Raytheon 2006 Annual Report Download - page 5

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“Performance, relationships and solutions: These
are the pillars that have supported the company’s
progress—and these are the principles, combined
with our process discipline, that continue to
deliver strong results.”
The common denominator in every contract is our
innovative strength, customer focus and our depth of
experience in the customer environment.
Raytheon’s Fundamentals For The Future
To develop, integrate and apply our capabilities
effectively, to drive innovation, to meet our customers’
needs, to achieve growth, to enhance shareholder value,
we must retain, attract and develop the best talent.
These fundamentals start with a core foundation in
ethics, because that is essential to earning and maintain-
ing the trust of our customers. We know that bad things
happen to good people, but when they do, our team
knows it is important to raise one’s hand at the earliest
stage and ask for help. As part of this awareness process,
we are continuing the transition I mentioned in last
year’s letter from an ethics “training” regimen to focus
more specifi cally on ongoing, lifelong ethics “education.”
We believe good companies identify issues early and then
apply the proper resources for resolution.
To ethics, we add a culture of learning, because
companies that depend on innovation must draw upon
the skills of lifelong learners. And a key element of
the learning process is embedded in our Raytheon Six
Sigma™ efforts. With each project and each employee
experience, we learn more about process improvement
and about providing value to the customer. Raytheon
Six Sigma is now part of our DNA structure, and it
continues to evolve to meet the needs of the business
and our customers.
We are also using our learning initiatives to reinforce
the skills that have made us successful in the past
— and to add new capabilities necessary to remain
successful. We have initiated the Raytheon Certifi ed
Systems Architect program that is training and certify-
ing a new generation of technical leaders to be capable
of designing and integrating the mission solutions of
the future. We have a number of certifi ed architects
— supported by close to 3,000 engineers trained in the
principles of systems engineering and hundreds of lead
systems engineers who have completed our extensive
Systems Engineering Technical Development program.
These training initiatives continue to improve our
capabilities, expand our ranks of systems architecture
and systems engineering experts, and provide the core
skills required to grow our company.
We surround all of these fundamentals with a focus on
diversity — of thought, as well as of gender, age, race,
sexual preference and all the aspects that together make
each of us unique. The company’s focus on inclusive-
ness and the external recognition we have received
are very gratifying, but the journey continues. We will
continue to pick up the pace of this important journey.
To continue to be world-class innovators, we also must
continue to value different ideas and put a premium on
respect, which our team defi nes as acknowledging one’s
presence, valuing one’s opinion, providing ongoing
feedback, showing appreciation and explaining why
we do what we do. This is about all of Raytheon’s team
members being valued members of a great team.
Looking Ahead
If we are to secure our company’s position — and
our ability to continue to meet the needs of our
customers — we not only need to think about our
talent requirements today and tomorrow, but also
the day after tomorrow.