Visit to Bloomberg

What struck me strongly as a result of our visit to Bloomberg's were the following:

1. Power of Bloomberg global network. 250,000 on a proprietary network is a very large and significant number. The importance and value of networks, both real and virtual, has become a major area of research in communications.
2. The importance of what Bloomberg's call Analytics which is the information at the heart of the Bloomberg Terminal. This is part news, part data, part knowledge and analysis.
3. The building in Finsbury Square which is a very visible statement of their strategy of being transparent as an organisation and bringing transparency to the workings of financial markets.
4. The ambiguity of their business model, with financial media, their most public face, only responsible for a very small share of their revenue.