Nancy McKinstry, Wolters Kluwer CEO, transformed the company through print, to online, and digital, towards its current day position as an expert solutions company.
As she explains, from 2004 to 2006 Wolters Kluwer’s first transformation steps were to digitize information, and post it online, to keep pace with the speed of digital change. The second phase involved a shake-up in the company’s portfolio combining divestments of traditional publishing activities and investments into fast-growing online and software products. And the third phase is the company’s current evolution towards digital services and software solutions.
This transition saw the company shift from 75% of its revenues coming from print in 2003, to with 85% of the company's revenues generated from digital products and services, which showed 5% organic growth in 2016.
During the transition, McKinstry notes, the company’s customers have come under increasing pressure to do more with less. In addition, customers were no longer looking purely for information, but also ‘actionable’ information to tell them what to do.
In the interview, she also shares insights on who the company considers as its competition, the pros and cons of cannibalization, pricing policy, innovation investment levels in the company, legal tech trends and more.
Today, Wolters Kluwer is positioned at the intersection of deep domain knowledge of its customers’ work, strong workflow insight—coupled with digital applications based on AI and machine learning—of which, McKinstry notes, the company has high expectations.
She closes the interview by saying, “I think the present times are very exciting [...] I see the same feeling shared by our management [...] Ultimately, our work here is for the long term. We have proven conclusively that we have this long-term view over the past 181 years.”
The interview with Nancy McKinstry, CEO Wolters Kluwer, was featured on the cover of the June 2017 edition of Management Scope magazine. McKinstry was interviewed by Jurgen van Weegen, partner at global consulting firm AT Kearney, on the digital transformation of the company and more. The magazine is published in Dutch. Read the full interview.
