content_image/142886.jpg content_image/142885.jpg
## Aegon’s strategy 

Aegon is an international provider of life insurance, pensions and asset management products, with businesses in more than 25 markets in the Americas, Europe and Asia, and just over EUR 475 billion in revenue-generating investments. Aegon employs nearly 27,000 people, and has millions of customers across the globe. 

Aegon’s purpose is  to help people take responsibility for their financial future . To achieve this, the company strives to provide easy-to-understand products that help customers make better financial decisions for themselves and their families. As a company, Aegon believes that everyone, regardless of their income, deserves to retire with dignity and peace of mind. 

Aegon’s ambition is to become a leader in all of its chosen markets. This means being the most recommended provider of life insurance and pensions among customers, the preferred partner among intermediaries and distributors, and the employer of choice for both current and prospective employees. 

Recognizing the increasing demand for asset protection, accumulation and long-term retirement security products and services, Aegon is investing in new approaches to better serve the full range of customers’ financial needs throughout their life cycle. This includes accelerating investment in technology to enable Aegon’s businesses to interact directly with customers. 

Fostering a truly customer-centric culture throughout the organization is at the core of Aegon’s strategy. This entails ensuring that every employee understands how he or she can contribute to a distinctive and consistently positive customer experience. To support this essential cultural mindset, a new coordinated approach to performance management has been implemented across Aegon’s businesses, with a strong emphasis on talent development and customer centricity. Compensation and incentives have been aligned accordingly. Aegon encourages new thinking and innovative approaches as it continues to transform its businesses. 

In recent years, Aegon has taken steps to reduce costs, lower risk and free up capital for reinvestment in its businesses. It has divested businesses no longer considered core, or which have failed to provide sufficient returns or prospects for long-term growth. These actions have enabled Aegon to achieve a solid capital position, deal effectively with economic and market volatility, and position its businesses for future growth. At the same time, Aegon has invested in key areas of growth, such as emerging markets in Central & Eastern Europe, Asia and the Americas, while also restructuring its businesses to achieve greater operational efficiency and deliver a higher level of customer service. Better leveraging the broad expertise that exists within Aegon across various businesses and geographies continues to be a key strategic objective. 

<img src='content_image/142886.jpg'>

<img src='content_image/142885.jpg'>

Aegon’s strategy is supported by its ambition:  to be a leader in all of its chosen markets . To support this ambition, Aegon has implemented four strategic objectives: 

■ To optimize its portfolio  by investing in businesses that offer attractive returns and strong prospects for growth and, if necessary, closing or divesting business that do not meet Aegon’s risk-return requirements, or contribute to its long-term ambitions; 

■ To enhance customer loyalty  by improving customer service, investing in new distribution capabilities, and expanding the company’s online presence to connect better and more frequently with its customers; 

■ To deliver operational excellence  by improving efficiency and reducing costs, innovating and making better use of its resources around the world; 

■ To empower employees  by providing the tools, training and internal culture necessary to better serve the developing needs of its customers, while also enabling employees to realize their full potential. 

In 2013, Aegon took clear steps toward each of these objectives, helping position the company’s businesses for the future, and meet the risks and opportunities presented by long-term industry trends. 

## Optimize portfolio 

Aegon targeted opportunities in its core markets in the Americas, Europe and Asia by: 

■ Investing in the rapidly-expanding 'at-retirement' market of people in their fifties and sixties who are actively preparing for retirement in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In the United Kingdom, Aegon is seeking to increase its share of the workplace savings and non-advised markets; 

■ Repositioning in Central & Eastern Europe – by channeling other resources into new products and services, ceasing new investment in mandatory private pensions due to government restrictions, selling off pension operations in the Czech Republic, and expanding the life and pensions business in Romania; 

■ Expanding into new markets – through the acquisition of Fidem Life, one of Ukraine’s leading providers in the emerging life insurance market, and the opening of a new office in Germany in the second half of 2013 to market variable annuities; 

