The Group’s operating and non-operating business activities are both controlled using a series of carefully chosen financial and non-financial indicators that feed into a central indicator control system at Group level. We measure the success of our Banking (Glossary)  and Retail (Glossary)  segments, of each region, of our sales and associated companies and of our hardware and Software/Services business. Our production and development divisions and our central administration departments are also integrated into the system.

The indicators we use to determine the performance of regions, sales companies and the core segments are based on growth in net sales and profit, operating margin and cash flow (Glossary) . Operating performance is measured using indicators such as growth in product sales and in the Software/Services business. Other Group control indicators include gross profits and margins, selling, general and administration expenses and working capital (Glossary) .

In addition to those indicators that measure the efficient use of resources, we control and evaluate our global production and development network on the basis of quality, supplier reliability and stock turn indicators. Our central administration departments endeavor to offset increases in input costs by productivity gains and economies of scale.

Control indicators have also been established for our non-operating business. Value-based indicators, such as the financial result and the Group’s effective tax rate, allow us to evaluate the degree of success achieved.