Siemens 2012 Annual Report Download - page 20

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To be a strong and reliable local partner to our customers
worldwide – this is our aspiration. Siemens employees
are working around the clock, in all the world’s time zones
and on every continent to provide trailblazing products
and solutions tailored to individual customer requirements.
This dedication has been our formula for success for
165 years.
Active worldwide –
At home around the globe
As a local supplier with a global presence, we’re a trusted
partner everywhere we do business. Our ten largest Regional
Companies alone employ people from some  different
countries – experts working for the benefit of our partners,
customers and shareholders worldwide.
Local commitment creates trust and lays the basis for long-
term customer relationships. That’s why we’ve maintained
l ocal development, procurement and manufacturing activities
in many countries for decades. In addition to our more than
 production facilities worldwide, we have office buildings,
warehouses, R&D centers and sales offices in virtually every
country in the world.
Over the years, we’ve captured outstanding competitive posi-
tions in the industrialized countries. Now, through a wide
range of measures, we want to further strengthen these posi-
tions and expand our activities in the booming markets of the
emerging countries.
Long-term customer relationships have been the hallmark of
our business for  years. To support major customers, we’ve
set up a Company-wide Key Account Management Program
that enables us to tailor our products, solutions and services to
local customer requirements and regional structures while
ensuring that our Key Account Managers continuously expand
and reinforce our customer relationships on a long-term basis.
These managers, whose performance is measured in terms of
customer-specific growth, report to our cross-Company Market
Development Boards and Vertical Market Management teams,
which are focused, in turn, on the requirements of individual
vertical markets. Staffed by experts from many different busi-
ness units, these organizations leverage our entire port folio
to provide a comprehensive range of industry-specific, single-
source offerings for customers in the automobile, IT and power
generation industries, for instance.
Worldwide responsibility for revenue and profit generation has
been assigned to our individual operating units. This decen-
tralization of business responsibility benefits customers of all
sizes – particularly the small and medium-sized businesses and
organizations that comprise the largest part of our customer
base – by enabling us to provide locally based support every-
where in the world. Our extensive international sales team,
which is managed by our Regional Clusters and Regional
Companies, ensures the implementation of business-specific
sales strategies. For large-scale projects around the globe,
direct customer support is provided via our headquarters units.
With 370,000 employees around the
globe, we provide targeted and tailored
solutions to customers worldwide
on a local basis – giving us a virtually
unparalleled competitive advantage.