Do you wake up in the night sweating about your workflow solutions strategy? Do you fear inherent cyclicality and long for more cohesive and synergistic times?
I, personally, don’t. But I did wake up yesterday morning in a hotel in Edinburgh to read on my Blackberry that the parent company of the magazine publisher I work for is selling us off. The statement given by Reed Elsevier chairman Sir Crispin Davis on the occasion of Reed’s latest financial results mentioned this “divestment” in passing and included a tsunami of management speak that bordered on the mystical.
We have made good progress over the last year. Investment against our online growth and workflow solutions strategy is paying off with good revenue momentum…
The sale of Harcourt Education has moved us towards a more consistent, cohesive and synergistic business and today we have announced a further major step with the planned divestment of Reed Business Information (“RBI”). RBI is a well-managed high quality business as evidenced by the success of its online growth and the control of costs. Its advertising revenue model and the inherent cyclicality fit less well however with the subscription-based information and workflow solutions focus of Reed Elsevier’s strategy.
I’m not one to bite the hand that feed’s me, so I’ll leave the commentary at that. But here are a couple of links to an articles by Nils Pratley - who is baffled by Davis’ “gobbledygook” and notes Reed’s new-found attraction to “dullness and data” - and Roy Greenslade, both from the Guardian today.
The Conversation {1 comments}
‘Data solutions’ seem to be the new silicon chips, Web 2.0 or, if you will, white elephant. The whole premise does seem to be that you can’t possibly do your job unless you have access to a bafflingly wide-ranged and deeply complex array of largely irrelevant information that might somehow make your job slightly easier to do.
These solutions are inveitably hugely expensive, preumably why investors and share-holders are taking note. I wonder if a share price would similarly improve if an employer announced that it was executing half of its workforce – no pesky pay-offs.
So I can see the attraction. I do wonder, though, if the bubble will burst at some point and everyone realises that the information is just a massive waste of time and actually getting on with your job is probably a better return on investment.
Finally: ‘Those who survived chief executive Sir Crispin Davis’s presentation’. Heh!
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