“CUSCO PONE” PROMOCIÓN DEL TURISMO
4. La marca 1 Escenario
Competitive locations support our efforts to grow strongly and profitably. This is where we will continue to expand production. The interactions of our focus on global growth, innovation, efficiency and productivity allow us to grow with the rising requirements of our customers. Furthermore, this lets us compensate for any cost increases in commodities and human re- sources as well as negative inflation factors. Our cost discipline extends to all stages in the value chain. By 2015, we want to raise our return on capital em- ployed (ROCE) to 20%.
2. Regional sales balance – globally balanced sales distribution
Our business roots lie in Germany. We have a tradi- tionally strong presence and a strong customer base on the European markets. The other markets of the world offer us substantially more potential for growth. In order to balance out our business model it is there- fore our goal to reduce dependence on the European markets by more actively leveraging the growth pros- pects in the emerging markets of Asia and on the American continent. As a result, we will also be less prone to economic fluctuations in individual regions of the world.
Our specific targets are to increase the share of sales on the Asian markets to more than 30% over time and to maintain a share of sales on the North and South American markets of at least 25%.
3. Top market position – among the three leading suppliers in all relevant markets
In terms of customer focus, quality and market share, we want to rank and remain among the world’s leading suppliers. We offer innovative technologies for all our customers in the automotive sector and other branch- es of industry. Our product range enables peak per- formance in energy and fuel savings, in safety, and in
With a predominant share of their products, all divi- sions of the Automotive Group and ContiTech count among the leading suppliers, as measured in terms of sales on the relevant markets. Around half of the port- folio of our three automotive divisions is dedicated to the 20 fastest growing product segments. In the tire business, we rank fourth in the world and will expand our capacity considerably in the coming years. 4. In the market for the market – high degree
of localization
In our business units we develop, market and produce, wherever it makes sense, in the markets for the re- spective markets. Thanks to our globally networked development and production, Continental has a com- prehensive presence – both on the economically highly advanced and technologically leading markets and on the high-growth future markets such as those of the BRIC nations. The successful connection between our competences and the characteristics of the respective sales markets can be seen in the solutions and prod- ucts that are found in high-quality automobiles, afford- able vehicles and tailored industry applications alike. Working under their own responsibility, all business units optimize the share of locally generated sales and locally developed applications. This is how we selec- tively identify and develop growth areas.
Our goal is to develop, market and produce a high share of our applications and solutions for customer orders locally in the relevant markets. An exception to this is tires. Here we have a proven blend of centralized development in conjunction with local production in order to benefit from the different levels of momentum in the various regions.
5. Balanced customer portfolio – balance between automotive and other industries
We intend to increasingly protect ourselves against the fluctuations of the automotive markets. To achieve this
We are pursuing three strategic directions in this con- text:
► We are investing selectively in additional production capacity for the tire business, which has much more to do with the number of kilometers driven by own- ers and far less to do with the vehicle production.
► We are increasing sales with industrial clients both organically and through acquisitions. ContiTech’s growth plays a particularly important part in this.
► We are expanding automotive replacement business, the aftermarket, with customer-specific solutions and products.
Our goal here is to increase our share of sales with industrial clients and consumers to somewhere around 40% by 2020.
6. Technological balance – combination of estab- lished solutions and pioneering technologies The technological equilibrium of our product portfolio is of fundamental importance to ensuring our future via- bility. Innovations firstly increase our competence in established business activities. They also offer the opportunity to tap different and, above all, new sales areas. We invest selectively in the development of new products, systems and technologies.
Our extensive research and development activities allow us to set new trends and standards in high- growth markets or segments, and to lay the found- ations for a strong market position early on. On the established core markets we ensure that our position as one of the leading product and system suppliers keeps on developing to ensure long-term customer satisfaction. We actively control and structure our product portfolio so that we are represented and com- petitive in all phases of the respective product life cycles.
7. Great people in an inspiring culture
People are inspired by people, not by organizations. Sustainable success and future viability are rooted in our culture of values and the contributions of each individual employee. As a result of our many acquisi- tions (around 70 in roughly the past ten years alone) and our growth, the number of our employees has more than doubled. They do not have the same tradi-
tions or backgrounds. But they all share our four fun- damental values: Trust, Passion To Win, Freedom To Act, and For One Another.
These four values define our interactions every day. They allow us to use our necessary, collective intelli- gence more quickly and more effectively.
By working in networks, regardless of organizational or hierarchical interfaces, we want to get to better solu- tions more efficiently, and to pick up on trends and market changes more quickly. This way we can help pave their way as pioneers. The values of Trust and For One Another are essential in this. Without giving and earning trust, the necessary sharing of knowledge and value-enhancing cooperation cannot happen. We are among the world’s leading technology compa- nies, because we develop our employees’ social skills as well as their technical ones. Both are needed to create sustainable value from our strategy. With com- prehensive training and qualification programs, we maintain an inspiring, high-performance culture in an international environment, and we strive for a good work-life balance. Thus, we are pursuing the goal of being one of the top employers in our relevant mar-
Continental invests a great deal of effort in the areas of research and development (R&D) so as to ensure the company’s long-term competitiveness and innovative- ness.
R&D activities form basis of a localized value chain Acting locally along the entire value chain – from R&D through purchasing and production down to sales – is a key element of our corporate strategy. In accordance with this objective, we maintain research and develop- ment centers across the globe. This allows us to fulfill the different requirements of the respective sales mar- kets with solutions and products for use in high-quality automobiles, affordable vehicles and customized in- dustrial applications.
The Automotive divisions and ContiTech pursue the goal of developing and producing a high proportion of the applications and solutions for customer orders locally in the relevant markets. For the Tire division, it has proven successful to develop centrally and pro- duce locally.
R&D expenditure continuously increased
In the year under review, expenditure for R&D climbed by €157.5 million year-on-year to €1,766.2 million, representing an increase of 9.8%. In light of its strate- gic importance, Continental has maintained a consist- ently high level of R&D expenditure over the past fiscal years.
Today’s innovations for tomorrow’s industry standards – thinking in lifecycles
Our R&D work is the basis for keeping our product portfolio innovative and competitive in the long term. We are working today to ensure that tomorrow the standard products for mature and saturated markets are supplemented and improved with new applications that promise growth. This also enables us to set new standards in young, high-growth markets and to take a leading position here at an early stage.
Future requirements for vehicles will continue to be determined by the megatrends in the automotive in- dustry: safety, the environment and information R&D expenditure (in € millions)