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28/10/2020

The fact that msg can celebrate its 40th anniversary this year is largely due to many committed and loyal employees, some of whom have been ensuring the continuous development of the company and its products since the 1980s. One of them is Bruno Major, who has accompanied and decisively contributed to the development at msg since 1984. In this interview, he talks about his professional life, which he has entirely spent in one company, the value of trust and why sometimes it must be said: Think big!

Mr. Major, please describe your way to msg

Bruno Major: I joined msg in 1984. Together with Ingo Goelitz, who is also still working at msg, I studied computer science in Munich and I was doing an internship at IBM. We both also wanted to get hired there. That was our plan. About four weeks before the end of our study, Ingo came to tell me about a software company he had got to know. They were searching for people and left a very pleasant impression. Ingo told me: ‘Those guys are okay’ ‘I’ll join them.’

What was your reaction?

I asked him whether he was serious about this and about the size of the company. At this time, there were only eight to nine employees working at msg. I asked him: ‘Didn’t we want to work for a global player? Why do you want to work for such a small company?’ Ingo asked me to talk to the owner before finally making up my mind. I then finally talked to Pius Pflügler, one of the founders. He didn't really convince me and I went on holiday to South Tyrol. Pius Pflügler rang me later and told me about an interesting project at BMW that they had won. He already had forwarded my profile and basically had already sold me to the project. I was totally flummoxed as I hadn't agreed to anything. But I didn't want to let them down and I went to BMW’s application development department on behalf of msg. This may have been the way of several msg employees.

You’ve kept faith in msg for 36 years. Why?

One of the major reasons is that msg is an owner-led company and the founders are still working here. They work at the grassroots level and know how people work. They have an instinct for the company and services and products that we are selling to our customers. That makes you feel good. What I always liked about the job is that we are constantly changing and have never stood still. We established new divisions, split departments, established new locations.

What is so special about working at msg?

A special feature of msg is that we develop standard software for the insurance industry, though we are a consulting company. In a way, this is a unique selling point. We are also doing this nowadays for the bank industry and for the food industry. While many people were still asking about the point of this kind of specialized software, msg was already offering it. Thus, there was constant movement. It has never been boring. The new and young industries offer a wide range of new and diverse tasks, which makes it unnecessary to change employer. Within the msg group, there is always something interesting to be done, which makes you develop further.

You still like your job?

Sure. I’ve not regretted one single day. I’m still fascinated by the fact that we still work like a start-up company. The hierarchies at msg are very flat, we are one first name terms, have short processes and employees can make many decisions themselves. This makes for speed and agility, for which other companies envy us - and which is really needed. Hans Zehetmaier has always said: ‘It’s not the major players that put their smaller rivals out of business, but those who are quick and agile that edge out their slower competitors.’ Speed is still the name of the game in the software business. msg is still fast.

Have there been difficult times?

Sure. When we had to work on very demanding projects, for example. We sometimes struggled. However, our reliable customer base made it possible to get through every crisis. We weren't after the customer's money and never exploited any crisis situations of our customers. Long-term customer relationships are sustainable.

Trust as the basis for success?

The service portfolio of consulting companies is very similar. Imparting a feeling of trust to the customer is therefore crucial for business. The gap between the actual service and what the salesperson promises must not be wide. And you don't build a relationship of trust overnight. That takes years. Hans Zehetmaier embodies this perfectly. He is our best salesperson, because he always conveys this trust well.

How has your role at msg changed over the years?

I started as a programmer. The first DB2 project (relational database) in Germany started at Vereinte (United Insurance Company), today's Allianz Private Krankenversicherung (Allianz Private Health Insurance). I had just finished a related training. Hans Zehetmaier went to Vereinte and announced the assignment of an expert (laughs). This way, I joined the insurance industry. When we started offering insurance software as a standard software, it required a kind of area manager and they offered this role to me. I was then promoted to team lead and department manager. For around the last 15 years, I’ve been department lead and responsible for insurance customers in southern Germany.

How have work and business changed?

The business has become more international and standard software has become more important. Unlike in the past, insurance companies expect value for money. Nowadays, they are increasingly deciding to buy what is available on the market. That is an advantage for msg because we offer quite a lot. In general, we are on the cusp of a whirlwind of change. The insurance environment has still a lot of catching-up to do in terms of digitalization. It is also exciting that especially the large insurance companies, the established players, are investing a lot of money to digitalize their business. They are feeling the force of the big marketplace operators such as Amazon, Google and co. And that things could get tight if these operators were to enter the insurance business. So, the business remains extremely exciting.

What is your favorite story to tell?

We wanted to expand and open a new office. It was to be located in a city with a good university and a very good computer science department, not too far from Munich and with a traditional Bavarian mentality. We finally settled on Passau. Perhaps ten jobs were to be created there. In the end, the city said it wanted to talk to us. Hans Zehetmaier didn't have time and thus Peter Rettenbeck and I went there, totally unprepared. We thought that we were meeting with around two to three people in charge. We were actually brought to a huge, old Baroque hall in the townhall of Passau where at least 30 people, including the press and the entire city council were waiting for us. The mayor of Passau had been flown in from his holiday in Verona, Italy. They made such a fuss. I was scared and anxious and thought that I couldn’t simply announce only ten jobs. They wouldn’t like this at all. So, I went big and said that we were thinking about creating 50 jobs (laughs). In fact, about 500 people are working in Passau today.

What will become important for msg in the future?

The spirit of msg - that the customer is king and is the focus - must be maintained. Irrespective of the size of the company. The start-up spirit must also be maintained. Successful large corporations are shattering their structures and relying on small teams to be more agile. We have always worked this way and should keep on doing so.