Thomson Corporation Will Cain

History Founded with ownerships of newspapers Brief stint in oil, travel, and department store endeavors Value of company grew from $500 million in 1976 to $29.3 billion in 2006 Most of its revenue came from publishing, which included primarily newspapers and educational texts

Richard Harrington 1997 – decided to get into information services Markets serviced included: legal and regulatory, learning, financial, and science/health care Growth was to be the most important goal of the company, even a larger goal than the bottom line

Prospector Strategy Definition: to take risks, innovate, seek out new opportunities, and, consequently, to grow Discussion question: Was it a good idea for Thomson to delve into something it new little about, or would it have been better to use the defender strategy?

Goal-setting Growth, at this point, is the largest goal for Thomson Since Thomson is going into a new field, its mission statement and short-term goals are unfinished

Resource-Based Approach Assesses effectiveness by observing the beginning of the process and evaluating whether the organization effectively obtains resources necessary for high performance Thomson uses this approach by looking into a completely type of product and process. Growth has become most important for Thomson and is measuring their performance by how much larger they are becoming.

Irony In 2008 Thomson Corporation merged with Reuters, a large news service powerhouse based out of London Discussion question: Why do you think Thomson Corporation went back into the news business after such a high emphasis was placed on making the informational business work?

End Final thoughts or questions