|
- Almost 50 percent of our employee population is now based outside the United States, and 38 percent of our top 200 leaders were born outside the United States. Such diversity is important for Dow, helping to ensure we capture the richness of cultural backgrounds, ethnic understanding and social perspective that is essential to our long-term success.
- Across the globe, we supplied end-use markets ranging from construction, packaging, electronics and transportation to personal care, food production, water purification and medicines. And during 2004, we launched a range of new products in response to our customers’ needs for chemicals, plastics and technologies that will help them better serve society into the future.
- We made further progress toward our 2005 environmental, health and safety goals – aspirational goals set nine years ago to drive breakthrough performance. They have done just that. For example, Dow’s Environmental Technology Center saw further significant success in implementing the technology and strategies that are fundamentally changing the manner in which water is managed across the Company. Last year alone, these efforts delivered more than $65 million in value for Dow and reduced the Company’s water demand by 20 million metric tons across the globe.
- We continued to encourage performance and behaviors consistent with Dow’s values: integrity, respect for people, unity, outside-in focus, agility and innovation. Our ethics and compliance initiatives, our charitable contributions, our Community Advisory Panel activities, our employee health programs, our restructuring efforts, our corporate governance undertakings … these are just some of our activities in 2004 that strengthened alignment with our values.
As we move through 2005, our focus on financial discipline and low-cost-to-serve capability will continue to benefit all of our stakeholders. We will target strategic growth opportunities with customers, with new technologies, through greater participation in emerging economies and by effectively managing our portfolio of businesses. We will build a culture of performance excellence among our employees, centered around leadership development, performance management and diversity. And we will continue to ensure that our financial achievements are coupled with the very highest standards of social and environmental responsibility.
Next Section >>
|
