Siemens 2011 Annual Report Download - page 166

6 A. To our shareholders
23 B. Corporate Governance 51 C. Combined management’s discussion and analysis
52 C. Business and operating environment
80 C.2 Fiscal  – Financial summary
83 C. Results of operations
101 C. Financial position
114 C. Net assets position
117 C. Overall assessment of the economic position
118 C. Report on post-balance sheet date events
119 C. Report on expected developments and
associated material opportunities and risks
135 C. Information required pursuant to Section  ()
and Section  () of the German Commercial
Code (HGB) and explanatory report

agement approach in place that allows a tailor-made set-up
fitting our customers’ size and regional structure. Our Region-
al Account Managers are responsible for our customers in cer-
tain countries or regions, across our businesses. Our Global
Account Managers are responsible for our worldwide business
activities with customers of specific Divisions. Finally, our
Corporate Account Managers are responsible for our large
customers with business activities across several geographi-
cal regions and more than one Siemens Division.
For specific markets that are of strategic relevance for more
than one of our Divisions, Siemens has established Market
Development Boards which steer our key account manage-
ment activities for large customers and develop market oppor-
tunities for Siemens. The Market Development Boards aim to
create synergetic effects by combining the interests and re-
sources of multiple Divisions and by developing and imple-
menting a coordinated market presence for Siemens. This ap-
proach enables us to provide customers with a comprehen-
sive spectrum of products, solutions and services across all
our businesses from a single source, helping them to address
their most prominent challenges. We believe this significantly
enhances our competitive position, because we can better un-
derstand the needs of these markets, deliver specific solu-
tions drawn from the entire Siemens portfolio, and utilize our
global competencies and resources.
To ensure the high quality and continuous improvement of
our customer support, we have developed our Account Man-
agement Excellence Program and our Sales Management Ex-
cellence Program. We carry out strength-and-weakness analy-
ses as well as training and qualification measures under these
programs, aiming to ensure consistently high standards in
our worldwide customer relationship management. In fiscal
 we introduced our Key Account Manager Certification
Program to ensure high quality and consistent standards at
our customer interfaces.
The customer relationship management of Siemens is well re-
spected externally. In fiscal , Siemens received the “Pro-
gram of the Year” award from the Strategic Account Manage-
ment Association (SAMA). Furthermore, in the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index (DJSI)  Siemens again achieved a top
position in customer relationship management rankings in
the “Diversified Industrials” sector. We are also responding to
an increasing number of customers and partners that seek
our expertise for further developing their own key account
management programs.
Ultimately, our success depends on the satisfaction of our
customers and their willingness to recommend us to other
companies. In order to measure their approval, further strength-
en
our customer focus and monitor how our relations are de-
veloping, we use the Net Promoter Score as a uniform, com-
pany-wide standard. This internationally recognized and wide-
ly
accepted indicator, which measures how likely our customers
are to recommend us, is based on surveys we conduct world-
wide once a year. In fiscal , the survey drew on more than
, interviews. The results of the survey enable Siemens to
benchmark internally on a Division and regional level as well as
externally, and to identify areas for improvement. Follow-up
activities on the Corporate and Sector levels are started immedi-
ately after the completion of the annual survey, and we are
closely monitoring progress with specific activities.
C.. Sustainability
C... SUSTAINABILITY AT SIEMENS
Siemens has defined sustainability as the guiding principle of
its corporate strategy. All our actions are governed by the fun-
damental resolve to act responsibly on behalf of future gener-
ations to ensure economic, environmental and social prog-
ress. The three dimensions of sustainable development – the
environmental, the business and the social dimension – are
therefore the fundamental basis of our activities. In the envi-
ronmental dimension, we are providing innovative products
and solutions to improve both our own ecobalance and that of
our customers and suppliers. In the business dimension, we
are focusing on long-term value creation, as presented in oth-
er sections of this Combined management’s discussion and
analysis, including C... Research and development. And
in the social dimension, we are fostering the development of
our own employees and striving to be good corporate citizens
in all the communities in which we are active.
Sustainability management and organization
Efficient sustainability management is a company-wide task
that requires a clear organizational structure and a thorough
anchoring of sustainability in our corporate culture. All our
sustainability activities are steered by the Chief Sustainabili-
ty Officer, who is a member of our Managing Board. In order
to coordinate and manage our sustainability activities effi-
ciently, we established the Sustainability Board, the Sustain-
ability Office and the Siemens Sustainability Advisory Board.