Citibank 2009 Annual Report Download - page 6

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We have been successful in recruiting more than our share of the very best people in our
industry. In risk management, for instance, the leadership team was thoroughly overhauled
with an impressive array of veteran talent from outside, as well as inside, Citi. In our operating
businesses, we have emphasized the recruitment of individuals with the experience and
expertise to carry out a strategy distinctively geared to our sharp client focus, vast global
network and constant innovation. Our leaders also meet another essential criterion: they
embrace a team-oriented, collegial approach to their work. That is an essential aspect of the
new Citi culture.
At the Board of Directors level, there also have been impressive additions of talent important
to our positioning for the future. During 2009, seven new non-management directors joined
the Board. They bring to Citi distinguished backgrounds of success in banking or financial
services as well as other closely related experiences that help support the execution of our
strategy.
In sum, 2009 was a year when we laid a strong foundation for Citi, with financial soundness,
new operating efficiency, strategic clarity and world-class talent.
FUNDAMENTALS OF CITI’S STRATEGY
As we build shareholder value on the strength of that base, the essential elements of our
strategy are client focus, global strength and constant innovation. All three are tightly woven
together in the fabric of our strategy, but client focus is the dominant thread throughout.
Client Focus
Everything we do must serve the customers’ interests first. This is our uncompromising
mandate, and our managers around the Company will be held accountable for meeting it.
Obviously, the financial system as a whole strayed from this customer-centric focus, and the
consequences around the world have been stark.
We are concentrating our operations and our people directly on customers in many different
ways. At the broadest level, we reorganized the Company so that our products, services and
investments will be readily responsive to local clients’ needs. For example, rather than have
the CEOs of our businesses run operations across regions globally, we installed regional
CEOs in most areas. We also have emphasized investment in local markets and have
customized tailoring of products to those areas. In our hiring practices, we have prioritized
more than ever the recruitment of local residents. For instance, in our Institutional Clients
Group today, 99% of our employees outside the United States are local or regional hires.
Global Strength
We are determined to capitalize fully on Citi’s most immediately distinctive trait that our
competitors cannot match: the strength of our global positioning and network. For nearly 200
years, Citi has been creating an international network. Today, it includes an on-site presence
in nearly 100 countries and operations in more than 140. This is one reason why 95% of the
Fortune 500 companies and 85% of the global Fortune 1000 are our clients. Citi is integrated
into the economic life and communities we serve in developed and emerging markets around
the world. No competitor has a global presence approaching ours, so we have a clear
advantage, particularly in view of major trends that are increasingly driving economic growth in
the world:
• Weareseeingarisingwaveofmiddle-classconsumersinemergingmarkets.Inthepast,
theU.S.consumerwasbyfarthemainsourceofcreditcreationandspendingintheworld.
Nowthereisaseismicshifttowardconsumerselsewhere,andtheywillbeamajorfactor,
alongwiththoseofusintheUnitedStates,ingeneratingthenextcreditandspending
cyclethatwillreviveworldeconomicgrowth.Ofcourse,themillionswhoarerisingintothe
middleclassalsowillrequireincreasinglysophisticatedandconvenientbankingservices.