Fluor 2013 Annual Report Download - page 42

Our business is aligned into five principal segments. The five segments are Oil & Gas, Industrial &
Infrastructure, Government, Global Services and Power. Fluor Constructors International, Inc., which is
organized and operates separately from the rest of our business, provides unionized management and
construction services in the United States and Canada, both independently and as a subcontractor on
projects in each of our segments. Financial information on our segments, as defined under accounting
principles generally accepted in the United States, is set forth on page F-45 of this annual report on
Form 10-K under the caption ‘‘Operating Information by Segment,’’ which is incorporated herein by
reference.
Competitive Strengths
As an integrated world class provider of engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance and
project management services, we believe that our business model allows us the opportunity to bring to our
clients on a global basis compelling business offerings that combine excellence in execution, safety, cost
containment and experience. In that regard, we believe that our business strategies, which are based on
certain of our core competencies, provide us with some significant competitive advantages:
Excellence in Execution Given our proven track record of project completion and client satisfaction,
we believe that our ability to design, engineer, construct, commission and manage complex projects often
in geographically challenging locations gives us a distinct competitive advantage. We strive to complete our
projects on schedule while meeting or exceeding all client specifications. In an increasingly competitive
environment, we are also continually emphasizing cost controls so that our clients achieve not only their
performance requirements but also their budgetary needs.
Financial Strength We believe that we are among the most financially sound companies in our sector.
We strive to maintain a solid financial condition, placing an emphasis on having a strong balance sheet and
an investment grade credit rating. Our financial strength provides us a valuable competitive advantage in
terms of access to surety bonding capacity and letters of credit which are critical to our business. Our
strong balance sheet also allows us to fund our strategic initiatives, pay dividends, repurchase stock, pursue
opportunities for growth and better manage unanticipated cash flow variations.
Safety One of our core values and a fundamental business strategy is our constant pursuit of safety.
Both for us and our clients, the maintenance of a safe and secure workplace is a key business driver. In the
areas in which we provide our services, we have delivered and continue to deliver excellent safety
performance, with our safety record being better than the industry average. In our estimation, a safe job
site decreases risks on a project site, assures a proper environment for our employees and enhances their
morale, reduces project cost and exposure and generally improves client relations. We believe that our
safety record is one of our most distinguishing features.
Global Execution Platform As the largest U.S.-based, publicly-traded engineering, procurement,
construction and maintenance company, we have a global footprint with employees situated throughout
the world. Our global presence allows us to build local relationships that permit us to capitalize on
opportunities near these locations. It also allows us to mobilize quickly to international project sites.
Market Diversity The company serves multiple markets across a broad spectrum of industries and
offers a wide variety of engineering, procurement, construction, fabrication and modularization,
commissioning and maintenance services. We feel that our market diversity is a key strength of our
company that helps to mitigate the impact of the cyclicality in the markets we serve. Just as important, our
concentrated attention on market diversification allows us to achieve more consistent growth and deliver
solid returns. We believe that our continued strategy of maintaining a good mixture within our entire
business portfolio permits us to both focus on our more stable business markets and to capitalize on
developing our cyclical markets when the timing is appropriate. This strategy also allows us to better
weather any downturns in a specific market by emphasizing markets that are strong.
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