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Reuters' lost opp cost millions |
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Pure Fiction - Part 2 |
| Date Posted: |
02/15/2006 |
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A look into the not too distant future??
Dec 12. 2006 -- Reuters reported today that "a lost opportunity due to sloth and a major strategic oversight" has cost them millions in potential revenue streams.
"We had faulty intelligence" said their spokesman. "Next time we will do better."
As Bloomberg LP implemented its wildly unpopular terminal price increase for the third time in three years, an unnamed Reuters spokeman admitted, "we missed the boat."
"We could have offered global deals of low cost packages to undercut Bloomberg, taking advantage of the widespread dissatisfaction resulting from the price increase, but we were too slow to act."
Despite protests from clients globally claiming service levels have fallen dramatically, data quality has decreased, and depressingly low value added products (including a largely useless legal database), Bloomberg is alleged to have had record year end sales.
"We sell more during this quarter than at any other time," a proud Bloomberg executive boasted.
Clients are not impressed.
"The service is deteriorating," said one client. "The help desk is terrible. The terminal is just getting more expensive. What happened?"
"Bloomberg is arrogant," said another client. "I can't get my development requests addressed because I am a small client. Yet when my invoices are late, their accounts people badger me. That is what happens when you have a monopoly. They don't listen to their clients anymore."
One client noted, "This is not the Bloomberg when Mike was running the show. Now it seems the executives are stripping it down for the sale and waiting for their stock options. The care factor is nil."
"Reuters could have capitalised at this time, seizing market share and converting users. They could have recovered lost territory, but they were too slow to act. Maybe next time."
There have been several opportunities where Reuters could have stepped in. Taking advantage of the unpopular new keyoard would have been a good move.
"That thing sucks. What were they thinking?" said one hedge fund manager.
"It kills your hands. And what it worse, they won't give the old keyboard back. I asked, I demanded, I raged, but the answer was NO."
The BFON generated another backlash.
"The next thing we know, Bloomberg reps are calling our employees offering them this service. There was no compliance on it, no controls. They should have come to us first."
"It's all about numbers, that is so obvious. Multitudes of them ring us, visit us, always trying to sell us something. It's overwhelming. We don't let them in anymore. It was getting to be too much" said a portfolio manager.
Another opportunity was the infamous BUNIT.
"Ah, I left the thing at home again and it took me half a day for them to track down a rep to get me in. I was admonished for forgetting it and was told not to let it happen again. It was so parochial. In the meantime, the kid on the phone, who sounded about 12, was oblivious to the fact that I could not access my trading messages. It's beyond frustrating."
"It took me five attempts to log in, but I could not. In anger, I hurled the thing across the room. Interestingly enough, it did not break. It is rather hardy, actually. In that area, they succeeded rather well" said one operations manager.
Bloomberg was once heralded as the lighter, quicker competitor. It listened to its customers. A click of a button sent a message to Mike Bloomberg, and clients were often surprised to hear from the man himself.
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Not So Anymore
That was the old days. Since moving on to become mayor, the company has become bigger and slower to make effective decisions that are time critical to remain on the cutting edge.
As smaller competitors encroach on segments of market share, taking bites out of Bloomberg's business, it struggles to justify being the most expensive cost provider in the arena.
"It's worth it," said one Bloomberg salesman. "Bloomberg offers value that no one else rivals. Analytics, ease of use, comprehensive and complete data. Buy two. It's cheaper!"
"Not so," say some clients. Bloomberg's award winning news has had some embarrasingly slow moments, such as when it notoriously missed, by at least a minute, the breaking news on the yuan revaluation.
"The analytics are still way behind some models you can get in the market and the charting has improved from horrible to terrible."
"The data can be imcomplete, with inexplicable glitches in the downloads. The helpdesk is helpless to address the problems.."
"It's frustrating.." said one client. "I am trying to run a business but my data is questionable. What am I paying for?"
Some Bloomberg reps are frustrated as well. Service standards were noticeably lower when a groups recently resigend en masse from their help desk and sales departments.
"People are unhappy, and management is just not listening."
"It's peculiar that a company who claims to care so much for its people and inspired such a loyal, workaholic culture is now experiencing a malaise. Their management does not know how to inspire people to get the best out of them.
"They can only threaten and micromanage until the employee is too stressed out and quits. It translates into huge costs for attracting good people, and then training them. Such a high attrition rate for a system that takes a long time to get used to, and so many markets to cover..they have to rethink their approach."
Bloomberg's culture was once its greatest hallmark.
"They were like a cult. They worked together, they partied together. Heck - a heap of them are married to each other."
"That is what happens when you have no life," an ex-Bloomberg employee remarked. "You were so devoted and inspired and loyal to this company that you never thought you would leave. You worked incredibly hard and there was a sense of purpose and fulfillment. Now.. I can't really say it is the same place."
With all these woes - unhappy employees, disoriented managers, a revised culture.. you would think the competition would take notice.
"No yet," said one sales manager. "We are still ahead and will remain ahead. The business model works. The Bloomberg sells itself. You don't need to know anything about the financial markets to sell the thing. You just have to be a good sales person."
A Bloomberg spokesperson refused to comment.
The article above is purely fictional at this point.
However, it cannot without complete certainty be said that the comments, places and events haven't already been said in the recent past and won't happen to be said in the not too distant future.
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