Mercedes 2008 Annual Report Download - page 49

Management Report |Business and Strategy |45
– An agreement regulating the exercise of voting rights in
EADS N.V. In the case of a change of control, this agreement
stipulates that Daimler AG is obliged, if so requested by the
French party to the agreement, to make all efforts to dispose
of its shares in EADS under appropriate conditions to a third
party that is not a competitor of EADS or of the French con-
tracting partner of Daimler AG. In this case, the French party
has the right of preemption under the same conditions as were
offered by a third party. A change of control can also lead to
the dissolution of the voting consortium. According to the EADS
agreement, a change of control has taken place if a competitor
of EADS N.V. or of the French contracting party either appoints
so many members of the Supervisory Board of Daimler AG
that it can appoint the majority of the members of the Board of
Management or holds an investment that enables it to control
the day-to-day business of Daimler AG.
Strategy
We invented the automobile and we intend to continue to shape
its future. As a pacemaker for technological progress in the auto-
mobile industry, we build on our traditional strengths.
We want to inspire our customers with:
– exciting premium automobiles that set standards in the
areas of design, safety, comfort, perceived value, reliability
and environmental compatibility;
– commercial vehicles that are the best in their respective
competitive environment; and
– outstanding service solutions related to these products.
Target system. We intend to achieve sustainable profitable
growth in all of our divisions and thus to increase the value of the
Group. With our products and services, we aim to have a leading
market position in each relevant segment. We regard ourselves as
one of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers. In order
to achieve these targets we have defined a strategic framework
– the Daimler target system – which, as shown in the diagram on
the next page, consists of six strategic dimensions and is based
on the four key values of passion, respect, integrity and disci-
pline. We believe that these values are a prerequisite for excellent
performance – and we therefore act in accordance with them.
Four strategic focus areas for action. In order to achieve our
strategic targets, we have laid down four strategic focus areas for
the coming years in the framework of the Daimler target system:
– Operational excellence and a high performance culture. Our
goal is to develop, produce and sell superior products using
processes with above-average efficiency. We establish clear
structures and lean processes and use the opportunities
of standardization and modularization for further productivity
increases in all businesses. Under the roof of the Daimler
excellence process, we have established processes in all our
operations with which we align the Group with the four stra-
tegic focus areas and develop a shared culture of excellence.
We have included the key elements of the excellence process
in the programs currently running in our business operations, for
example the GoFor10 program at Mercedes-Benz Cars, the
Global Excellence initiative at Daimler Trucks, Captive #1 at
Daimler Financial Services and Creating the Next at our
Vans business unit. A good example of operational excellence
at Daimler is the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen, which
was awarded J.D. Power’s Platinum Award as the manufacturing
plant with the best quality in the world. At the Sindelfingen
plant, we have been outstandingly successful in raising our pro-
ductivity while simultaneously improving our quality. We
have also made considerable progress in administrative areas
in recent years. For example, we successfully concluded the
new management model at the end of 2008. With this program,
we improved administrative efficiency and achieved savings of
€1.2 billion compared with the initial situation in the year 2004.
Improving efficiency in all areas of the Group remains a key
strategic focus in the future, especially against the backdrop
of the global financial crisis.