Thomson Financial: Building the Customer-Centric Firm

Abstract

In December 1999 Thomson Financial (TF) began a radical transformation from forty-one divisions toward a more integrated firm organized around customer segments. This required active, coordinated involvement from business, organization, and technology functions, as well as sustained investment and execution through the crises of the technology market crash and September 11, 2001. By 2005 TF had emerged as one of the top three financial information firms globally (with Bloomberg and Reuters).

Understand: 1. Building the customer-centric firm; “synchronizing” marketing (branding and sales), organizational, and technological infrastructure to focus on customer segments rather than products. 2. Making transformative, long-term investments under difficult circumstances. 3. Coordinating business, organization, and technology strategies throughout a long-term transformation process.

Citation

Wolcott, R.C. and Sawhney, M. (2017), "Thomson Financial: Building the Customer-Centric Firm", . https://doi.org/10.1108/case.kellogg.2016.000371