I’ve just got back from an invigorating two days at the University of Michigan home to the Reuters Leading Edge management development program. These days we hold two sessions per year and no matter where I am in the Reuters world I always make sure I get to Ann Arbor for at least a day.
It’s a great chance for me to hear what’s on the minds of some of our most talented people drawn from literally all over the world and I get a chance to share with them my latest thinking unconstrained by email blog or video format. Issues on peoples minds which we discussed included how to save enough money in the core business to make room to permit investment in growth; are we investing enough in service resilience; is the organization optimally aligned especially between divisions and GSSO; what’s the future of media focusing on the Reuters Editorial as well as user generated content; what’s the role acquisitions can play in our strategy and what was my rationale for the Factiva sale (on which see earlier post); etc.
As you can see the issues are important ones and I get as much from the discussion as those attending the program.
Tom I was fortunate to be at Leading Edge and for me it was the most invigorating experience I have had at Reuters. One of the best parts was meeting my inspiring colleagues. We have created our own blog to help keep the momentum. I would like to add that it was very valuable not only to share our insights with you but also to hear your views on the company. In fact I think it would be valuable if we could hear more often from our executive team in person or at least ‘live’. I’ve seen successful use of informal sessions at other organizations. For example in the form of ‘breakfast with Tom’ with a small group of 10 people on a quarterly basis. An additional idea is to have our leaders present mission statements and progress using Town Hall VC and Auditorium facilities (in London) at more frequent intervals. John Alcantara recently shared his draft mission statement on a Live Meeting with the CRM Coordinators and it had a very positive impact.