Running a Board: The Reuters' Way
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Code : GOV0021
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Region : UK |
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The Compelling Case for Change AlthoughReuters had been renowned for its reporting abilities, the company earned 90%of its revenue fromtransmitting2 share quotes. The Economistwrote, “It was reporting that created Reuters’s reputation. But something far less glamorous made its fortune: selling prices and the ability to trade themon a screen tomerchant banks. In the 1970s and 1980s,Reuters profited fromgrowth in foreign-exchange andmoney-market tradingwith a newproduct calledMonitor.”3 By 2000, Reuters had half amillion users across 60,000 companies, paying an average of $1,500 permonth4 for using (financial) information fromReuters’ proprietary network... Niall Fitzgerald’s Initiatives Niall joined the Reuters board as non-executive director in January 2003. He had worked with the Unilever Group for thirty years in several countries. Between September 1996 andMay 2005, hewas the chairman and chief executive officer of Unilever. His former appointments included non-executive directorships of Merck, Ericsson, Bank of Ireland and the Prudential plc. and member of the International Policy Council forAgriculture and Trade.Apart from the chairmanship of Reuters,Niall is theChairman of theConference Board Inc., aMember of theWorld Economic Forum’s Foundation Board, co-Chairman of The TransAtlantic Business Dialogue and a non-executive director of the NelsonMandela Legacy Trust (UK). He is also a member of various advisory bodies, including President of South Africa’s International Investment Advisory Council and the ShanghaiMajor’s International Business Leaders’ Council. |
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Niall sets the dates for his board meetings three to four years in advance, to facilitate the busy board members to prepare for the meeting. He believes that strategy discussions at board meetings should not be a matter of executives presenting the plans and the non-executives debating over them.He opined, “I don’t think you can have anything other than the formality of approval if you do it thatway. It has to be initiated by themanagement but co-owned by the board.”11 For the annual strategic reviewmeeting held in June 2005, Niall prepared by ordering every Reuters’ division tomake a detailed presentation (one division at every boardmeeting held prior to the June 2005meeting)...
