Interim management: a difficult but fascinating profession by Jean-Pierre Caffin

Former CEO of the Prisma Presse group, now a consultant, Jean-Pierre Caffin takes an informed look at the interim management profession and the press crisis.

How and when did you come into contact with Club Delville?

That was a year ago, via the head of our communications department.

What is your professional activity?

I'm a strategy consultant at Bain & Associés, specializing in media, a sector in which I've spent a large part of my career. I also have my own consulting structure. On a personal level, I have invested in an investment fund that provides seed financing for start-ups in the Internet and bio-technology sectors. I also mentor several start-ups at Silicon Sentier (Le camping).

What has been your career path to date?

I trained as an engineer and then went on to study Financial Management at IAE Paris. I began my career in the Paris region with Norton SA, an American industrial company specializing in abrasives, where I successively held the positions ofengineer, IT Director, HR Director and CFO. I was then appointed Finance & IS Director for Europe (7 subsidiaries). The company has since been acquired by the Saint Gobain group. I stayed with Norton for 18 years, where I acquired a global view of how a company operates. I then joined the media group Prisma-Presse, a subsidiary of the Bertelsmann group, as Managing Director alongside its founder Axel Ganz. I also stayed with Prisma-Presse for 18 years, where I was in charge of the group's management, with the exception of editorial content. When I left in 2009, the company had 1,000 employees and published 24 magazine titles.

In the light of this experience, how do you analyze the current press crisis?

The press is fortunate to benefit from two sources of revenue: the sale of its products and the sale of advertising space. Over the years, groups have become "advertising-dependent", which, along with the sharp drop in advertising revenues, has made the press's business model fragile. The emergence of the Internet and its rapid growth were not taken into account quickly enough by the press groups, leading to a steady fall in newsstand sales and a decline in operating results. What's more, almost all press groups gave free access to their content on the web, without anticipating the transfer from print to digital, making it difficult to set up pay-per-view formulas later on. Hence the current crisis.

How do you manage journalists?

The tricky part is finding the perfect balance between editorial freedom and advertising constraints. The interests of both parties are often antagonistic! The other problem is that journalists are often very conservative when it comes to the very notion of change and modernization. That's why editorial departments are lagging behind when it comes to mastering the web and mobile. In today's fast-changing media age, this is a fear that must be overcome if we are not to offer content that is rapidly becoming obsolete.

In the light of your rich career, what do you think of the interim management profession?

Interim management should be more widely used by job-seeking managers, as it enables them to continue working while looking for a new position. Becoming an interim manager can also serve as a pre-hire in the company where they work. These assignments are difficult because the contexts in which they operate are often delicate, and require them to take up their duties extremely quickly and efficiently. If an opportunity of this type came up and it fell within the scope of my skills, I'd probably be tempted.