We are looking for Vice-President: Services Capability and Excellence
Thomson Reuters (“TR”, the “Company”) is the world’s leading source of news, information and software for professional markets with over 87% of revenue derived electronically or as software and services. Customers rely on TR to deliver the intelligence, technology and human expertise they need to compete in a world of increasing complexity. TR’s customers operate in complex arenas that move society forward — Legal Professionals, Tax and Accounting Professionals, Corporates (tax, legal, compliance), Government and Print as well as globally recognised Reuters Media. TR is a trusted provider, helping professionals make confident decisions and run better businesses, often helping customers reinvent the way they work. Employing a sustainable business model and strong customer NPS, over 75% of TR’s revenue is recurring.
The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years with over 24,000 employees. TR is a Canadian company with shares listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: TRI) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TRI). The Company is majority owned by The Woodbridge Company (“Woodbridge”), a holding company for the Thomson family.
2018 was a watershed year for Thomson Reuters. In October, the company sold 55% of its Financial & Risk (F&R) business to private equity funds managed by Blackstone for approximately $17 billion and retained a 45% interest in the new company, which is now known as Refinitiv. The organisation restructured its remaining business into new customer-focused segments and repositioned its business for growth. Its new structure moves decision making closer to the customer and allows the organisation to serve its customers better with its full suite of offerings.
At Thomson Reuters, Operations and Technology encompasses business operations, business redesign and operating model transformation, the full technology stack (including all engineering, IT operations, and technology innovation) and technology transformation agenda, procurement, content operations, data management, editorial, and real estate.
Services is a new unit within O&T and comprises the (old) procurement, real estate, and facilities management functions. We are responsible for delivering these processes to our TR colleagues and to suppliers. Business processes within the services organisation currently operate at differing levels of maturity and quality. Our aim is to master the basics in these business processes to be on par with world-class benchmarks. Best in class processes and capabilities will enable the provision of united, standardized, and high quality services to the business. We then imagine a future Services organization that strives to be ahead of the curve in employing innovative and industry-beating approaches to service provision aspire to delivering services with little to no friction that fully meet stakeholder needs, are easy to use and understand, through an experience considered enjoyable by our user base. Our overarching mission is to ensure our colleagues spend less time and energy in using Services, ensuring their primary focus is building great content and products that delight TR customers and grow TR business. Services will unlock more value by leveraging a fuller ecosystem of business relationships. We will partner deeply with our colleagues internally and suppliers externally to action strategies that deliver mutually beneficial outcomes.
ABOUT THE ROLE
This VP role will report into the Head of Services as a key part of the Services leadership team. The role will be pivotal in supporting the Head of Services to transform Services capabilities and business processes over the next eighteen months. The role will set and execute the strategy for shared capability development, leading the team to deliver exceptional results and outcomes. The role will initially be responsible for measurably transforming the current capabilities to match world class or better, as well as identifying additional capabilities required to build out world leading competencies. During the transformation phase, the candidate will be expected to work closely with the TR Change team on the wider change agenda to ensure alignment, reuse of artefacts, and to eliminate duplication across the business. Once transformed, the role will lead the team.
The transformation activities will include
measurable improvement in the current quality of retained processes;
determining the additional shared capabilities necessary for realising the Services vision (zero-basing what to remove, retain or add);
creating, then implementing, the road map to automation of processes, and ensuring successful execution.
The role will be responsible for enabling excellence in shared capabilities that support the full Services team in how we do things, identifying and delivering continuous simplification, and ensuring contemporary technology enablement for automation. A central focus will be on creating an enjoyable experience for those who work with us, suppliers and users alike, to support the TR corporate ambition to be faster and simpler.
A team of around 30, presently located in the USA, India, and Costa Rica, will report into this role. It is expected that this FTE count might reduce in alignment with team maturity and efficiency or that total cost of operations may reduce as a consequence of increased utilization of automation and the prospective location strategy for the team.
ABOUT YOU
The candidate we seek is an experienced business professional, with an ability to combine strategic vision for the future of shared capabilities, to execute that strategy, and then to operate the transformed processes.
The successful candidate has excellent English written and spoken communication skills. The ability to articulate the business impact of process improvements, and the cost-benefit outcomes of any investments required to build out and sustain these, is a key attribute. Proven ability to build strong multi-level relationships across the organization is essential.
The candidate should have experience of advanced contemporary technology acquisition and process improvements within the procurement function. Exposure to continuous improvement practices (lean, six sigma, TQM, etc.) is advantageous.
The successful candidate will:
Create and articulate the strategy for shared capabilities to support the Services vision
Use data and analysis to substantiate and measure decision making.
Lead change in people, skills, and tech-enablement through ambitious goal setting with demonstrable plans for realization, bringing the team along for the journey and ensuring recognition of their role in realizing Services and TR ambitions.
Assess, develop, implement, and monitor leading sector practices with continuous improvement, innovative aspiration and team agility as enduring foci.
Mature current capabilities (where retained) include:
project management office
analytics and savings reporting
communications
travel and card operations
systems management
tail management; and,
software operations.
Identify and develop any new capabilities required in the short term. These may include:
data and analytics (partnering with Data & Analytics unit)
risk and compliance (partnering with Cyber, Risk and Compliance units, and internal Audit)
ESG and sustainability (partnering with Corporate Communications)
continuous improvement (business engineering and lean principles)
negotiation excellence
cost/value engineering services
These lists are non-exhaustive, and the successful candidate will have full autonomy to shape these, and augment as necessary to horizontally support the Service services lines.
The role will be required to determine the right blend of locations, in- and out-source options, and size their end-state team design accordingly.
The successful candidate will be expected to collaborate across the Services Leadership Team to further define, scope and articulate the shared capabilities and implementation roadmap and ensure these are aligned with the Enterprise Capability Framework, currently under development by the TR Change office.
Skills and experience required:
Essential
Minimum of >10 years of global experience, working in matrixed setups.
English spoken and written fluency, and adaptable for non-native English speakers.
Deep understanding of current technologies (e.g., Cloud native, APIs, microservices, etc) with a preference for experience in technology environments.
Significant and proven experience in multi-function, multi-location transformation programmes with high complexity.
Senior leadership experience in building diverse teams, with proven sponsorship of line reports’ career development.
Highly tuned interpersonal, influencing, and communication skills.
C-Suite experience and gravitas: confidence and grace under fire, decisiveness, integrity, speaking truths to power, emotional intelligence, reputation, vision.
Proven agility with non-standard thinking.
Desirable:
A deep understanding of procurement, with an exposure to real estate.
Tertiary degree qualified, preferably at an advanced level, with Business, Technology, Supply Chain, or Operations majors.
Strong analytical focus and experience in using data to quantify outcomes.
Innovation mindset
Services orientation
Do you want to be part of a team helping re-invent the way knowledge professionals work? How about a team that works every day to create a more transparent, just and inclusive future? At Thomson Reuters, we’ve been doing just that for almost 160 years. Our industry-leading products and services include highly specialized information-enabled software and tools for legal, tax, accounting and compliance professionals combined with the world’s most global news services – Reuters. We help these professionals do their jobs better, creating more time for them to focus on the things that matter most: advising, advocating, negotiating, governing and informing.
We are powered by the talents of 25,000 employees across more than 75 countries, where everyone has a chance to contribute and grow professionally in flexible work environments that celebrate diversity and inclusion. At a time when objectivity, accuracy, fairness and transparency are under attack, we consider it our duty to pursue them. Sound exciting? Join us and help shape the industries that move society forward.
Accessibility
As a global business, we rely on diversity of culture and thought to deliver on our goals. To ensure we can do that, we seek talented, qualified employees in all our operations around the world regardless of race, color, sex/gender, including pregnancy, gender identity and expression, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, citizen status, veteran status, or any other protected classification under applicable law. Thomson Reuters is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer providing a drug-free workplace.
We also make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs in accordance with applicable law.
More information about Thomson Reuters can be found on thomsonreuters.com.