I – Interviewer, M S – Marjorie Scardino

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 419.

Unit 4 Planning and strategy

I – How do you develop a strategy for a large company?

M S – There are lots of ways to go about it. I think the way we've done it is to first

think about what assets we have – what's unique about those assets, what

markets we know about and what market are growing, and which of those

markets can make the best use of our assets. We then put that into the bowl,

heat it up, stir it around, and come out with a strategy.

I – And in broad terms, what is your strategy in Pearson?

M S – Well I, we have approached our strategy … Let me answer it this way, by

looking at it as three simple steps. When I joined Pearson a couple of years ago,

we needed to improve our operations. We needed to just run the companies we

had, and the businesses we had better. So our first step in our strategy was

simply to operate better. To create better profits, and better cash generation, and

better long-term value for the shareholders. We then … the second step which

was not happening in a serial way but happening at the same time, the second

step was to look at the assets we had and see which ones we should keep and

which ones we should dispose off. Those we disposed off, we did because they

would be worth more to other companies than to us because they didn't fit with

the rest of our company, or were things we didn't actively control – we had a

passive interest in – so those disposals were an important part. And then the

third step was to stitch together all our businesses, so that they were able to use

each other's assets, to make a greater whole.