We sat down with our CEO, Jonna Sercombe, for an exclusive interview to ask him about the renaming of Interactive Workshops as part of the Cegos Group.
Tell us about the acquisition of Interactive Workshops and the change of name.
It’s a really exciting time and moment in our company. I started my career working with huge global brands like BMW, Rolls-Royce and MINI, then as a consultant to the Bacardi Global Brands team working with Grey Goose, Bacardi, Bombay Sapphire. So, I guess, from an early point, brand building has been very important to me.
When I started Interactive Workshops we had a different, and terrible, name, and eventually after a year of trying to find a new name, including over 100 different options, I struck gold with Interactive Workshops. Well, actually my mother-in-law, Linda, had the Eureka moment over a pizza in The Strand. What was great about the name is it was generic enough that we could do lots of stuff, and broad enough that we could cover lots of bases. I also quite liked the idea of a workshop, as in, a place where you build things. At BMW Group, we were conditioned “don’t mess with the brand.” It will be there before you. It will be there after you. Don’t play with the logo.
I sense a but…
But, six or seven years ago when we got serious, we were asked by the M&A people, “Is your name still relevant for what you do?” The answer even then was no. We don’t just run interactive workshops. We do digital assets, e-learning, video, animation, custom courses, leadership development, edtech, soft skills, coaching… the list is endless. Yet, I tried not to rebrand for as long as possible. If we were to rebrand we would need to find:
- A simple, short name that is easy to remember
- That doesn’t refer to any specific service line
- And call the company that.
When I walked through the door of the Cegos office in Paris, I knew 100% that they already had the branding answer to our question, not least because Cegos’ 2023 rebrand is so fresh. Cegos is a short name that doesn’t refer to any specific service. From now on, we will call our company Cegos. The way the brand is presented is stunning.
Tell us a bit about that brand.
Cegos has an incredible brand history. In branding terms, it has rock solid intrinsics. Cegos started life in 1926 as CGOST (the Commission General de l’Organisation Scientifique du Travail). In English that's the General Commission for the Scientific Organisation of Work. Over time, the pronunciation became CEGOS. Now we say Cegos. At its core, Cegos was born to use science to understand how we can do work better. It is doing that today in more than 50 countries world-wide and in 20 languages. The group is an international leader in Learning and Development and at its core exists to help individuals and organisations with their work challenges. We all, you, me, have an innate urge to learn, and learning is what drives the changes. Put it another way. Imagine trying to change without learning? Education, and Executive education, is absolutely crucial to meeting the challenges we face today as individuals and organisations. Not only that. We have an itch to scratch. We have an innate drive to learn. And it’s that learning that helps us acquire skills. Then those skills, once mastered, help us to reach a higher level of performance.
What does this mean for clients?
Over the years, the team at Interactive Workshops have worked with some absolutely brilliant people and organisations. I think what clients love is our spark, our energy, our professionalism, our can-do attitude, our know-how. That all continues. We are the same people, doing the same job, in the same way. What clients also get now is the extra that comes with Cegos. Cegos is recognised as one of the world's top 20 leadership development companies. It is known as one of only ten L&D companies that can do absolutely everything in learning and development. For example, Cegos has huge clients doing learning and development outsourcing. We have never done that. Managed Training Services (MTS) is a game changer for clients. Now we can do that. Cegos has an off-the-shelf learning portfolio. More than 3,000 digital learning assets. 1,500 staff. Most assets and courses are available in more than 20 languages. IW is just 2% of the Cegos organisation. We now have offices all over the world, from Shanghai and Singapore to Sao Paulo and New York. That’s phenomenal for international learning projects, and that’s also why I'm really excited to jump into the Cegos brand. Jumping right in means we are fully connected with no barriers to what we can do together. I love that.
Any final thoughts?
Well, as our board member, Emanuele, said when we were planning all this: “Orange is in the Cegos corporate identity.” Old habits die hard. We will still be using some orange, and, at the heart, our new organisation also wants us to stay true to our roots and do what we do best. There is no pressure to change or be someone different. We are going to be true to who we are and keep doing what we do best in the brightest and sparkiest way. You can count on it.
