The Times 100 Business Case Studies are a well regarded resource for business studies teachers and students around the world. The case studies feature real-life examples from world-leading companies to help students learn about the complexities of business. They are distributed to schools and colleges in the UK and are also available online, where they are downloaded by over 1.5 million people each month.

Diesel, Kellogg’s, Shell — and Reed Elsevier

Among the multinational companies that have contributed are Diesel, Kellogg’s, Shell — and Reed Elsevier. While the first two brands may be well known to a fashion-conscious student whose diet features breakfast cereal, Reed Elsevier is not. A sample of feedback collated by The Times 100 indicates that, prior to working with the case study, students had not heard of Reed Elsevier. One wrote: “I thought the name Reed Elsevier sounded like they were a posh tailors or law firm but I learned that they are involved with lots of information activities including publishing research magazines and articles.”

Another student had heard of The Lancet, one of Elsevier’s main publications, but did not know its parent company.

Reed Elsevier provided The Times 100 case study last year via the Corporate Responsibility team, led by Dr. Márcia Balisciano. In this study, available free of charge at thetimes100.co.uk, students learn that Reed Elsevier operates in more than 200 locations worldwide, has annual revenues of approximately £6 billion ($9.7 billion) and employs over 30,000 people.

The aim in taking part in The Times 100 was to provide a service to students and show that corporate responsibility is an integral part of the company – and that doing good for stakeholders is good for business.

Reaching 200,000+ students

By February 2011, according to information provided by The Times 100, the Reed Elsevier case study achieved a reach of 85,892 in five months of use, and The Times 100 estimates that 229,045 will eventually view it, based on web traffic patterns for the same period last year. There have been downloads by teachers and students, and click-throughs to Reed Elsevier, Elsevier and other business unit home pages.
When students were informed about the organization, they were impressed by the scale of the business, including its publishing (Elsevier) and legal (LexisNexis) arms. “The incredible breath of research they are involved in shows that they are a major business in the book and publications world,” wrote one student. Another said: “It has 11 million scientists who access information from their database. This is a massive amount.”

The focus of the corporate responsibility case study also meant increased awareness of the company’s charitable and environmental initiatives. One student said: “I think that the case study shows that Reed Elsevier is a responsible company. For example it provides 14,000 books every year to the people... It also reduces its carbon footprint by using video and conference calls rather than travelling across the world to meetings.”

The dozens of companies featured in The Times 100 are constructed around different key elements of the business studies curriculum. In the case of the global clothing and lifestyle brand Diesel, the case study looked at the company’s marketing strategy – how it promotes its products and brand. Reed Elsevier chose to focus on a concept that can be less easy to grasp: that of corporate responsibility and stakeholders – in other words, how Reed Elsevier thinks about its responsibilities to stakeholders.

What's a stakeholder anyway?

We hear the word “stakeholder” all the time, but what does it mean? One student gave a useful definition: “Now that I have read the case study, I know that stakeholders are all the different people that are interested in an organization, not just the people within the business itself. Stakeholders include customers, suppliers and even the local community.”

The case study summarizes initiatives Reed Elsevier has undertaken to increase its accountability to both internal stakeholders (shareholders, but also employees and suppliers) and external stakeholders (customers, partners, the community and society at large).

It also looks at potential conflicts between these categories of stakeholders. For instance, RE employees (internal stakeholders) are offered development opportunities so that they can reach their potential. The company, however, has to justify this investment against the cost of using the time and resources for other purposes.

Overall, students have judged Reed Elsevier’s focus on corporate responsibility and balancing the needs of different stakeholders to be positive. “The case study was good at showing that you have to get a balance between pleasing stakeholders and making a profit,” one student said. “It costs money to donate books and do things that take the needs of different stakeholders into account, but you can’t run a business if you don’t take the different stakeholders into account because people wouldn’t want to work for you if you were not a good business.”