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How EOS evolved
‘EOS IS MY STROKE OF LUCK’
Hans-Werner Scherer, Chairman of the EOS Group’s Board of Directors, has overseen the development of the business into an international group.
EOS is celebrating its tenth birthday this year. Where did the idea for a uniform brand come from?
The seed of the idea came from our parent company in 1996. Under the leadership of then-CFO Dr. Michael E. Crüsemann, the Otto Group was thinking about marketing its entire palette of financial services in insurance, banking and debt collection under one name. The intention of bundling the services was to create transparency and clarity for customers. I still remember the working title very well – Financial Services International or FSI for short.
How did FSI become the EOS brand?
In the course of the project we realized that each of the three business segments had very different sales approaches. On top of that, we were expanding our service portfolio back then, as with our purchase of a stake in the business information company BÜRGEL. We saw the great potential in an autonomous group specialized in services covering all aspects of a company’s cash flow. The decision was made to abandon the original idea and to set off in a different direction. In 1998 we set up a central marketing division to make sure our strategy was implemented professionally right from the start. We wanted our clients to be able to see at a glance what company they were doing business with. We needed our own brand, so we brought up the question of the name again. Several proposals were put forward and were discussed by the then Managing Directors of the subsidiaries. That’s how we came up with EOS.
Why ‘EOS’ of all names?
The name ‘EOS’ was a stroke of genius – even when we claim no connection to its eponym, the goddess of the dawn in Greek mythology. I think the best thing about the name is its neutrality. When you hear the name ‘EOS’, no associations or pictures come to mind. That leaves us free to shape the name and to set ourselves apart from our competitors. Something which we apparently do successfully, according to feedback from our clients.
What do you personally believe has been the greatest success since the EOS Group was established?
In my view, the constant growth over the past ten years has been our greatest success. We get noticed internationally. When people in Europe talk about financial services, they also talk about EOS. The EOS label is a success story. Launching the brand for the Group made it easier for us to approach larger clients. The saying in the international market is, ‘Big companies get big clients, small companies get small clients’. The development of the EOS brand and the values for which EOS stands have gone a long way towards helping us market the high quality of the individual companies.
Is there anything else you are proud of?
The word ‘proud’ is not exactly right. One special benefit for me is working in an international environment. I find working with people from different cultures very enriching. Every culture and every country has its own features and traits that we have to learn and accept. From a cultural point of view, I am sure that the Group has benefited from all its acquisitions. Maybe it was in the Americans giving us pointed lectures on the importance of sales after we had acquired Collecto in 2001 or what we were able to learn from the Eastern Europeans at KSI and the Matrix Group about flexibility and dealing with change. The job I’ve been given – that is, of developing EOS – has been a stroke of luck for me personally too.