Thomson Reuters

The gestation of product failure at TR goes a long way back [Thomson family behind forced TR restructure - WSJ]. Reuters (and not Thomson or Telerate) were once the “Apple” of the informatics world, probably peaking at the ART or 1st generation RT and the early Sun/unix Effix product (The Advanced Reuter Terminal), coupled with some spectacular technologies (of the time) Abacus/PRISM, RMDS, etc and of course built on the Monitor and early IDN platforms that were incredibly advanced networks of the time.

At this juncture “we” then headed recklessly down the operational efficiency route replacing appealing design (again of the time) for standardisation, keyboards, screens, PCs and the then becoming ubiquitous windows operation system and UI.

The content of the time too was impressive compared to anyone else including Bloomberg but again a drive to centralise the content management turned off future generations in local businesses to gather unique (for a while at least) and compelling content. Even Monitor was used as the first market messaging system in some key markets all to be thrown away due to operational cost drives. At this point I would like to remind people that the margins for the Reuters business were >15 per cent. Promotion of the cost reducers, not the wealth producers, was the order of the day.

OK, the historical story is interesting but that’s it. The real question is how do TR get that “Apple” factor back.

Well, start by employing some people that can look beyond the “me too” products and service, know what this type of success looks like and can deliver. If I hear Bloomberg beater one more time I will know they have the wrong focus. ■