Siemens 2008 Annual Report Download - page 88

82 Fit42010 – Operational Excellence
Best-in-class – by applying this yardstick to all our business strategies and activities, we’re build-
ing on our Company’s legacy of over 160 years of achievement. As an outstanding partner to
customers around the world, we’re setting technology trends and converting innovations into
market successes.
To achieve best-in-class, we establish clear, measurable goals for all our businesses and dene and
rigorously implement the concrete measures required to reach them. For example, our top+ pro-
gram has teamed up with our operating units to develop methods and best practices that are help-
ing us systematically increase revenue and cut costs in order to capture, maintain and expand
leading positions in our markets. Benchmarking against the best of the best is now an indispensi-
ble part of our Company processes.
Setting technology trends
In some 190 countries, our innovations are making customers more competitive. Whether we’re
engineering the world’s rst system to fully merge the virtual factory with real-world manufactur-
ing processes, developing gas turbines with an unprecedented efciency rating of more than
60 percent in combined operation or producing dual-source computed tomography systems that
can scan the entire human body in only 20 seconds, innovation leadership is – and will remain –
one of our key goals. It’s also essential for achieving long-term success. To safeguard our position
as a technology trendsetter, we’re implementing a clearly dened strategy to:
intensify our focus on key technologies

identify technology and application trends and 
translate innovative ideas into marketable products and services. 
This three-pronged approach is ensuring that our customers will continue to benet from the
decisive competitive advantages created by our innovative products and solutions far into the
future. The success of our trailblazing technologies is reected in our patent gures. In scal 2008
Fit42010 – Operational Excellence
Our top+ program denes a single standard of excellence for
all our actions, products and businesses: to be best-in-class
by delivering top performance and outpacing our key competitors
worldwide. To achieve this ambitious objective, we’re leveraging
two of our greatest strengths: our power of innovation and our
global setup.