The tenure of Lord Carter of Barnes in the jargon-ridden corridors of the media regulator Ofcom has clearly been influential. Last summer he announced a grandly titled “growth acceleration plan” at Informa, the media group he runs, at a cost of £30 million or more over each of the next three years.
Informa’s 2014 figures are riddled with mentions of this, but it mainly seems to involve investing in product improvement, innovation and people, which is the sort of thing that businesses should be doing all the time.
The former Stephen Carter, though, says that this was not a sufficient priority under the old management, which preferred to grow by acquisition.
As part of this programme, Informa has pledged to increase dividends by at