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Scudder and Kemper get a taste of Switzerland Scudder Kemper Investments is a major investment management company formed by Swiss insurance giant Zurich Insurance Group's 1996 acquisition of Kemper Financial Services and 1997 acquisition of Scudder Stevens & Clark. At the time of the merger, the combined company, called Zurich Scudder Kemper placed in the top 10 asset management companies in the U.S., and among the top 15 mutual fund companies. Today, the company boasts $280 in assets under management. In January 1998, Edmond Villani, formerly the head of Scudder Stevens, was named Scudder Kemper's president and CEO. From the Television Fund to Kemper Financial The first version of Kemper was formed in 1948, when five entrepreneurs formed a mutual fund and called it The Television Fund. Throughout the 1960s the company broadened its interests from strictly technological concerns to other mutual funds which would invest in both stocks and bonds and took on the corporate name Supervised Investors Services, and eventually becoming Kemper Financial Services. A fabled pioneer The other half of Scudder Kemper Investments, Scudder, Stevens & Clark, has an older history and a sometimes fusty reputation within the financial industry. Established in 1919, Scudder became the first independent investment counsel firm in the United States (1924), created the first no-load mutual fund (1928) and employed the first female aviation analyst (1939). Throughout the years, Scudder has continued to experiment, pioneering American managed fund investment in South Korea, Latin America and Argentina. Scudder was acquired in June 1997 by Zurich Insurance Group, one of the largest Swiss insurance companies in a deal valued at $2 billion. Scudder was pushed into the merger because of falling market share: From 1993 to the time of the merger, Scudder's market share had fallen from 1.78 percent to 1.11 percent. Although the company had about $120 billion in assets, it had not made a big splash in mutual funds among small investors, suffering a similar fate as J.P. Morgan (relying too much on its high-end clients). Closing shop and heading to the Web But the merger has forced major organizational changes in the newly formed investment firm. In June 1999, in an effort to improve sales by shifting emphasis to the Internet, Scudder Kemper Investments announced that the firm would close Scudder retail offices in Boston, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Boca Raton, mostly because of the mutual funds' poor performances. The Scudder and Kemper stock funds averaged a negative .28 percent return in the 12 months leading to April 1999, compared with Fidelity Investment's 17.92 percent gain.
Both professional and entry level positions are available at Kemper, among them Investment Representatives, Staff Accountants, Programmers/Analysts, and Wholesalers. Among the requirements for most positions are a B.A. or B.S. in a business related field (finance, business, economics, or communications) and some previous internship of work experience in one of those fields.
Merger "looks like a winner for both companies" Those coming from the Kemper side of Scudder Kemper Investments say their firm is a "professional business oriented shop," with a "top-down driven environment," meaning there is a marked corporate hierarchy. There doesn't seem to be a stereotypical Scudder employee, since the company is "made up of a mix of many types of personalities." Dress is "professional" though suits get shed on Friday "casual days." The work load is moderate, a "36.25 hour" workweek that fluctuates depending on the work load and "overtime exists but you have control over how much you work." Treatment of minorities and women is something of a non-issue, as "everyone really tries to get along." Benefits are "great" and the medical plan includes dental, vision, and life insurance. The merger that created Scudder Kemper Investments "looks like a winner for both companies," insiders say. More "aggressive", but still "down-to-earth" "The culture is changing" at Scudder, say insiders coming from that side of the merger; "new blood has been recruited in, old blood has spilled out the door." One employee thinks that the kinder, gentler Scudder "where your job seemed a bit more secure" has transmogrified into "a more aggressive, driven sales machine" with a "competitive, hard-driving" corporate mindset. Still, the slow turnover at the old Scudder meant that "the stairway to career growth was littered with road blocks" meaning that "Scudder lost some real talent." Now that Scudder Kemper Investments "wants to be THE premier global money management firm," it's picking up speed, which "should be prosperous for not only the company, but the employees as well. This is a particularly exciting time to work here." The folks at the firm remain "down-to-earth, not particularly formal, for the New York financial services industry;" the ethnic mix is "diverse," and the company takes its formal anti-discrimination and harassment policies "seriously." All in all, employees "recommend Scudder highly."
Human Resources
American Century Investments;Fidelity;Franklin-Templeton;Putnam Investments;T. Rowe Price;Vanguard Group More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
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