Thread regarding Refinitiv layoffs

Cafe on one side, TR Corporate office on the other. Lower ranking people i.e. the people who work for the execs who used to sit on 30 when they were in town.

16th floor?

That’s just a cafe last I checked...

"I think the 21,000 includes people from TR corporate functions that were brought over into Refinitiv"

I was surprised by how many corporate people on the 16th floor in Times Square were jettisoned to Blackstone. I thought the majority would be protected.

I think the 21,000 includes people from TR corporate functions that were brought over into Refinitiv but wouldn't have been included in the F&R headcount in 2016 such as ET&O etc.

If the years of zero to poor growth (D "basis points" C, trying to make a fraction of a percent sound better...) of F&R wasn't sufficient evidence to prove that this "team" would struggle to run a bath, just the last two weeks of lies and ELT cowardice are enough to show their inadequacy. Endless hollering of Cloud! Big Data! Blockchain! Supply Chain! Innovation! Customer! So Excited! while doing nothing but putting in place ego-bath bureaucracies that would shame a government department.

Ensuring nothing ever gets done, but plenty of time for senior offsites, "interlocks", international travel, CEO circle-jerk, endless "gatekeeping" Global Head committees and embarrassing conferencing ("TR presents its latest discovery, the Cloud! So excited! And now here is someone from AWS...")

All to provide the impression of activity and success while shielding the ELT from any accountability for the lack of growth, delivery or vision. Putting this same team of useless losers in charge of R is lIke the arsonists being put in charge of extinguishing the fire.

Totally agree. On the financial side, they have destroyed Lipper, Starmine, I/B/E/S, Broker Research, the list goes on.

Refinitiv will be sold off within a 5 year window and or merged with something like Blackrock Aladdin.

As much as I like David Craig, I fully agree that David Craig and his leadership team should be let go along with Jim Smith and members of his finance team. This is already overdue !!!!

1. Thomson Reuters had a headcount of 23000+ when they announced 2000 job cuts in 2016. At the close of sale to Blackstone the headcount stood at 21,000. What guarantee and assurance can David Craig provide that the headcount will reduce massively after these cuts when it was him and Jim smith along with the finance teams who let the budget spiral out of control and let the headcount swell to 21,000 ???

2. Remember GGO? When Jim Smith was given the position of a CEO, the first thing he wanted to do is create some quick success to his name. I like the thought but GGO was a DISASTER. The numberous headcount positions added to GGO, the failed acquisitions and the big budgets to them only tightened the noose for F&R ground staff who were struggling to get resources

3. The never ending organisational restructuring : when will Thomson Reuters or Refinitiv ever understand that reorganisations and shuffling people into different hats and roles does not work. I think any kindergarten kid would know this. There is an ELT member who just attends fancy gala dinners carrying the flag for gender rights, but hold on can someone tell her that first priority is to drive sales and revenue and not preach to the sailors of a sinking boat about gender equality

4. David Thomson : I feel sorry for this guy. The numberous town halls he would attend expressing his interest and passion for the company. It’s about time that David Thomson sets and independent board with quality directors and not some puppets. Board of directors who take a keen interest into the strategy of the company and hiring qualified competent individuals. Platform 2020 ? Who designed that with only a 5% overlay between F&R and the other units. Please please please hire a chief audit executive reporting to the board - TR/Refinitiv really does need one to maintain corporate governance.

5. HR - Really need some strong HR individuals. Somebody get Refinitiv or TR to have a look at HR at Bloomberg!!!

Unofficial numbers state a cut of 20%-25% so far, without understanding the primary drivers and the management philosophy that let the headcount swell in the first place.

What they need is a pamphlet or something that explains the management organization. I dunno, 50-100 pages should be confusing enough. And the cover should be a color. Green, or blue. So when people are confused as to whom should be doing what at any given time, you can say to them: "Check the Green Book!" or "Refer to the Blue Book!".

Then magically: innovation and disruption and such as.

Innovation - don't make me laugh. How many catalyst fund projects actually generated new revenue or was spun out as a separate company? Zero. The innovation strategy is basically a marketing/branding effort. What have the Heads of innovation/labs actually achieved apart from promoting themselves? Zero.

As soon as DT said he wanted innovation from within , the ELT seemed to jump into action immediately. However watching middle aged company men running around screaming “We need inovation” was amusing. Telling people they need to invent something will not as if by a miracle turn your company into Apple or Google and out pops the first iPhone equivalent :-)

But you could see where DT was coming from.

While on the subject of inovation what will happen to Waterloo in Canada and the 1,500 staff TR announced to the press they were em-losing back in 2016. Who gains custody of this in the divorce ?

David Thomson was aware of not getting value for money from accusations.

He said once at a town hall I attended :

You buy a company for the product and when you actually intergrate it you find its worth half what you paid for it.

Thus he wanted to end buying companies for their products and instead create new products from within TR and thus the innovation drive a few years ago.