LoginPage 1: Introduction
Reed Elsevier is a leading provider of professional research information to organisations around the world. It publishes journals, books and databases and manages exhibitions and events. Its well-known titles - such as New Scientist and The Lancet - appear both in print and online.
Reed Elsevier has a worldwide customer base working in many fields, including science, research and the law, as well as in public and academic libraries and commercial organisations. This includes over 11 million scientists who access information direct from Reed Elsevier’s ScienceDirect database – the world’s largest online library of full-text research papers.
Reed Elsevier was formed in 1993 when the businesses of the British publisher Reed International and the Dutch publisher Elsevier NV merged. The Reeds were Methodists and took a philanthropic approach to the business. This means that they applied the present-day idea of Corporate Responsibility (CR) within the company. They promoted health and safety for their workers and better standards of living.
Organisational structure
The company now operates in more than 200 locations worldwide and annual revenues for 2010 were £6 billion. Revenues are largely from subscriptions to its titles. It employs around 30,000 people including IT specialists, editorial teams and marketing, sales and customer service staff. To enable the business to focus on specific customer needs, the company has five divisions.
- Elsevier – publishing science and health information to promote research and discovery
- LexisNexis® Risk Solutions – provides data and analytics that allow customers to evaluate and manage risks associated with transactions and to improve performance
- LexisNexis® Legal & Professional – provides legal, tax, regulatory and news and business information and analysis to legal, corporate, government, accounting and academic markets
- Reed Exhibitions – organising events, exhibitions, conferences for over 44 industry sectors
- Reed Business Information – producing trade journals, blogs and web directories to deliver information to users worldwide.
Values
Reed Elsevier’s values guide the behaviours of its people toward providing the right products and services to enable the company to grow. Reed Elsevier’s values also affect the strategies it develops for both internal and external stakeholders. It aims to respond to all their needs through innovative products and services.
Corporate responsibility
Corporate responsibility is an integral part of the business. Matching financial and non-financial performance provides a win/win outcome for the business and its stakeholders. Reed Elsevier’s market leadership comes from focusing on the needs of all of its stakeholders – internal and external.
‘We focus our unique contributions as a business where we can make a positive impact through our knowledge, resources and skills including: universal sustainable access to information, advance of science and health, promotion of the rule of law and justice, and protection of society. We also concentrate on good management of the material issues that affect all companies including governance, people and community, customers, health and safety, supply chain, and environment.’ (CR Report 2010)
Reed Elsevier is committed to using its extensive networks to facilitate the exchange and dissemination of useful information. Drawing on expertise across Reed Elsevier, in 2010 it launched the Reed Elsevier Environmental Challenge to identify innovative projects that improve sustainable access to water where it is presently at risk.
To help in the formulation of their proposals, Reed Elsevier provided access to products from its businesses to over 100 registrants from more than 50 countries. Tagore-SenGupta Foundation won first prize of $50,000 to install twelve community-level arsenic removal units in remote villages and schools in Cambodia. Second prize of $25,000 was awarded to Jenna Forsyth, in partnership with the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, to pilot a water purification project with schools in the Nyanza province of western Kenya.
This case study shows how Reed Elsevier’s business benefits from meeting the needs of all of its stakeholders.
