Siemens 2007 Annual Report Download - page 16

16 Letter to our Shareholders
We‘re growing profi tably – in all our businesses and in all the regions in which we operate.
The following Groups achieved particularly outstanding growth in orders:
¢ At Power Generation, new orders surged 44 percent to roughly €18 billion.
¢ Power Transmission and Distribution delivered a 23 percent increase in orders, reaching nearly
€10 billion.
¢ Automation and Drives reported new orders worth €16.8 billion, a year-over-year increase of
17 percent.
¢ At Industrial Solutions and Services, new orders rose 13 percent to €10.2 billion.
Turning to sales in fi scal 2007, our strongest growth was a 17 percent increase in Africa, the Middle
East and the C.I.S., followed by robust gains in Asia-Pacifi c and the Americas. We’re especially pleased
to report sales growth in Germany, our home market, as well.
Fit4More targets reached
Profi table growth was the key focus of our Company-wide Fit4More program. We’ve achieved the tar-
gets we set when we launched the program in April 2005 (see pages 32 ff.). And while we’re very
proud of this accomplishment, we’re not resting on our laurels. Now we’ve defi ned ambitious new tar-
gets for ourselves as part of our new Fit42010 program (see pages 160 ff.). We want to continue to
grow at least twice as fast as the world economy while enabling all our Groups to achieve – and
exceed – their new, higher target margin ranges over the long term.
Another goal we’ve set for 2010 is to generate a 14 - 16% return on capital employed throughout the
Company. At the same time, we intend to substantially increase our liquidity. To achieve the aims of
our Fit42010 program, we’re implementing the proven methods of our top+ initiative while taking
immediate steps to optimize our entire organization.
Reducing complexity, strengthening responsibility, gaining speed
Our Managing Board and Supervisory Board have jointly approved the most extensive restructuring
of our Company since 1989. This reorganization will be implemented at the beginning of January.
The new structure will make us faster, more focused, more transparent and closer to our customers.
In our new organization, we intend, of course, to maintain and expand our setup as an integrated
technology company.
We’re strengthening transparency and personal responsibility at the Company by introducing a new
executive leadership model. The new Siemens Managing Board will have full responsibility for leading
the Company worldwide. The Corporate Executive Committee of the Managing Board will be elimi-
nated. The members of the new Managing Board will have responsibility for operational profi t and
loss, and the coaching system now in use will no longer be applied.
Each member of the Managing Board will head a clearly defi ned chain of command with unambigu-
ous escalation paths. This structure will increase the Company’s transparency, reduce its complexity
and accelerate decision-making.