P-1160-E

April 2017

EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM)

This document is an authorized copy to be used at IESE Business School

A driver loses his leg in an accident and his doctor, instead of giving him a generic implant,
scans his healthy leg in order to produce a prosthetic leg perfectly tailored to his body structure,
greatly increasing his quality of life.

A tool breaks in an assembly line and the workers print a replacement part in a matter of
hours, eliminating the need to maintain an expensive stock of multiple spare parts or to shut
down until a part is supplied.

To some, these might have seemed like sci-fi scenarios in 2017, yet they were two real-life
applications of EOS laser sintering technology, a form of additive manufacturing (AM).

In September 2016, EOS was showcasing its new EOS M 400-4 AM system, which used direct
metal laser sintering (DMLS) technology, at Chicagos International Manufacturing Technology
Show. It was EOS largest and fastest machine to date, capable of producing complex metal
parts on an industrial scale and to industrial quality. However, despite the great strides that
both EOS as a company and AM in general had made in the previous years, it still remained a
relatively niche technology. In a machine-tool market worth $79 billion a year, 1 some
$832 million worth of industrial 3D printers had been shipped in the first three quarters of
2015. 2 Focusing on the high end of this market, EOS still faced significant challenges to
convince industrial customers of the potential and reliability of this technology, which often
involved rethinking the entire way a product was manufactured.

1 World Machine-Tool Output and Consumption Survey 2016, Gardner Research, April 27, 2016,
http://www.gardnerweb.com/articles/2016-world-machine-tool-survey, last accessed November 2016.
2 Global 3D Printer Market Up +35% in 2015 on the Back of B2B Purchases of Personal/Desktop Printers, CONTEXT, January 4,
2016, https://www.contextworld.com/documents/20182/374145/CONTEXT20153D+Printer+Market+SharesJan2016.pdf/428e8280-
4675-40a4-9039-bf5dc437b212, last accessed February 2016.

This case was prepared by Professor Marc Sachon and Isaac Sastre Boquet, case writer, as the basis for class discussion
rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. April 2017.

Copyright 2017 IESE. To order copies contact IESE Publishing via www.iesep.com. Alternatively, write to iesep@iesep.com
or call +34 932 536 558.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form
or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the permission of IESE.

Last edited: 4/25/17

1
 P-1160-E EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM)

Moreover, large technological corporations such as HP and General Electric had cast their eyes on
the growth prospects of AM technology, having engaged in a flurry of acquisitions after announcing
their entry into the market. Even though the marketing power of those companies would help to
legitimize the technology, they would also become potent threats for EOS own growth.

As the global leader in DMLS technology, EOS firmly believed in the future of AM and its many
industrial applications. If the AM revolution was just around the corner, EOS wanted to be at the
forefront. And for that, the company would have to find ways to grow even more.

Additive Manufacturing (AM)

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Additive manufacturing was a manufacturing process where a component was produced by

adding layer upon layer of base material (e.g., plastic or metal) until a 3D object was finally
produced. The quality of the finished component produced by AM met or even exceeded the
quality requirements for serial production. This additive approach contrasted with traditional
subtractive manufacturing, where a piece of base material which had to be at least as big as
the final part would be cut or milled, material gradually being removed from it, until an
object was created.

The vast majority of commercialized AM systems used the following workflow:

1) Computer-aided design (CAD) data are generated, describing the entire 3D geometry of
the object.

2) This data are broken down into thin cross sections, generating a standard data file
(usually in STL format), and fed to an AM machine.

3) The machine deposits the base material one layer at a time, recreating the geometry of
the object. In the case of laser sintering as offered by EOS, a laser subsequently melts the
material (metal or plastic) and the base material changes from powder to solid form.

4) After the object is removed, some postprocessing takes place (cleaning up, removal of
support struts, etc.) until the object is finished.

The first AM equipment and materials were developed in the early 1980s by Charles Hull, who
built his first stereolithography (3D printing) machine in 1983 and filed a patent for the
process in 1984. However, even in 2017, AM was far from being a unitary technology. Rather,
there were several processes with very different approaches that fit the general
characteristics of AM. These processes differed mainly in the kind of materials that could be
employed, the geometries for which they were best suited, and the type and amount of
postprocessing that was necessary for the object to be completely finished after being removed
from the build platform. These very diverse techniques could be grouped into three main
families: 3

Extrusion: where a computer-controlled print head extruded a semiliquid material

that, once solidified, formed the successive layers of the object.

3 Christopher Barnatt, 3D Printing: The Next Industrial Revolution, ExplainingTheFuture.com, 2013.

2 IESE Business School-University of Navarra

 EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM) P-1160-E

Photopolymerization: where a material in liquid form was solidified by selectively

using a laser or similar light source.

Powder bed fusion: where materials in powdered form were turned into solid parts,
using several possible processes, to form the successive layers of the object. All of
EOS metal industrial 3D printers used a special form of this technology laser
sintering.

EOS focused on powder bed fusion, using melting

Seat Belt Buckles 3D Print
as a way to fuse the powdered material. A thin
This document is an authorized copy to be used at IESE Business School

layer of that material was applied to a base (the

build platform), and the powder was selectively
melted and welded together with a powerful laser
beam, using the CAD data to direct the laser to
the precise points that made up the geometry of
the desired object. The platform was then lowered
and another layer of powder applied, which was
in turn fused selectively once more. The process
was repeated until the full item was built. Then
the part was removed, cleaned (unfused powder
could be recovered and used to build another Source: Document provided by the company.
item), and finished. See Exhibit 1 for a depiction
of the laser sintering process.

AM processes had many advantages over other manufacturing techniques. First, AM greatly
reduced waste, since most of the leftover material could be reused (unlike the metal chips
produced in traditional processes). It also greatly simplified the manufacturing workflow, since
geometrically complex objects including moving parts could be built in a single process.
Moreover, it could build some geometrical structures that would be extremely difficult or
even impossible to build using traditional methods, such as lattice structures that saved
weight and material without compromising mechanical properties. Lastly, it was extremely
flexible, since AM machines could produce
Car suspension part 3D Print different parts without retooling or obtaining
expensive new molds only a new CAD design
had to be fed into the system. This greatly reduced
the scale necessary to make short product runs
profitable and enabled high degrees of product
customization.

Its main disadvantages were the cost and variety

of base materials available for manufacturing, the
time it took to build a single item, and the size of
the parts it could produce. It was still unable to
build large, single-piece items (such as the tube
Source: Document provided by the company.
of a drive shaft for a large vehicle).

IESE Business School-University of Navarra 3

 P-1160-E EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM)

EOS
EOS was founded in 1989 by Dr. Hans J. Langer, previously European manager at the laser
positioning company General Scanning,4 and Dr. Hans Steinbichler who went on to sell his
shares to Langer in 1990. Its first customer was the BMW Group in Munich, which ordered the
Stereos 400, EOS first stereolithography machine. EOS quickly went on to become the first
major European provider of rapid prototyping systems. In parallel, the company started
developing its laser sintering technology, introducing the EOSINT P 350 in 1994. In 1997, EOS
sold its stereolithography division to 3D Systems, a company cofounded by Charles Hull, and
focused exclusively on laser sintering after securing key patents.
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The 2000s saw the company expand its international footprint. It opened subsidiaries in the
United Kingdom (2001), the United States (2001), India (2005), and China (2013), among other
countries. In parallel, the development of EOS laser sintering equipment and base materials
opened up new applications in fields such as the packaging, dental, medical, and aerospace
industries. The company sold its 1,000th laser sintering system in 2011, having become the
global market leader in that technology in 2007.

Multimedia content

EOS CEO Hans Langer discusses the origins of the company

and some of the current applications it was working on

Source: EOS. 2014. EOS A Story of Success. Youtube.com. Last accessed March 2017.
Illustration from istockphoto.com.

EOS in 2016
At the end of 2016, EOS had an installed base of more than 2,400 systems in 52 countries
worldwide. Its turnover of 315 million came from the sales of systems, base material (polymers
and metals in powdered form), and consulting work and services. In 2014 it had opened a new
17,000 m2 technology and customer center at the companys headquarters in Krailling, less
than 20 kilometers from Munich, Germany, and had expanded its network of offices and
distributors to 32 countries. (See Exhibit 2: EOS International Footprint.) By March 2017 yet
another building had been added due to the rapid growth of the company. Figure A provides
some basic metrics of EOS at the end of 2016.

4 General Scanning merged with Cambridge Technology in 2008.

4 IESE Business School-University of Navarra

 EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM) P-1160-E

Figure A
EOS at a glance (2016)

Turnover (millions of ) 315

Workforce 1,000
Of which:
In Germany 70%
In ROTW 30%
R&D spending (% of turnover) 14%
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Installed base (No. of systems) 2,400

Of which:
Polymer systems 60%
Metal systems 40%
No. of customers with more than 1 system 428
Countries with EOS customers 52
Of which:
North America 20%
Europe & ROTW 60%
Asia-Pacific 20%

Source: Document provided by the company.

Moreover, EOS was in the middle of a period of very rapid growth. In the five years since 2010,
the EOS workforce had more than doubled and, by March 2017, the company employed more
than 1,000 people while revenues had grown by 400%. (See Exhibit 3 for EOS growth data.)
The companys growth had taken off in 2010, coinciding with a reorganization of management
and a repositioning of the company. Chief marketing officer Dr. Adrian Keppler, who joined
EOS in January 2010, recalled the first meetings at the company:

We crafted a vision. We said: We want additive manufacturing to be on the shop floor.

We want to prove that this works. And working means not just one machine, not five,
not 10. We want to see our customers producing hundreds or thousands of components,
every day, with our machines.

EOS had been able to fund this expansion through its cash flow, and the company remained
in the sole ownership the CEO Langer and his family.

EOS operated in accordance with ambitious three-year business plans. The plans of 2012 and
2015 had been successful. Consistent with this successful track record, the target for 2020 was
to become a 1 billion company. However, EOS management was aware that it was at the
beginning of a challenging journey. As Keppler reflected: If we want to position the company
for serial production, we have to change the company. We have to think differently. We have
to act differently.

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 P-1160-E EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM)

The Market for Additive Manufacturing

Multimedia content

Music played on a 3D-printed violin

Source: Lisa Harouri. 2011. Digital Forming: 3D Printed Stradivarius

by EOS A Story of Success. Youtube.com. Last accessed March 2017.

In February 2011, The Economist put AM on its cover with the headline Print me a
This document is an authorized copy to be used at IESE Business School

Stradivarius, extolling the potential of AM as a manufacturing technology. It was one of the

moments that EOS management recalled as showcasing how the technology was no longer
seen as just a gadget for hobbyists nor as a tool limited to rapid prototyping. Indeed, as Keppler
recalled: Before I joined EOS, I would talk with some colleagues and they would ask: What
is industrial 3D printing? Now there are a lot of people aware of the technology and interested
in what it can do for them.

Several industries were thought to be great potential markets for AM. EOS had already been
very successful in entering two of them:

Aerospace: this industry was extremely sensitive to reductions in weight that could
lead to fuel savings, or savings in the usage of very expensive alloys employed in
key components. EOS had entered this industry very successfully. EOS machines
could be found producing jet engine parts for the new Airbus A320neo as well as
air ducts for Bell helicopters.

Medical: the ability to build very complex geometries in a single process and the
customization potential were the big draws for this industry. For example, lattice
structures could be used to improve postoperative recovery and orthopedic
replacements could be designed to match the patients body. Furthermore, AM-
produced implants were more lightweight, resulting in a better patient recovery and
experience. AM was already extremely successful in the dental industry, with nearly
eight million dental crowns, bridges and implants built every year using AM. (The
EOS M 290 system could produce 450 crowns per day compared with the 15 to 20
crowns a dental technician could produce per day.) In 2016, EOS had 150 systems
installed worldwide that were devoted to this activity.

In addition to the medical and aerospace industries, there were several other industries with
great promise for growth and in which EOS was already making inroads. In general, any
industry that could benefit from AMs flexibility and customization in short production runs
was a potential market for EOS. For example:

Oil and gas prospection: this industry required very complex parts that had to be
tailored to the characteristics of the drilling site and usually called for very short
production runs. The ability to produce replacements for broken parts quickly was
also key.

Automotive: customization and flexibility in design were important drivers of

future automobile sales. Companies such as Rolls-Royce and Formula 1 teams

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 EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM) P-1160-E

already used AM for their highly specialized cars. Apart from customization, AMs
ability to reduce the mass of components without compromising on performance
made it the perfect manufacturing technology to lower CO2 and other greenhouse
gas emissions.

Railways/public transport: this industry was characterized by selling short runs of

units (e.g., locomotives and wagons) tailored to the specifications of its B2B
customers, plus spare parts. This made it an interesting market for AM given its
ability to provide high levels of customization and low costs for short production
runs.
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Lifestyle and sports products: from personalized bicycle parts to footwear perfectly
tailored to the tastes and needs of the customer, AM could provide highly
customizable items without being affected by short production runs.

Other industrial applications: heat exchangers and resistors, for example, could be
found in many applications from cooling down industrial machinery to cooling
an item manufactured by injection molding. These were items with very complex
geometries that were susceptible to more efficient production using AM.
Replacement parts or molds could also be produced on demand by AM.

The Challenges
EOS new flagship product in 2016, the M 400-4, was the largest and fastest system in the
companys catalog. It could produce a metallic item with a maximum size
of 400 400 400 mm using a system of four lasers working in unison to provide a build rate
of up to 100 cm3 of processed material per hour. It was the pinnacle of the latest DMLS
technology. It was not designed to be a rapid prototyping device but rather it was conceived
and built for the factory floor, to produce hundreds of metal components every week.

Improving the technology was just one of the many challenges that EOS faced in order to make
the company grow in order to show that this works.

Multimedia content

Promotional video for the EOS M 400-4:

3D printing system for metal parts

Source: EOS. 2016. EOS M 400-4 - The ultra-fast quad-

laser 3D printing system for metal parts. Youtube.com. Multimedia content
Last accessed March 2017.
Promotional video for the EOS M 400-4:

Industrial 3D printing live

Source: EOS. 2016. EOS M 400-4 - Industrial 3D printing

live!. Youtube.com. Last accessed March 2017.

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 P-1160-E EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM)

Moving Customers
The first and most immediate challenge that EOS faced was to educate business customers
about the potential of AM and how to adopt it in their operations. In general, EOS generated
business through two channels:

A proactive channel: where EOS targeted potential lighthouse customers and

contacted them. These customers would light the way with their success stories,
potentially establishing credibility for the technology and encouraging other
companies to follow their lead. Selecting these customers and coming up with the
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best applications for them was one of the key strategic decisions of EOS.

A reactive channel: where companies approached EOS asking for an AM

application. This proposal could sometimes be precise (Can you help me make
personalized shoes?) but sometimes it could also be very generic (What can I do
with AM in my company?).

Within the reactive channel, EOS had identified two sources of business generation:

Bottom-up: a group of engineers, often on their own initiative, decided to push to

introduce AM into their companys manufacturing processes, usually starting with
a very limited budget and scope. The challenge was usually to convince
management of the potential.

Top-down: senior management, sometimes a visionary leader, would ask the

companys engineering team to study and find ways to implement AM in
the companys existing processes. The challenge here was to overcome the resistance
of the established engineering teams, who would have to learn a new technology
that might completely reshape their companys production processes.

The sales process typically lasted 12 to 18 months from the moment the application was
designed until it was fully implemented. Keppler explained, however, that the biggest challenge
to getting a customer to adopt AM was a more strategic one: It is still difficult to generate
business. Its one thing to be aware that theres this cool technology out there but
understanding what I can do in my company with this technology, how to use it to add value
to my core business thats a whole different matter.

Companies generally had little know-how regarding AM, and the learning curve could be steep.
As Gngr Kara, director of global application and consulting from the Additive Minds division
of EOS, put it: What they would like is go to this or that place for two months and youll
know everything about AM. Well, that doesnt exist.

To help customers bridge that knowledge gap, EOS had changed its approach, moving from
being a system provider to becoming a comprehensive solution provider and adding a
consulting arm to its business. It was tasked with assisting client companies to find the right
application of AM in their companies and to provide the necessary know-how and engineer
training. Still, finding this right application remained a big challenge, and Kara was aware
that EOS would generally get only one shot at most at getting companies on board:
Companies dont want to wait three, four or five years for an outcome thats not even given.

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 EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM) P-1160-E

We have to make them successful otherwise, next time they will be blocked by their finance
departments.

EOS found that it was often successful in pilot phases or limited implementations but it was
much more challenging to move from there to companywide implementations involving lots
of engineers and a redesign of the companys production processes. As Kara put it: How do
we go from four to 40, from 40 to 400? Thats the next challenge. Moreover, making a good
cost comparison study of AM and existing processes was not easy. Most companies tried to
use the same ROI calculations that they used for their usual tooling and machine investments.
However, it was not a like-for-like comparison when AM was involved. As Kara explained:
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For example, what happens if I take a component that previously was made of several
smaller parts and that now I can build in a single process? Are there extra assembly costs,
lead times, inventory costs that we are saving? How can we evaluate that? Gathering this
kind of data is sometimes difficult, even for the companies themselves. Sometimes they
themselves dont even know the real total cost they are paying to produce a certain part.

Lastly, certification and validation were also an important hurdle in the way of adoption.
Before serial production could be initiated, an AM system had to be certified and validated,
ensuring that all parts produced had the required mechanical properties to be used reliably in
the final application. This was a process that could take many months. Since every time that
EOS introduced a new system it had to be certified, this made upgrading to more modern and
capable systems a fastidious process. EOS engineers had to come up with ways of cutting down
the time needed for validation. For example, the new EOS M 400-4 used processes transferred
from the highly successful and extensively validated EOS M 290.

Competition
EOS faced three kinds of competitors in the market for industrial-grade AM applications:

Direct competitors that had come from the field of AM and had accumulated
expertise similar to that of EOS in rapid prototyping before attempting to move to
production. These included relatively large companies such as Concept Laser and
SLM Solutions, as well as smaller start-ups.

Large industrial companies that were making inroads into AM as an extension of

their core engineering business. These included Trumpf and Renishaw.

Large business-to-consumer (B2C) companies that had comparable business

models and expertise that might be extended to AM. The most notable example was
HP and its large 2D printing business.

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 P-1160-E EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM)

Figure B
Global industrial/professional AM system sales (Q1 to Q3, 2015)

Rank Company Units solda Share

1 Stratasys (USA) 4,308 49%
2 3D Systems (USA) 1,938 22%
3 envisionTEC (USA) 866 10%
4 EOS (Germany) 326 4%
5 mCor (Ireland) 265 3%
This document is an authorized copy to be used at IESE Business School

Source: Global 3D Printer Market Up +35% in 2015 on the Back of B2B Purchases of Personal/Desktop Printers, CONTEXT, January 4,
2016, https://www.contextworld.com/documents/20182/374145/CONTEXT20153D+Printer+Market+SharesJan2016.pdf/428e8280-
4675-40a4-9039-bf5dc437b212, last accessed February 2016.
a Includes printers priced at more than $5,000.

The industrial/professional market was very heterogeneous, with systems ranging from $5,000
to $1.5 million in price. EOS was positioned in the high end of that market and only considered
systems priced 150,000 and up as competitor products. This positioning meant that it sold
fewer systems than many of its competitors but EOS systems were larger and more capable.
EOS had a particularly strong position in metal systems, which were expected to be the largest
drivers of growth in AM manufacturing in the coming years. This segment was also the priciest:
the ASP (average system price) for metal systems was $465,000 per printer compared with an
average of $115,000 for the whole industrial/professional market. 5

Figure C
Global industrial/professional AM system sales, in dollars (Q1 to Q3, 2015)

Revenuea
Rank Company (millions of $) Share
1 Stratasys (USA) 333.783 40%
2 3D Systems (USA) 138.201 17%
3 EOS (Germany) 137.530 17%
4 SLM Solutions 28.479 3%
(Germany)
5 Arcam (Sweden) 27.746 3%

Source: CONTEXT, op. cit.

a From printers sold for more than $5,000.

The surge in AM growth had prompted the interest of large industrial groups, which were
entering the market and flexing their considerable market muscle. Just as EOS was showcasing
its newest system at the Chicago trade fair in 2016, General Electric had purchased two of the

5 Growth Slows in Metal 3D Printer Shipments in 1H16, CONTEXT, November 15, 2016,
https://www.contextworld.com/documents/20182/367799/CONTEXT+Growth+Slows+in+Metal+3D+Printing-
Nov2016.pdf/f3a6399c-235a-4893-a677-2873fc29f512, last accessed February 2017.

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 EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM) P-1160-E

largest AM companies, SLM Solutions (Germany) and Arcam AB (Sweden), for $1.4 billion. 6 In
May of the same year HP launched its Jet Fusion polymer systems for plastic 3D printing.

This affected EOS in two ways. First, the influx of capital into the industry and the entrance
of big organizations with lots of marketing power would help educate potential customers,
develop the technologies and ultimately make the AM market grow. Second, companies such
as GE and HP were tough competitors with vast resources and broad networks of industry
contacts and they were masters of marketing.

EOS believed that some of the companys strengths were its experience, technology base, and
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relationship with established manufacturing customers, particularly in Europe. EOS was

confident that it was the only company in the market able to deliver a comprehensive solution
encompassing all aspects of the process of building a component with AM, especially in metal.

This core competence could be explained graphically with a triangle built around three vertices,
all connected and influencing each other:

- Systems: the AM machines (industrial 3D printers) themselves, which were very

productive and created components of high quality.

- Materials: in powder form that were processed to stringent quality standards and
gave high-quality results in all EOS systems.

- Process: the interaction between the laser beam and the material, which had to be
completely mastered and controlled.

Figure D
EOS core competence triangle

Source: Document provided by the company.

6 Rick Clough, Niclas Rolander and Andrea Rothman, GE Seeks to Drive 3D Printing Future With $1.4 Billion in Deals,
Bloomberg, September 6, 2016, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-06/ge-to-spend-1-4-billion-on-3-d-printer-
makers-for-plane-parts, last accessed December 2016.

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 P-1160-E EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM)

EOS management considered that it had the best expertise in the industry across all three areas:
system, material and process parameters. All three of these were intelligently harmonized to
ensure the high quality of parts, so the EOS ecosystem could offer the most predictable, reliable,
and reproducible results in terms of quality of the produced part. Given that AM was still a small
and fragmented industry, no standards had yet emerged. In that regard, EOS had made its patents
openly available for licensing.

EOS was fully aware that it was competing not only against other AM companies but also against
the same technologies it wished to replace in factories. It also had to provide answers for the new
Industry 4.0 trends toward plant automation and cloud-based industry. Despite the strengths of
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the company, EOS management was aware that competition was going to get tougher. Keppler
acknowledged that reality and the need to be ready: We have to have a different mindset. We
have to be more aggressive, we have to sharpen our positioning, and we have to think harder
about how to differentiate and leverage our network and ecosystem.

Growing the Organization

Since the new drive to get into serial production had been initiated in 2010, the headcount of
EOS had grown threefold, from 332 to around 1,000 in January 2017. The company had
expanded its structure, creating entire new units such as the Business Development Team and
the Global Applications and Consulting Team. It had expanded its structure overseas, giving the
subsidiaries more autonomy over the hiring of industry account managers with local industrial
expertise. This presented a whole new set of challenges and tensions. Kara explained it
graphically: This is a bit like teenagers. You grow very fast and suddenly your shoes no longer
fit, or the shorts you always wore now look very strange. Therefore we need to align processes
again and again and again.

These growing pains were set to continue, as the new hires were key to the companys
expansion. Keppler explained:

The company comes from a background in rapid prototyping. We have a bit of a craftmans
mindset and attitude. So we need to expand our know-how and support our existing people
with new hires. We had to bring in a lot of new people, at different levels, from different
backgrounds. And we have had to integrate them.

EOS had a very strong company culture that came from the top. Langer, the founder and CEO,
had established the companys core values in the 1990s, and those still remained. They were:

Together: EOS wants to do things together, as a team.

Responsible: everybody has to be responsible for his or her task, for his or her part
within the team.

Fair: everybody has to be treated fairly not only other members of the EOS
workforce and management but also customers and suppliers.

Excellent: day after day, all members of the EOS organization have to strive to
improve not only themselves but the organization as a whole.

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 EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM) P-1160-E

Finding the right cultural fit, with the right capabilities, in a tight recruiting market, was one
of the biggest challenges EOS faced. As the company became more global, these problems
would be compounded. As Keppler explained: What does our value responsible mean in the
United States? Or in the Asia-Pacific? We are now a global organization and we have to ensure
that all over the world we have a similar mindset.

This globalization and the resulting need for autonomy in some parts of the organization
represented a big change for a company used to a tight structure and strong top leadership.
Finding a way to manage this evolution was central to the future. Moreover, one of the key
challenges was that, in a growing company that was getting involved in more and more
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activities and businesses, what was previously a small and focused organization was now being
pulled in many directions at the same time.

Crossing the Chasm

EOS wanted to lead the charge as AM aimed to bridge the gap between expectations and
mainstream use. The company wanted to help bring about the kind of industrial transformation
that it thought AM was capable of. To cross that gap and not fall in EOS knew that it had
to build a critical mass and carefully ponder its moves, thinking of all the challenges ahead.
Several questions arose: What was the best way to make the company grow? What was the
best way to take the growth risks into account? How should the competition be tackled? Which
were the best customers and markets to target? How should the competencies and capabilities
needed to expand the AM market be acquired, without compromising the culture of EOS, which
had brought the company to the position it was in to begin with? Thinking even further ahead,
how could the company become faster, smarter, and more focused in order to tackle the
challenges that lay ahead?

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 P-1160-E EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM)

Exhibit 1
General Functional Principle of Laser Sintering
This document is an authorized copy to be used at IESE Business School

Source: Additive Manufacturing, Laser-Sintering and Industrial 3D printing Benefits and Functional Principle, EOS, https://www.eos.info/additive_manufacturing/for_technology_interested, last accessed
March 2017.

14 IESE Business School-University of Navarra

 EOS: Growing the Business of Additive Manufacturing (AM) P-1160-E

Exhibit 2
EOS International Footprint
This document is an authorized copy to be used at IESE Business School

Source: Global Presence, EOS, https://www.eos.info/about_eos/global_presence, last accessed March 2017.

Exhibit 3
The Growth of EOS

Source: Document provided by the company.

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