Free Strategic Business Unit’s Vision, Mission and Values Essay Sample
In this paper, Diamond E framework has been used to diagnose Thomson Reuters. The model has been used to rank the business based on its vision, mission, and values and principles. The rank is arrived after the analysis of the strategy of the business with regards to whether it would be positioned favorably in the competitive market and emerge the leader in the industry in five years, or be faced out of the market due to the internal and external forces within the industry. Currently, Thomson Reuters is still regarded as the leader in the Information Retrieval Services Industry which aim is to provide financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare, science and media information and analysis products to both professionals and businesses. Therefore, there is need to evaluate and predict the existence of Thomson Reuters in this competitive global industry with expanding markets and opportunities.
The Information Retrieval Services is large industry with very high returns, for example, the estimated revenue of $38 billion in 2011. Apart from the Thomson Reuters, other leaders in the industry comprise Bloomberg L.P., Wolters Kluewer and Elsevier Group, and they control 80% of the global market share with Thomson Reuters taking an overall lead standing at about 34% (Hoovers). In deed, it is a very competitive industry whose forces include financial factors, legal factors, social factors, and technological and environmental factors. Diamond E framework, used to analyze Thomson Reuters, is a model that identifies the principle variables that need to be taken into consideration and it illustrates the important relationship that exists among them. It structures the interrelationship among the management preferences, organization, strategy, resources and environment.
Thomson Reuters holds a very impressive organization that is evident from the fact that it is the market leader in this industry with 34% of the market share. Its organization is constituted with two major divisions, that is Market division and Professional division. Each of the two division is composed of several Strategic Business Units i.e. SBUs. In the Professional Division, the SBUs are Thomson Tax & Accounting, Elite, Legal and Thomson Intellectual Property & Science. The Thomson Reuters as a company fails to outline its overall vision and mission though, each SBUs have their visions and missions defined by the managers, supervisors and the employees to guide them in daily undertakings and their relationships with their customers. Out of these, one might be in a position to deduce the company’s vision.
For instance, there are written values, visions and mission of the Thomson Tax & Accounting SBUs. The vision states out that they take pride at Thomson Reuters on working each day to attain their mission and particularly even to exceed their vision. They continuously aim to come up with technological advanced software that would ensure higher efficiency and profits to their professional customers that deal with their software. Considering that this is a highly competitive industry with continuously changing technologies, this is appropriate. In order to remain relevant, the company needs to work tirelessly everyday to innovate and explore new and advanced software to their customers. This would ensure their perpetual growth and existence in the industry. The vision shows that the leadership, managers and employees are not only aspiring to attain their vision, but to even exceed their stated vision. This indicates that the Thomson Reuters wants to stretch beyond their capacity to achieve the very best.
Thomson Reuter’s Tax & Accounting mission is to increase the productivity and profitability of practicing accountants. They intent to attain this through using relevant technology combined with the specialized knowledge of their staff to offer services and software of high quality and unique value to their customers. In addition, they intend to accomplish their mission through serving their customers with fairness and integrity with a primary goal of creating a long-term relationship with them. Given that this industry is growing and exploiting new opportunities, for example, it is anticipated that there would be an increased demand for their products from the growing economies like India, Asia and Brazil, there is need to fully utilize the existing professionals that would translate in more profits.
There are four Thomson Reuter’s corporate values highlighted which are - Our customers are at the heart of everything, Performance matters, Business is Global and People make the difference. The employees need to identify with the values of the company. This calls for simple, well-defined and straight values. The values of the company are what maintain the commitment and integrity of the company. Considering the customers as the heart of everything, that reminds the employees to first their customers. This would result in a good working relationship between the customers and the employees’ hence good public image of the firm. Performance matters remind the employees to take their responsibilities seriously. There is need for each of them to perform the assigned task since it is indicated as one of the core values of the firm. The value of the firm that the Business is Global reminds the Thomson Reuters to always have in mind their market size and the challenges that comes with it. This makes them prepare for any upcoming in the market. Finally, People make the difference is a motivating and inspiring statement to the Thomson Reuters to be innovative and to adventure into the new available opportunities that are arising in the market. These values, if well commuted by the employees, make Thomson Reuters remain relevant in the market even the very many fears to come in the Information Retrieval Services industry.
Analyzing the long-term environmental risk of the Thomson Reuters, the company seems not to be threatened with that external force due to the consistencies that exist between the strategies and the environment. Thomson Reuters has established a good working relationship with their customers and therefore their products are tailored to meet their demands and preferences appropriately. In addition, they are in a position to change with the changing business environment since they have learnt their personnel and know their capability. Tax & Accounting SBU anticipate future needs of the professionals it serves. This calls for high flexibility on the part of the organization. Capability risk is eliminated due to the consistencies between the strategy and capability. According to Thomson Reuters, the corporation spent a significant amount of money to embrace relevant technology. In addition, it also invests quite a significant sum of money to hire professional accounts with high qualification and a lot of experience. This indicates the firm capability to fund its strategy.
In conclusion, the firm can assume position ten, that is, it is placed favorably and will be the leader in the industry in five years. This is indicated with the strong relationships that coexist among the drivers in the industries. The Diamond E framework model clearly shows the consistencies of the potential strategies with the potential threats that are likely to affect the business operations in the future.