BMW 2008 Annual Report Download - page 9

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answers to the needs and expectations of customers and thereby represents an important competitive ad-
vantage for the BMW Group. The Supervisory Board thus fully supports the Board of Management in its
endeavours to strengthen the BMW Group’s competitive edge in this area.
One Supervisory Board meeting was held in Steyr, Austria, where engines are developed and manufac-
tured. Using the Steyr plant as an example, the benefits of a production system based on a value-added
approach were demonstrated to the Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board also took the opportunity
to witness a demonstration of the electrically powered MINI E.
Corporate governance and Declaration of Compliance The Supervisory Board and the Board of Manage-
ment jointly examined whether the corporate governance principles laid down in the previous year had
been applied during the financial year  and also deliberated in detail on further corporate governance
de velopments within the BMW Group to be initiated during the current year. The two Boards issued a joint
Declaration of Compliance with the German Corporate Governance Code (GCGC) pursuant to   AktG
and had it posted to the BMW Group’s website. The recommendations of the Government Commission
on the German Corporate Governance Code contained in the revised code issued on  August  will
be complied with in the future with one exception: the Supervisory Board has delegated the task of deter-
mining both remuneration and the remuneration system – including the principal contractual components
and the regular review of the system – to the Personnel Committee. The full Supervisory Board is, how ever,
informed regularly and in great detail of the work of the Personnel Committee. From the point of view of
the Supervisory Board, this division of duties has proved beneficial for its work. All other GCGC recommen-
dations are being complied with. The BMW Group Corporate Governance Code was updated on the basis
of resolutions taken by the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board. The code, setting out the
principles of good corporate governance applied by the BMW Group, is available via the Group’s website.
A detailed report on the amount and structure of the compensation of the Board of Management and the
Supervisory Board can be found in the Corporate Governance Report (pages  – ).
In conjunction with the code recommendations issued on  August  and in preparation for the Finan-
cial Reporting Modernisation Act in Germany, the Supervisory Board transferred further duties relating to
financial reporting to the Audit Committee and extended the terms of reference accordingly.
The efficiency of the Supervisory Board’s work – which the GCGC recommends examining on a regular
basis – was also a separate topic of discussion for the full Supervisory Board. The subject was addressed
in the absence of the Board of Management and prepared for by the completion of a questionnaire pre-
viously devised and distributed by the members of the Supervisory Board. The Supervisory Board believes
that this kind of efficiency examination represents an important part of a continuous process of improving
its work, including cooperation with the Board of Management. As part of this improvement process,
one of the measures decided by the Supervisory Board is the scheduling of more time for the exchange of
information and opinions relating to major technological issues.
There was no indication of any conflicts of interest on the part of members of the Supervisory Board and
Board of Management during the past year.
During the financial year , several changes were made to the composition of the Supervisory Board
(see below). No member of the Supervisory Board failed to attend more than half of the Supervisory Board
meetings held during their period of office.