Business Case Studies,Corporate Governance & Business Ethics Case Study, Flour Corp's Business Ethics Practices: Creating Six Sigma Standards in Staying Corruption-Free

Code : GOV0021

Year : 2005

Industry : Internet and e-commerce

Region : UK

Teaching Note: Not Available

Structured Assignment : Not Available

Abstract: For long, Reuters had made its reputation as a reliable news agency with its speed, accuracy and impartiality. But it earned much of its revenue by transmitting financial information like share quotes, currency values and commodity prices with the same efficacy as its news. Since its inception in 1849 through to the 1990s it had a formidable presence in the financial information providing business. In the 1990s, it lost to the start-ups, which used information technology, the Internet in particular, effectively, seized the business from Reuters and grew big right under its nose. The board and the senior executive team were accused of failure in directing the company in the information technology age. In 2001, under compulsion to change, Reuters had appointed Tom Glocer, a lawyer and software developer as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), a non-journalist for the first time in the company's history. In 2004, Niall Fitzgerald, former Chairman of Unilever, was appointed as the Chairman to the Reuters board. Niall Fitzgerald took up initiatives to make the board competent to lead the company in the 21 st century.