Plantronics 2000 Annual Report Download - page 5

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The quality of our products combined with exceptional customer service has built us one
of the most loyal customer bases in any industry. Arthur Andersen recognized our efforts
with a Bay Area first place award for Exceeding Customer Expectations.We have excellent
processes in place to drive continued improvement, and over the past year, we decreased
our defects by over 10%. Despite substantial growth in our retail channel and an increase
in our consumer oriented businesses, our warranty rate actually declined. Our customer
care was also strengthened with a 41% improvement in our help desk’s speed of answer.
Reported financial results trailed the fundamental strength of our operating performance,
as inventory reductions at a major OEM and our distribution partners reduced our revenues
below the level of purchases by the end users of our products.The good news is that this
was made possible, in part, by substantial improvements in our overall operational
effectiveness, including shorter lead times and higher on-time deliveries, which reduce the
costs our channel partners have in working with us.We believe that these reductions have
paved the way for stronger revenue growth in our current fiscal year, which will end
March 31, 2001. Despite the negative effects of the inventory reductions, we still saw 10%
revenue growth for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2000, net income up 19%, earnings per
share increase 23% and our stock price rise 52%.
Our most crucial personnel challenge is to keep the extraordinarily talented team that we
already have.Retaining the people who are already knowledgeable about our markets, have
critical relationships with our strategic partners, and are playing vital roles in our current
projects is essential. Our voluntary turnover last year was 8.0%—higher than we would
like, but less than half the current Silicon Valley norm of 16.5%. Employee satisfaction is
an exceptional 95%, and 98% of our team has an optimistic outlook for Plantronics.
During the year we strengthened the management team with the addition of Marv Tseu
as Chairman of the Board, Jean-Claude Malraison as Managing Director—Europe, and
Owen Brown as Chief Technical Officer.We promoted Craig May to President of the Call
Center and Office Division, Joyce Shimizu to President of the Mobile Communications
Division, and Neil Snyder to President of the Computer Audio Systems Division. We
regret the passing of Bob Cecil, Plantronics’former CEO and Chairman for seven years.
His many contributions, wise counsel, and friendship will be sorely missed.
Thank you for your support.
‘
Ken Kannappan
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
OUR VALUES: passion–people–customers–creativity–teamwork
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