Sometimes it is not the newest companies that move fastest when it comes to reinventing themselves.
Relx, which can trace its history back almost 150 years, has managed to fundamentally shift from a stalwart of the printed-media sector a few decades ago to emerge at the vanguard of the UK’s corporate AI hopes.
Once the publisher of titles such as Farmers Weekly and New Scientist, the company has become a data and analytics powerhouse with businesses such as its LexisNexis service for lawyers.
“There was an understanding that you had to take reference material from print to digital,” says Nick Luff, chief financial officer of Relx, who like most of the senior management has been at the group through its decade-long transformation.
“It is understanding the value and the importance [of data] for specific audiences, being open to new technology and having a culture of adopting and seeing new things and wanting to see how they can be applied in our world.”
