Our strategy is to become a true professional information solutions provider. A company that delivers improved outcomes to professional customers across industries, to help them make better decisions, get better results and be more productive. We aim to do this by leveraging deep customer understanding to combine content & data with analytics & technology in global platforms. Our solutions often account for about 1% of our customers’ total cost base but can have a significant, positive, impact on the remaining 99%. We seek to build leading positions in long term global growth markets by leveraging our institutional skills, assets & resources across Reed Elsevier, both to build solutions for our customers and to pursue cost efficiencies.

How we are getting there

We are continuing to systematically migrate towards this type of business across all of Reed Elsevier, primarily through organic investment. We supplement our organic development with selective acquisitions, when we are the natural owner and can accelerate our strategy with good returns. We continue to divest assets that we are not able to migrate or where we do not see significant future value creation for Reed Elsevier.

What we will deliver

By focusing on evolving the fundamentals of our business we believe that, over time, we will improve the business profile of Reed Elsevier and the quality of our earnings. This will lead to more predictable revenues through a better asset mix and geographic balance; a higher growth profile by expanding in higher growth segments, exiting from structurally challenged businesses and gradually reducing the drag from print format declines; and improved returns by focusing on organic development with strong cash generation.

Progress

Overall, we believe that Reed Elsevier has a better business profile today than it had three years ago, and it is our objective to make sure that it has a better business profile three years from now than it has today.

As a result of both organic development and portfolio changes, we have made progress in driving our online format migration so that only around 20% of our business is still in print, down from more than 50% six years ago. We have evolved our geographic footprint so that our revenues outside North America and Europe are now approaching 20%, almost the same percentage as our revenues in Continental Europe, and we have changed our mix of revenue streams, reducing our advertising revenue to just 6%.

Reed Elsevier revenue by format

Reed Elsevier revenue by geography

Reed Elsevier revenue by type 2012