Shaping every decision we make

Our strategy has remained remarkably consistent over the last decade. Why is that?

For two reasons. First, we take a long-term view of our markets and that sets a long-term direction of travel. The problems we solve have not fundamentally changed. What has changed is their complexity and how we can solve them - driven by an exponential rise in information, data and available technology. Second, we understand that what makes strategy a reality is the execution - it is the willingness and ability to do the hard work, face tough decisions, to learn, iterate, do things that are a tiny bit better, faster, cheaper every day.

At the end, it is the results that validate whether we have the right strategy and whether we are executing well. In the decade to the end of 2023, RELX has delivered Total Shareholder Returns of 347%, compared with 67% for the FTSE100 over the same period.

What is the relationship between RELX strategy and those of our business areas?

We operate in very diverse markets and segments. Our strategy in all of them is broadly similar, creating customer value through higher value-add decision tools, by adding broader data sets, embedding more sophisticated analytics and exploiting more powerful technology, primarily through organic development. Our relentless focus on execution and cost management is similar.

But deep customer and domain expertise is at the core of what we do. The detail, of what and how to create and deliver that customer value, is best left to our business areas and those closest to our customers.

We continue to buy and sell businesses - how does that support our plans?

We are primarily focused on organic development - and by that, I mean product innovation. That is where we spend the majority of our time and effort.

We supplement that with selective acquisitions of targeted data sets and analytics, and assets in high-growth markets that support our organic growth strategies and which are natural additions to our existing businesses. This also means that some assets which no longer fit with our long-term plans are sold to organisations who will be able to take those businesses forward. It’s a natural part of successful and sustained growth.

In what ways does our strategy appeal to our customers?

Our products often account for less than 1% of our customers’ total cost base but can have a significant and positive impact on the economics of the remaining 99%.

Being a data analytics company, we track a lot of metrics. The most important one for me is customer NPS (net promotor score). It is a deceptively simple metric based on a single question - how likely a customer is to recommend our company or product to a friend or a colleague. Customer NPS is an ultimate measure of customer loyalty and the value we create for our customers. Happy customers drive healthy, growing businesses.

What excites you about the RELX strategy and the future, especially with respect to AI?

We have a long history of leveraging big data and sophisticated technologies. As Vijay Raghavan, the CTO of our Risk business, reminds me, we used big data, data platforms, machine learning and artificial intelligence way before they became buzzwords. We have deep experience of using what could be called ‘extractive AI’ - the type of AI that can link data, recognise patterns and make predictions. For example, identifying fraudulent transactions or predicting the risk of insurance underwriting or analysing legal cases. Most recently, we have been deploying ‘generative AI’ that is particularly powerful with unstructured information. For example, providing legal insights and drafting legal documents, or providing evidence-based point of care clinical insights.

We are confident that our ability to exploit artificial intelligence and other technologies, as they evolve, will continue to be an important driver of customer value and growth in our business for many years to come.

RELX has a great combination of some formidably talented technologists, data scientists and product managers - often with deep customer domain expertise. These people are the driving force behind much of our product innovation and it is to these people we look to imagine the future and what could be possible.

Why is it important for colleagues to understand the strategy?

Strategy is not something built and executed by senior executives. It comes to life in decisions our people make daily. We often talk about employee engagement and how important it is to our sustained growth and performance. For me, more specifically, it is about engagement in our strategy. This means doing all we can to help every colleague, no matter what job they do, understand how what they do drives our strategy - directly or indirectly.

In what way is RELX’s approach to inclusion driving performance?

Innovation is a key driver of our success and for me, fundamentally, you can’t have innovation without diversity of thought. Innovation requires friction, debate, constructive conflict and different points of view reflective of the diverse nature of the world. For that you need a diverse employee base, and you need an inclusive culture that allows that diverse talent to flourish.     

I’ll give just one example. Women are still 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed following a heart attack and non-white patients are still more likely to receive a late-stage skin cancer diagnosis. Foundational to the study of medicine is anatomy, and for the last few centuries the norm has been that the European male was used as the basis for all anatomy teaching. It is hard to believe that has continued to be the norm. In 2022, we released the world’s first 3D female anatomy model, followed by the world’s first 3D human anatomy model featuring different skin tones and facial features. The impact we are seeing in the usage, with students starting with the female and non-white model first, is amazing.

What role does Corporate Responsibility play in our success?

I grew up in Serbia, and I was fortunate to have had an opportunity to experience living in Asia, US, Latin America and to now call the UK my home. I am fortunate to have a career that went from human rights to law and consulting and now to a range of roles at RELX.

One thing that has remained a constant and my own north star, and something that is very deeply personal for me, is purpose and having a positive impact. We have an amazing purpose as a business. It is a real privilege to work in an organisation that can have a positive impact on society with everything we do. Our solutions help advance science and improve patient outcomes, support the rule of law, increase financial inclusion, protect individuals from crime and fraud and help businesses grow. For me, this purpose is what defines who we are as a business.

What do you see as the next significant transformation in our plans for the future?

Undoubtedly the growth of AI will continue to shape our business and we are already seeing that with new generative AI-based products launching across the organisation. I expect that trend to accelerate as these new products bring even greater value for our customers. For those of you who have been with RELX some time as colleagues or those watching us over the years from the outside, you will have noticed that we are the great incrementalists. We believe that strength comes from measured, thoughtful and sustainable growth. This is the new exciting.

What’s the one thing our colleagues should do to support our strategic endeavours?

Take a minute or two to read the RELX strategy statement on the website. And do the same for your business area. That way you will have the wider context and your particular market and segment detail. Then ask yourself how, specifically, you support these strategic priorities and what you might do more of or differently to help drive them. And, as strategy is as much about what we choose not to do, as it is about what we choose to do – think about what you might stop doing, to free you up to focus on the things that matter.