case of Burberry. Burberry was very old-fashioned, a little bit I say it's long Rangers as we call them in the UK, but it was really a company very dusty, not very brilliant, etc. But to cut a long story short, there's been a combination, and in the last five years, you had Angela Ahrendts with the Christopher Bailey, the creative director. This is a couple which has reinvented a brand which is at the forefront of all this disruption of the fashion industry in terms of digital, in terms of distribution, in terms of the way to do things. Those are two guys, they were always late at school anyway. 30 years ago, Jamie Keil, I don't... yes, say hi, I'm sorry, track 88, very cool to see you guys.

So I'm taking some examples because we are exactly in the same logic in our industry. We got to convince Justin Bieber, very bankable, very great guy, just to be able to bring his talents to a company called Universal and to create what is a great thing. But the rule of the game is different with Rihanna, with Adele, with Stromae, and so on and so forth. So we create a culture of being able to get this kind of dimension and relationship with creative people who are bringing the expertise, that's our affair, their uniqueness to a company like Vivendi. And our job is to create an environment which is going to make business, which is going to enable all the stakeholders to make money, and to create a 28 billion euro market cap company which has great ambition for the future. So there is no black and white answer to the question. It's about acknowledging what is very special to the creative industry, acknowledging what is very special and unique to our DNA, and to create the very best environments in every part of the world in which we operate. Because France represents a bit less than one third of our turnover, so we are truly a worldwide player from the time being. And that's part of what we are. Talents are the core of our raison d'être. That's very important.

Number one, I've got to come with me in my next move on shows, okay? Because you're a good seller. Number one, so now I'm expecting you all to become shareholders of Vivendi. We had a good ride today, and many more things to come. That being said, I think that the recipe is number one: to be clear about the strategy, to be absolutely obsessed by execution, and to be surrounded by quality of people which are enabling you to be great. And I'm like a unlikely conductor in our orchestra. We are number one worldwide in classic music with Deutsche Grammophon for instance, and other labels. It's like this, I mean we have to give the tempo, you have to make the best choice in terms of the people around you, and to create this kind of alchemy which is going to make you successful. And then what is the challenge today of a company like Vivendi? This company has always been like a holding company, and the journey that we started now nearly two years ago is really to move from a holding company to an operating company. What does that mean? It does mean that we want to make Vivendi much greater than the sum of its parts. And two years ago, Vivendi was a combination of different businesses whose common theme was not working together. It was easier for one of our businesses to work with our key competitors rather than for businesses inside the holding. From that time, and today we are developing many different initiatives to prove that one plus one equals three.

We can do that because technology has completely changed the economics and the rule of the game in the industry. This industry that some time ago used to be seen in terms of what's happening in the music industry, what's happening in the production TV industry, what's happening in the publishing industry, what's happening in the game industry. And now there is a kind of overriding trend which is the focus is you as an individual, and entertainment being a kind of an unarticulated needs. What can I do as Vivendi to provide you with the right level of content of any shape or form that is going to enable me to create a sustainable relationship through which you're going to spend more and more time consuming the content that I'm going to produce for you, and by the way spend more and more money to be able to get it? Because you've got two things in our industry: free content, paid content. Free content is interesting in terms of sampling, this is advertising, this is all the data-driven, like Pokémon, that type of momentum within industry. But I'm a true believer in paid content. So I can hear some shouts as regards to old-fashioned dinosaur. I don't think so, because I am part of this way of thinking that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. So I'd rather be able to produce the very best content that is worth to be paid for. Like a very famous copy of a company called La Jolla? Because I was it? I think that our obsession is to make first and foremost high quality paid content that is going to be much desired, whether it's nice to have, and then to create a relationship with our audience and every individual of the audience. So this is Crystal News? He is working at Vivendi, so it is easy. He is a friend, is an alumna and an alumnus of our business school, is a great entrepreneur, and he is late, which is quite bad for your career, but we'll talk afterwards. So this kind of relationship with every individual in our audience is something that is of the essence.

The other thing is when you see the entertainment industry, this is an entertainment industry which is owned by the US. 80% of the value created is based in the US English-speaking world, etc. And there is a unique opportunity for us as a non-US player to be able to tackle untapped geographies and opportunities. What do I mean by that? If you take the music industry, 80% of the industry is gathered in five countries in the world: the US, the UK, Germany, Japan, France. Physical distribution, which was part of the story some years ago, don't ever think about the possibility to create a sustainable business in physical distribution in Africa or in Asia, okay? Now for many different reasons, you have to know that we've got more than 2 million subscribers in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. Those are customers that are paying more than average 17 euros per month to get a pay TV offer, and with double-digit growth here. And because entertainment is highly related to the development of middle class, when you are middle class you've got a certain purchasing power. When you have paid for your food and your home, the two other things that you're going to spend is entertainment on the one hand, leisure, and some other type of consumption. So we are the businesses that are correlated to that trend. That sparked for Africa with a great fantastic initiative from some telco operators which are making the relationship with our customer much easier than for instance in France. So that's one thing. But in Asia, that's a different logic. In Asia, we couldn't make any money. You know, when I joined Vivendi, I remember discussion I had with Lucian Grainge. If they had in Palo Alto, or not in Palo Alto, in Santa Monica, in LA of our music business, illusion. Something that Universal had a hit in China that was a compilation of Bob Marley. I'm a big fan of Bob Marley. And as ever, so how many copies? You know, they say well 15,000. So that was a big hit, that was blockbuster, 15,000 in China. So I mean obviously no need to say that it's just peanuts. But now with digital distribution, with some potential partners like Alibaba, like Tencent, like many of those type of players, they see entertainment as part of the proposition with different type of angle, and they are there to make money. So I like people who want to make money through what we are producing. So we've got a common objective and alignment on the one hand, but also they've got a position in the market which in a position where in the physical world nothing can be done. Now we can build a sustainable proposition, and we're working on that big time.

So the other thing is to address the world in a way that is going to offer opportunities. We're a company which is maybe more international in mindset, in culture, in the capacity to manage differences, create a unique selling proposition for a company like Vivendi. And last but not least, the entertainment market used to be also very local, and now it's becoming more and more global. And why? Just because technology is providing the possibility to create players that are changing the world. Spotify. Spotify is a business which has a value of 8.5 billion valuation in dollars, now in euro. And this is a company that in streaming is number one worldwide, and that's created the possibility to move from downloading to an experience which is the experience of consuming music product with the streaming capacity, and reaching a certain scale. And Spotify in France is number two, in the US number one, well in every country in the world where the company operates, creating an amazing company, an opportunity for us to reach a worldwide audience. As Apple Music is currently building, we sold to Apple last year Beats Music. Beats that started by the Beats product and then after moved to a streaming platform, and Apple Music has been built on this platform and has created the possibilities. It was launched in June 2015 and reached 11 million subscribers a month, which is pretty good. And creating a worldwide approach, well we've got the same in TV.

In TV, if you think about what they call debundlization, or like this world, this was, you know, the world is a show. Now we want to consume video content whenever we want, wherever we are, in whichever type of shape or form and support. And the big name today and the kind of F which is very very fashionable is Netflix. And what is Netflix? Netflix is a technical platform which has been created by a DVD delivery business which was at the very beginning a physical distribution of renting of physical DVDs in the US. And very very smartly, they developed this approach which was the streaming platform. And interestingly, Netflix started as a technical platform to be able to develop a new business model in terms of consuming video content, and they did that very efficiently. This is the worldwide leader in terms of subscription video online player. But now that they have reached the 75 million customer base on a monthly basis worldwide, with a plan in the coming three years to reach 120 million, they announced that they will invest 6 billion dollars in terms of content this year. So what's happening? Netflix is not only a competitor in terms of distribution, but is now becoming a competitor in terms of investment in creative content. All the studios in the US are really pissed off because at the end of the day, they created the right condition to give some deals to Netflix to create the very beginning of the proposition in terms of streaming distribution. And so now the conditions are different because Netflix has reached a certain position in the market, so the conditions of negotiation are becoming more and more in favor of Netflix against the big players in the US. And last but not least, they are now eating the lunch of the big studios. You know, when they invest the money, they attract the producer of House of Cards, for instance, just to name the first very one. There can be many others. But you know, Netflix is just one among some newcomers. Amazon Prime is doing the same thing, working with Woody Allen in terms of production of its series. Well, it's not as easy as it may seem because Woody Allen is on a depression because he can't find the right ideas for the theory, but that's another topic. For those we know, there is a very famous program in the UK called Top Gear. Jeremy Clarkson left BBC in specific circumstances. While I was in London, nothing related to me. Jeremy Clarkson is a nice guy, smart guy, and a very petrol head, very nice job. Well, as some of you may know, I think that Amazon has paid an amazing amount of tens of millions sterling to be able to produce what is going to be only on Amazon Prime soon, and that's the new Top Gear competitor. That is it. So I could add a lot to that description, but what I want to say and just to cut a long story short in terms of a question, we are in a very Darwinian situation. We have to reinvent the economics of the industry. And the reason why we are going to deliver on the proposition and give results aligned with the expectation of our shareholders and the people who are believing that we've got the right formula is that everything is back on the table. Everything can be redesigned, and the world is our oyster. And I think that the winning formula is going to be high level of creativity, obsession about execution, and the capacity to get an angle that is going to shake the way things we're used to do, to be in a position to define the way things will create the right formula for success.

My belief is that what we need to do is keeping the obsession. And I'm repeating myself because it's very important. We are in the creative industry, and all is about the capacity to attract talent in everything that we are doing. Because our creativity and our product are highly related, the capacity to maintain and reinforce and defend this creative spirit around the company. But creativity, if we don't have the right economics and the right channel to reach the audience, not only is going to create a dead end results, but also will not enable us to create the right environment to do the very best we can in terms of attracting. So it's kind of a winning formula. And what do I mean by that? If you take the average, let me take an example. The average cost of one hour for TV series in Europe is 600,000 euros. If you take the average cost of a TV series produced in the US, that would be between five and six million dollars. Why? Initially because of a 350 million market in the US, and then because you've got all the savoir-faire and the development and the expertise of the US in regards to TV series. So money is not everything, but nevertheless to have a little bit more money to be able to invest in content, especially in a world which is becoming more and more competitive, you've got to create the right environment to be sure that you will be able to punch your weight with the right level of resources to be in the game. So to do that, I'm coming back to the Netflix example. Netflix, 120 million in the coming two years in subscriber base. We need to create our own plan. And what do we do? We maximize the initiatives in building network to get access to consumers. And our plan is, despite the decision made by Vivendi in 2012 to split the media, entertainment, and content operations from the telco operations, that's been done. We completed the process with the sale of our GVT cable operator in Brazil, we sold the SSR to Altice in 2015, we sold the Maroc Telecom at the same time. So we have really disposed of all the full ownership of the telco operators. But while we were doing that, we started to create other kind of strategic relationships with those guys and other guides to be able to build this network. And we have very special and in-depth relationship with Telefonica, which is very important in Spain obviously, but also in South America. And we have started a journey in Italy, and the journey is with Telecom Italia. Telecom Italia is an amazing company which we became number one shareholder. We have a 24.9% stake, it's a consideration of a 4 billion euro capital allocation. We think that there is a fantastic story to be written there.

But what we do is we take a position in a company that is currently investing a lot in terms of infrastructure, what they call the ultra-broadband, and what in fact the band is large, should I say, and the other way around, which is creating this kind of motorway of distribution of content. And in the telco environment, you know, telco operators, what we see and we saw it in France recently, is that there is a sustainable business for telco operators in France now? So the question is not if but when the consolidation will occur. So it's like a TV series, that could be a good scenario by the way. But at the end of the day, on the long term, the profitability that needs to be rebuilt from telco operators with the level of investment with 5G, with all the things which are currently occurring, not by voice but with data transfer, and the two kinds of data that you can have that will rebuild and will make customer pay for is content and service-led type of product. So we are the best partner for those telco operators in terms of building the right content in any shape or form to justify their clients to pay more. So it opens up great possibilities. Because we've got to be very cohesive with our competitors in terms of distribution because we need to scale. But if we've got preferred relationship with some of the players in a different market, we create the right access to a very big potential customer base, and we create another option, a kind of a plan B, a contingency plan to what is currently the Netflix approach. And if you think that due to net neutrality, those big players like Netflix, but you can talk about all the other gadgets, I mean you think about YouTube and other type of platforms, are just eating the dinner of those telecom operators. If you get a kind of win-win formula between telco operators and players like us, then you create a sustainable business model. And this is what we are doing. So we're defining the capacity and the obsession about the content and the product and the quality of the product, and so on and so forth. So coming back to my initial comment, but at the same time being smart in thinking about this, and the way to access a customer base. That's tomorrow. I mean, you know, telephone companies have 310 million customer base worldwide. You take Telecom Italia, it's a 110 million customer base worldwide. So not everybody obviously is going to consume our product, but if you start with that, it is going to create a competitive advantage and an in in distribution.

We have very strong relationship with Spotify and Deezer for instance. We are a shareholder of those distribution platforms. I mean, those platforms are used by our competitors, but at the end of the day what I want is to make sure that if you are customer of Spotify for instance, you will spend more and more time in consuming the Universal Music product and songs than the other ones, because the remuneration we get is based on the market share in terms of consumption. So this is this kind of formula. We do exactly the same thing with Dailymotion. Why did we buy Dailymotion one year ago? We bought Dailymotion because the only common theme in terms of content owner and YouTube is that none of the content owners are making any money with YouTube. You've got the 48% YouTube tax on advertising, with a kind of low yield in terms of advertising compared to money. So you can't at the same time invest in quality and creative content and must-have content while the business model is under a low yield in terms of advertising. There is no sustainable business model. So high quality content on YouTube mixed within the user-generated content to get the mass is a kind of dead end. So we decided to think about with YouTube in terms of having a special type of product, and you may have seen for some of you these Red YouTube, which is an offer which is paid for, which is higher quality. That is one thing. But we want to be in a position to be very friendly with content owners. And with Dailymotion, our plan is to create an offer that is going to provide a sustainable money-making proposition to content owners in terms of distribution. So if you take the subject of distribution, telco operators, our savoir-faire in terms of cable, digital terrestrial TV, direct to home which is satellite type of technology, we've got an expertise in that through our different businesses. What we do with the telco is clearly, in my view, going to be a winning formula. And all this expertise that we use and we developed in the relationship and initiatives which we have in other parts of the world like in Asia or in Africa, and any other type of opportunities, is creating a winning formula. So this is our vision.

You know, I like to see some analysts report and say, 'Well, we don't understand the strategy. What is the strategy?' Number one, in a very highly competitive market, I'm not going to share everything as loudly because I want to keep something secret. Number one. Number two, I understand people said that we don't understand. You sold all the telco operations, why do you invest the money in the relationship with a database? There is a big difference between having the ownership of a telco or to be a strong player in the telco environment to be able to leverage them to build this story. Okay. And the other thing is, well, we don't know why you have sold Activision Blizzard and now you're trying to come back in the game industry with what we are currently doing with Gameloft and Ubisoft. Very different stories. I think that well, it was before our arrival, a decision made by the previous management, and I regret. I would have wished to have Activision Blizzard in the portfolio, but you don't reinvent. It's always from time to time things not exactly what you wish them to be. But we do think nevertheless that Activision Blizzard is a very US-positioned, rather too great company, fantastic, but not anymore in the market. So now we are trying to create a different story with Gameloft and Ubisoft, and to be in a position to create an offer that is going to match the strategic ambition that we are having. But there also it's very consistent with what we want to build. But it's always skepticism about what you do, and it's even more the case when you've got such big legacy. And Vivendi as a legacy, and in a world where there are so many balls in the air, at the end of the day, thinking about the strategy in five years time? My god, I'd rather think about what I'm going to do in the six months coming month, because I don't know what will be the situation in 12 months. So it's all about execution and the capacity to within a few preconceived ideas or caveats to be in a position to write a story that is going to make Vivendi a very successful player.

Which is highly related to a local culture, you play a role. I mean music is power, music is amazing. I mean you listen to music everywhere in the world and there are different tastes. In our global positioning, music we are making 40 percent of our business in what I would call like worldwide IP. You know the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, we got Anthony's from, Kanye West, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, James Bay, and others. It would be a long list, but that represents 40% of our business. 60% of our business is made local, so that's really the Canada. And when you make local, I mean you're part of what's happening. I mean the entertainment, the culture, the content is part of a local environment. When you have a duty, and I think that these duties making us investing in new talent, in scholarship and investment for some initiatives because we're part of a kind of day to day life of the different countries in which we operate. And this is what we do for instance. Let me give you an example in Africa. In Africa we have decided to build over two years paid more than 80 spots of light called Canelo lamp er, because we own the lamp er and Canal is a brand close to our company, and Canal alam PR is going to be a network of brick-and-mortar places in which we will be able to organize events, shows, movies, and so on and so forth. So you're going to have places where people will be able to gather, and that's going to be like an Argo ha where people will be able to get access to different cultural events. And you may have seen some images of an initiative we had last June, if I do remember, and that was completely amazing. A big, big, big concert we had. We were expecting 25,000 people, and there were 80,000 people coming to the event. So there is a kind of need. In uni again, it's a kind of a winning formula. It's really to position Vivendi as a company that is going to accelerate, trigger, foster all the creative content, and then gather all the initiatives and to be part of the community. So I think nothing very smart, nothing very brilliant. Just as a matter of fact, culture is at the heart of what you do, entertainment is part of what is making life great. And I mean, how many people when the music you like, everybody's got a kind of a taste, etcetera. This is something that is really stimulating, music isn't it? So you create this relationship, and you create something very special, and you do that in every part of the entertainment. I mean part of the job of an entertainment player is to entertain. That's a good job description, isn't it?

I do remember when I, when I first joined an international company that was an amazing company called EMAP, and EMAP became a FTSE 100 company. And I had a great chance because it's all the people you meet, and it's to be able, people you meet and appetite and the capacity to create the right conditions that are going to enable you to be part of a story. And EMAP got into the French market with a kind of a vision which was very different from the way to do things in France. And the Chairman, he is Robin Miller, now Sir Robin Miller, a good friend of mine. And Robin used to be the editor-in-chief of a deadly - sorry, a weekly magazine called Motorcycle News in the UK. They are very keen on that. There was high distribution, etcetera. To cut a long story short, EMAP started from a regional type of operator and built a FTSE 100 media company in the B2C, B2B, radio, TV production, and so on and so forth. And when I took my first job as a CEO of the French operation, I joined the things and then after two years I became the CEO of the French operation. And Robin told me that running a business, it's likely, it's exactly like to ride a bicycle, a motorbike. If you're very, very fond of a motorbike and you don't fall off, that's to say that you don't try hard enough. And I think that in terms of the industry, there is no kind of a special recipe. You create a very great environment, you test, you try, you fail, you learn, you develop. I mean, every artist, you know, I've got so many people in the music industry for instance. We get something like A&R. It's called Artists and Repertoire, and that is the money you spend in terms of spotting the high-quality star of tomorrow. And we invest 800 million dollars to be able to support the young or not young men and women who are going to make our success of tomorrow. And not all the money we invest is going to be a blockbuster, far from that. But the point is that we create the sculpture of a trial, the sculpture of getting the skills to spot the people who are going to make a difference. And we keep all this philosophy, which I really do like. If you don't try hard enough and you don't fall off, you don't fail, you will never reach the full potential of what you can do. It's true in every business, but in the creative business it's even truer. So you just share that, you just make that happen. And if you want to keep your job, you make the success greater than the failure.

We've got many initiatives in that field. This is an initiative that has been led by the team in charge of corporate social responsibility, just to be part of this entrepreneurial spirit where every incumbent and every way of doing things today will be challenged in any shape or form. And I do believe that it's best to be part of this momentum, to be able to support who are going to be your competitors of tomorrow, and to be able to create your own competitive environment to be able to prepare for the future. And while we are doing that, we've got within the company something that we did create called Vivendi Village. Vivendi Village alongside what we do in the music and in the game and Canal+ place is this kind of an umbrella of all the initiatives for entrepreneur type of dimension. So we've got a business in ticketing, we've got a business that is developing very intensively our events and our show running expertise. We got an OTT platform called Watch ever that was an initiative in Germany that we brought back for more kind of a pan-European project around OTT platform. OTT means Over the Top, that is to say direct relationship between an operator and a director technology, think that I mean Netflix is an OTT platform for instance. So it's kind of a feature of the consumption. And we've got many other sacred things that I'm not going to share with you because I don't want my competitor to be aware of that. If you want to know more, you've got to torture the man here Christophe Agnès. We belong this will that you're a team, but if he talks to you, he is not anymore my friend. And to answer your question, I'm a true believer that there is no obstacle within supposed to be big group to be the right place for amazing entrepreneur to develop forward-looking businesses. And our job is to create the best environment to nurture them, to develop them, and to enable the company Vivendi to create the right environment for them to win, and for us to benefit from these initiatives that one day is going to enable us to improve our business. So I'm a true believer that you as a big corporate player, number one, if you don't keep the spirit of remaining young, agile, innovative, sexy, appealing, forward-looking, dead? And the best way to do that, those are only words I know, but I just try on a day-to-day basis to make that work. But you need some tools. Those tools when you create in terms of the culture of the company, the capacity to get that momentum, that's a winning formula which is hard. And I'm really happy about what we are creating in terms of momentum. The news of the morning, but you know there are things about Vivendi every, it's a little bit tiring, but the news has regard to cargo and our contribution to cargo is one of the small pieces of what we do just to build the story.

So that was not the news of today but the news of yesterday, because we've got the new TV and we see something actually believe which is the best way to consume media is this one, either because you are using the screen or because you use that other kind of tool to be able to control your consumption of entertainment. Studio Plus mission is to create short format content that you will be able to consume on small screens. So you accept that. Yeah, I mean I remember at the time I was at EMAP, we launched in France at that time a fantastic brand called FHM for him magazine, very mature, and what we had was Bowsers? Okay, but that was a good balance. And I remember at the time the editor-in-chief of FHM spent 18 hours and 45 minutes to work from A to Z non-stop, 24 hours? It was kind of a very beginning of those big series with cliffhangers that why you start and you can stop. Well now we are in a kind of era of our life, the exposure to content etc., and the user of this kind of device, I mean to get 45 minutes episode of a theory is a bit too long for that. So Studio Plus mission is to create a new format that is matching the consumer behavior and the changes, and to get some short format series, 7 to 10 episodes, between 5 and 7 minutes, and to be able to add value to those devices. And believe me, this is kind of initiative which has a strong support of Telefonica, Telecom Italia, and other big players in the telco industry, because they need contents. So guess what, Studio Plus is one of the initiatives that is going to make our vision about the relationship between a company like our company and those very strategic employment partners, important partners, life and kicking. That's ticklish. And we have had amazing reception by the market at Cannes during the MIPTV this week as we got to this. So watch the space, all to come, and please rush to consume all the good things that are going to be produced by Studio Plus.

That's a very interesting question. I wanted to become a doctor, very no, a true doctor. But life is exposing you to things that are changing what you want to do, and for different reasons that some of the people here know. I just got to the classic repertoire in France and had a great chance to be able to join your school, HEC. Then I had an amazing, we had something at the very beginning that was, you know, ages ago, middle age last century, and we had something called up sandwich and resistant? Is all getting this? You know as a kind of a, you know, two weeks to do something before getting into the things. And I did something in terms of why we just wanted to know how a new sweater was working, and I did something on that. And then this is something that was read by the previous boss of newspaper called L'Expansion, who gave me a call and say, I want you to work with me. I said, what about students in that? And I had a choice between being very serious in my accountant course but to be able to work in an environment like L'Expansion. I managed to do both at the same time. I had great friends who were able to give me all the right tips to be able to go through the different hurdles of the three years of our time here at HEC. And I found it very funny, but in my third year I had to be very serious, so I spent my last training period in Arthur on the plane, which I found very exciting, but I couldn't see me in kind of a long term there. And so when I came back from my military service, which I didn't do in the army but in Indonesia, I was on the verge of joining a bank. One week before joining the bank, I really received a call from the same boss of L'Expansion asking me to join his team, and I did it. My father was very angry, that was non-conventional, but this is how things started. And then after, my life has been decided by the luck I had to meet different people who gave me a chance to do things in a way that very quickly, because it seems like if it were yesterday, provided me with the possibility to do what I did. So yes, I had mentors, yes, I met amazing people, and yes, I've been supported by a wonderful family also, very important, because it created wealth balance things. And at the end of days, been fun. But I guess that there are many more fun things to happen, so it's not yet ended. Watch this space.

Thank you. I'll try to give short answers. In terms of the storytelling, the only thing that I'm sure of is that I don't have any certainty in any shape or form. People who are going to tell what's going to be the environment in which we operate in five years' time, they are just fools. So the thing is that the stock market, because we are a listed company and part of my job is to be able to convince people to invest money because we are going to have a good return. You've got those who are there because they want yield on the short term, and you get those who are there because they want growth on the long term. The market is huge. You know our shareholder base is 25% US, 25% UK, 25% France, and 25% rest of the world. And I think that the storytelling is at the heart of what we do in terms of bringing people with us and to create the trust. You create a story of a, you've got the thing is that what is our, know what is your equity story? Oh my god, the equity story is just a story to tell in terms of where is the raison d'être of Vivendi, the reason why I think we got all the criteria just to make a success, and then to take the decision which will create this kind of combination that is going to make it even a winning company, despite what has been its past, its legacy, and the complexity of the challenge we got on a daily basis and in front of us. But if you stick to your guns and you know what are your ambitions, and you create a good storytelling because you're going to bring the people with you, but if through the storytelling you deliver on what you say, that is to say you tell and you share what you want to do and you do what you said you would do, then you create this kind of relevance, credibility, and you create the winning formula. So in every aspect from the very corporate financial market and so on and so forth, the people you attract, the talent you bring on board, and the story and what you do on a daily basis, it's all about the storytelling. So that good thing, I mean what Vivendi stands for, which stands for storytelling, and I can use that. I will do that. Thank you for your question, very inspiring. The second thing: what is currently happening is social media, the platform, the globalization of the industry. I mean, everybody is a talent on its own right, so you've got more or less skill the etcetera. But can you imagine the number of people who could have been fantastic stars, but just because they hadn't the luck, the willingness, or whatever you call that, to be there at the right place at the right moment to be able to crystallize that. So many people are lost in translation. But that's life, isn't it? So our job is to be very smart in creating the very best organization worldwide to be able to spot the talents. So we get people every night in Paris, every night everywhere, you get people spending the night meeting the people attending shows, attending things. You get people spending days and night on internet to be able to see all the initiatives on YouTube and the kind of young talent just trying to be part. So part of the challenge of our industry, because theoretically the access to talent is not only something that is going to become wider and wider, greater and greater, the capacity to develop the right approach to be able to support the talent that are going to make the success of tomorrow is creating a competitive advantage. I do believe that being able to be content-neutral in the way we operate and the way we want to build Vivendi is providing us with a scale effect which is giving us the tools to be at the forefront of this talent innovation. And this is it. So I don't know if exactly answered your question, but a tribal.

What we do is that we build all the tools which are providing us with the right approach in terms of spotting the talent in the digital world, because more and more people are marketing myself first and foremost start to try to create awareness of talent on digital platforms. We have a lot of initiatives in terms of data across the businesses and across the world. For instance, we announced last year at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronic Show an alliance between Havas, our subsidiary, and Universal Music Group to create the Global Music Alliance, which is to try the hundreds of millions of information we have in terms of consumptions of our clients in terms of music to add value and then to create this kind of unarticulated needs momentum, because that's going to be part of things. So those are very specific, are the technology-driven type of expertise that we invest a lot on. But we've got other R&D. And R&D is to find the right man. If M is vulnerable arts and Obama is very very smart in terms of spotting the right initiatives in Africa for instance. You've got a new year, it's got the knowledge, it's got a vision. And the Horner for instance has found a young artist who did start and his name is Tamara. So our A&R guys are the kind of profile to find that. We've got other people like the people finding an intellectual property called Paddington, Paddington has been spotted by all team at StudioCanal, we co-produced it, and it's been the biggest ever box office. I'm talking about real money, family category non-produced by Disney. So to answer your question, R&D is a combination of really technology-driven expertise around all the tools we need to do the very best job we can, but at the same time it's kind of a personal touch to be sure that we got the right people who have the skills just to spot the people who are going to make the success of tomorrow.

Thank you very much for your question, but I don't understand the reason why you're asking the question. So you know, when you have to develop a plan, you have to see how you can create a specific competitive advantage. And I describe the entertainment industry as being owned by English-speaking world. I know very well this world from the UK where I spent five years of my life, between London and New York in the US. I also spent two years of my life in Italy, commuting between Milan and Paris when I sold the EMAP operation in France to a group called Mondadori, which is very important in the culture and the story of the country. And I truly believe that there is a very solid proposition to create a media group which is going to be based as a pillar on the Latin culture. And the Latin culture is a triangle between Paris, Milan, Rome, Madrid, and Barcelona. So I want to create a company which one of the unique selling propositions is going to be based on the possibility to make as a selling proposition the point that we're proud of our Latin story and we can really win and figure eight and modernize and position worldwide this common cultural past. So I know Italy, my chairman knows quite well Italy, la sombra, and he did a lot of things in the country. We are very bullish about the perspective of a coming back, a coming back of growth of Italy. I think that many countries should and deserve a leadership of a man who is courageous enough to shake the rules and the way to do things as Matteo Renzi is currently doing. And when I see the structure of the market, as I told, Telecom Italia is a great company. We are there to be able to develop an infrastructure that has been stalled during too many years, and we are going to be there because we need infrastructure to distribute our content, and because in the world of these alliances between content and distribution, we do think that it could be other opportunities in Italy. And I think I read in the press that people are saying that we may be in a position to do something with Mediaset. But we know Mediaset is a competitor in the Italian market, but I have learned also that media in Italy are very, very, very creative. From time to time they write quite often they just try to elaborate a little bit on the reality of fact. So time will tell. But yes, Italy is core what we want to do. We are very bullish as regard to the potential, and to do whatever it takes to create and reinforce the relationship between the two countries is something that I find extraordinarily appealing for many different reasons.

I think you should become all fantastic subscribers of my canal, which is offering an amazing level of series and films that is kind of amazing. You all are going to rush onto the new Michel Polnareff that is going to be released soon, and which is really pretty good. And as regards the next Rihanna show in Paris, please come, she is quite an amazing performer. So the only thing which is important is, is, is, and coming back to your point, I think that every people here has got all the skills to be able to do great things. And all the people that are from Camera Beta, I know probably some of them in different countries, and the only thing is to have fun and to enjoy and just to keep the feet solidly grounded in reality. And that's what is important. And don't say such things it seems to be like I'm an old man. At any time I feel like a young man. And anything's to do, it's just the very beginning. And therefore the great pleasure for me to be here, because it's like to be back to school. And I've got so many friends here that it is as if we were all together here yesterday. So that's pretty emotional. So thank you very much.