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Corporate Responsibility
CR Report 2004
Message from the Chief Executive
| Corporate Responsibility Report 2004 | |
| Message from the Chief Executive | |
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“Defence is a serious business and we recognise it is one that often provokes differing views. This is why we have focused on ‘debate’ as this year’s reporting theme.” Corporate responsibility (CR) in BAE Systems is about good business practice and continual improvement. Our performance in 2004 underlines this as we delivered significant value across our worldwide activities. We also achieved reductions in accidents across our operations and our ongoing investment in training and development is contributing to delivering improved performance across our company. Defence is a serious business and we recognise it is one that often provokes differing views. This is why we have chosen to focus on ‘debate’ as this year’s reporting theme. Debate means many things. It’s not just about understanding the concerns of others but also about communication, building relationships and challenging opinions around those issues that are fundamental to our business now and in the future. We consider it to be one of our responsibilities to help external stakeholders understand the value of defence, both in terms of national and global security and also as a sovereign capability and wealth generator in our home markets. We have engaged with BASIC (British American Security Information Council), an independent research organisation, on this issue previously and are pleased they accepted our invitation to debate it in this report. Our CR agenda is based on potential risk to our business. When evaluating risk it is essential that we engage with stakeholders and understand their views and perception of our business and do not rely solely on our own assessment. Accordingly, we invited recognised opinion leaders on CR to provide their views on our progress to date. We are pleased that our efforts and commitment are being recognised and have taken on board their comments and views on areas for improvement. This year we have introduced formal reporting on CR issues to the Board of Directors and have expressed public commitment in our Annual Report & Accounts to conformance with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) Guidelines. The Board has decided to establish a CR Committee to be chaired by a non-executive director to provide focus on CR issues. We also commissioned a third-party assurance group, csrnetwork, to carry out an independent review of accountability processes within our business. This review, coupled with ongoing stakeholder feedback and our own commitment to progress, led to us expanding reporting in several key areas. First, we have included more detailed information about who our main stakeholders are and how we engage with them. Secondly, we have increased the amount of information on business ethics and our operating principles and finally we have taken steps internally to strengthen the way corporate responsibility is managed to ensure it is fully embedded into all levels of our business. To deliver products at the leading edge of technology in line with the needs of our customers requires a high-performance culture. It is a specific objective in 2005 for all employees to deliver high performance across all aspects of our business. On this basis, I anticipate being able to report continued progress on our CR agenda in future. 
Mike Turner Chief Executive, BAE Systems |
