DuPont has a mission of sustainable growth, which we define as the creation of shareholder and societal value while we reduce our environmental footprint along the value chains in which we operate.
Our vision is to be the world's most dynamic science company, creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere.
The core values of DuPont are the cornerstone of who we are and what we stand for. They are: safety and health, environmental stewardship, highest ethical behavior, and respect for people.
The company has three growth strategies: Put Science to Work, Go Where the Growth Is, and Capitalize on the Power of One DuPont.
Put Science to Work
DuPont is a science company. Science and innovation are at the heart of everything we do, helping form the capabilities, offerings and competitive advantages of all of our products, technologies and businesses. Our fundamental goal is to create new products customers need or develop new uses for existing products. Listening to the voice of the customer ensures that our innovation is driven by concrete market opportunities. In 2006, 34 percent of our sales came from products introduced in the past five years.
DuPont science is dynamic science. We are constantly finding new ways to create sustainable solutions for an extraordinary breadth of industries. Strengths in polymer science, chemistry, physics and engineering built the modern DuPont. Broadening our commitment to address human needs, our world-class capabilities in biology are increasingly integrated into our traditional areas of science and technology.
There is exciting growth potential in our R&D pipeline and the company is on its way to achieving our goal of 30 percent improvement in R&D productivity by 2010. The results from our science are numerous and have a broad impact on everyday life, including: improved quality and productivity of crops; energy-saving building products; lighter and more fuel efficient vehicles; clearer, more vibrant displays on televisions and computer screens; and better personal protection for people and safer buildings and vehicles.
Go Where the Growth Is
When DuPont says we are "going where the growth is" we have two destinations in mind - geographic markets and product market spaces with unmet needs that present unique opportunities for DuPont offerings and innovations.
Emerging geographic markets are a rich source of growth for DuPont, not just because they are expanding rapidly, but also because DuPont already has a strong presence in many of them, including China, India, Brazil, and Central and Eastern Europe. Markets with unmet needs that DuPont uniquely can fill range from transportation to communications to agriculture to construction. By adjusting both our business focus and our geographic distribution of resources to meet fundamental shifts in global markets, DuPont will continue going where the growth is for many years to come.
Examples of DuPont's commitment to "go where the growth is" include: plans to build a world-scale titanium dioxide plant in China to serve the coatings and plastics industries; developing offerings for the oil and gas market in Canada, Northern Europe and Latin America; with our partner BP, developing biofuels based on crops such as sugar beets in Europe, corn in North America, and sugar cane in Brazil; and as part of our Building Innovations business, introducing new offerings to protect structures, as well as to make them more energy efficient and safer for people.
The Power of One DuPont
Operationally, DuPont is organized around five business platforms, each with several groupings of businesses. Functional organizations ranging from operations to human resources to sourcing support the businesses. To help deliver business results, employees are expected to leverage market access, scientific capabilities, customer relationships and functional competencies as One DuPont. Collaboration creates greater opportunities for the entire company and increases our productivity at the same time.
With more than 200,000 customers worldwide, meeting customer needs is a top priority. DuPont has dedicated teams who support the approximately 200 strategic customers or "corporate strategic accounts" that buy products from more than one of our growth platforms. The teams work in a collaborative way to identify new value-creating opportunities that help these customers win in their markets.
Productivity and quality improvements are fundamental to achieving sustainable growth. DuPont increases productivity by streamlining and standardizing supply chains and support functions globally to generate both cost and working capital savings. DuPont has set a goal of keeping fixed costs flat through 2008, using 2005 as a base.
STREAMline to Grow is a three-year effort that aims to integrate a number of programs that will contribute to achievement of the fixed cost productivity goal. With Six Sigma methodology as the cornerstone of this broad-based effort, work underway across all of the company's supply chains is equally important. Some of the tools that are being used to increase fixed cost productivity are: Lean Six Sigma projects on asset optimization and cross-site leveraging; DuPont Integrated Business Management (DIBM) which enables us to run our businesses in an integrated and optimized way; and; more effective use of integrating systems, such as SAP.
By making continuous improvement in these areas, the company will strengthen our end-to-end supply chain capability while delivering products and services to customers on time, on quality, every time - a testament to the power of One DuPont.
