Reuters

Introduction

The potential of business scorecards as a pro-active lever of change rather than simply a means to measure HR's alignment with the business plan is winning a wider audience. This is illustrated by the integrated strategy, planning and people review cycle that Reuters has developed within the 'Corporate Performance Management' component of a broader change management programme.

In 2001, Reuters was in the process of transforming its organizational structure to one in which customer segment rather than geography was the primary strategic and operating dimension. As John Reid-Dodick (global head of organizational development) explains, this helped the company become more customer focused as its customer base became more global.

"Prior to 2001, the chief executives of the geographical regions had direct ownership and control over most of the sales, marketing, product development, finance, HR, and other resource needed to run their businesses in their regions. This created a multitude of products and services around the world, but it also meant that our organization was not aligned with how many of our customers were now running their businesses. In effect, the geographic focus of our organization assumed that an asset manager in Japan had more in common with an investment banker in Japan than with an asset manager in New York."

Reuters' incoming chief executive Tom Glocer led a programme designed to make the company more customer focused and to use its global scale to deliver better service across its whole network. This entailed creating four global Customer Segments as the company's primary strategic and operating dimension and integrating the organization's development, infrastructure, content, sales, marketing, and other activities into aligned global 'centres of excellence' or business services.

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