StepUp2020 strategy and objectives

Under the StepUp2020 strategy, the LLB Group embarked in 2016 on a phase of sustainable, profitable growth, after having repositioned itself under the Focus2015 strategy. In 2017, the Group Board of Directors, under the direction of the new Chairman of the Board of Directors, carried out a comprehensive review of StepUp2020 and explicitly confirmed its strategic direction.

The four core elements

Always with an eye to the clients, we will concentrate on our strengths. Up to 2020, we will focus on four core elements:

• Growth: We want to achieve this in two ways. Firstly, we want to grow organically by building on our own strengths. To this end, we will increase resources available for client advisory services. Secondly, we will target acquisitions in our home markets of Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Austria.
• Profitability: We intend to increase our margins by offering outstanding products and services. Efficient market penetration will help to generate profitable income. Maintaining strict cost management will be key.
• Innovation: We will invest in the future in a targeted manner. On the one hand, we will develop pioneering digital solutions and, on the other, we will provide our clients with an optimised and personalised service. We will automate standard business and individualise trust-based business.
• Excellence: We will continually improve processes throughout the organisation using lean management principles. Our aim is to increase the benefit to clients and boost added value. Given increasing regulation, we will strive to maintain strict compliance standards. And we will provide focused certified training programmes for our client advisers. We believe outstanding expertise is a key success factor.

Strategic success factors

The LLB Group’s success is based on a number of factors, the most important being:

• a clear strategy with high-quality implementation
• a client-oriented business model
• a strong competitive position
• innovative, client-oriented products and services
• security and stability
• a stable management structure
• highly effective employees and efficient processes
• interaction between digitalisation and personal contact
• a unique corporate culture

Financial targets up to the end of 2020

Under the StepUp2020 strategy, the LLB Group pursues four financial targets:

Value-oriented management

The LLB Group takes aspects of value orientation into consideration in all areas of the company. For example, the compensation model for the management and the majority of employees includes a component of pay that depends on the company’s performance. Three years ago, we decided to introduce the Market-Adjusted Performance Indicator (MAPI) so as to be able to make a careful and objective evaluation of the management’s performance. The model was developed in conjunction with FehrAdvice & Partners AG, Zurich, and is based on the results of behavioural economics research carried out by Professor Ernst Fehr from the University of Zurich.

This model enables us to evaluate the management’s performance holistically and without any distortion. This is done by comparing the long-term stock return (total shareholder return, TSR) with the TSR of a comparable group. The difference between the TSR of the LLB Group and that of the comparable group gives an indication of the actual performance of the company’s management.

The LLB Group’s compensation model is considered exemplary in Switzerland. The Swiss Institute of Directors voted it the best salary model in 2016 of all companies listed on the Swiss stock exchange (see chapter “Compensation report”).