Our compass points east
We maintained our course consistently in 2016 and kept an important promise.
The compass is a Chinese invention from the 11th century. Originally vitally important for sea travel, it is now synonymous with direction and purposefulness. Companies also use a “compass” in order to keep sight of their objectives.
The compass used by the Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) is special. It points east. This is because our Group, which has its headquarters in Austria, has made itself at home in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). We are building on the potential of 180 million customers in the CEE region whose prosperity and insurance needs are continually growing (more).
This region already generates half of our income. The Central and Eastern European region was the major contributor to doubling our profit before taxes to EUR 406.7 million in 2016. We were very pleased to be able to keep this promise we made. Our success was also due to the conservative investment strategy we feel we must follow as an insurance group and that we will not dissociate from even in difficult times.
Our Group has grown tremendously in the past 25 years. This means that new cultures and markets combined with a proven business model must all be brought into line so we can keep the big picture in focus. Although not a compass in the usual sense, we provide an appropriate form of guidance for our employees in the course of our employee mobility programmes that promote an exchange between our 50 Group companies (more).
Our compass has been pointing in the right direction and has brought us success – for more than 190 years.
