Business the no compromise way

Never, ever discount. And only raise your prices in a predictable way, such as linked to inflation.

“This shifts the focus off the price and onto the value you are adding,” Bloomberg president, Dan Doctoroff says.

Once someone leaves your company for another job in the private sector, they can not be rehired.

“We think this policy breeds a degree of loyalty and that’s important,” Doctoroff says. “It’s Bloomberg people saying, ‘We don’t want to be like everybody else because if you are, then almost by definition you are mediocre’.”

Don’t slice-and-dice your product offering.

Some recent acquisitions aside, Bloomberg has maintained a “take it all or leave it” attitude towards its main product offering, the $US20,000 a year Bloomberg Professional Service (better known as the Bloomberg terminal).Although it’s a fair bet that few of its clients use all of the terminal’s 30,000-plus functions, the straightforward approach was cited by Burton-Taylor International Consulting as a big factor in Bloomberg’s recent increases in market share.

Make what you do an “ecosystem”, where every activity has a symbiotic relationship with another.

“We believe that every news story we write ... every valuation we provide on fixed-income securities ... every commodities derivative we cover, adds value to the Bloomberg terminal and increases terminal sales,” Doctoroff says.

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