Financial Statements and Management Report - Thyssenkrupp

1.1 Management report Profile and strategy
The Group’s Strategic Way Forward
Following the successful turnaround in fiscal year 2009/2010, we defined a new strategy for the Group in
the reporting year. Market and customer focus, coupled with innovation and engineering expertise, form the
framework for sustainable success.
Key points of the Strategic Way Forward
Against this global background, on May 13, 2011 ThyssenKrupp AG decided on an integrated program for
the further strategic development of the Group. The main aims of the Strategic Way Forward are to reduce
the Group’s debt, enable sustainable growth, increase earning power, and create value. It involves focusing
our portfolio and divesting businesses for which there are stronger strategic alternatives. It will strengthen
our financial base and provide new flexibility to expand strategically promising businesses.
The strategy is driven by a corporate culture based on transparency, responsibility and clear leadership. For
us, transparency means measuring our actions against clear indicators. Responsibility means shaping a
sustainable future for the Group. By leadership we mean defining clear strategic goals and creating the
framework for implementing them successfully. Our aim is to rank among the best in the market in each of
our businesses over the long term.
First measures as part of the Strategic Way Forward have now been initiated or already completed:
– In a move towards portfolio optimization the Group will divest the operations of the Stainless Global
business area. The corporate, organizational and contractual conditions for the carve out of Stainless
Global were established effective September 30, 2011: The new entity – called Inoxum – has a holding
company structure with a functional board performing strategic tasks and directing the operating units.
– In a further step, ThyssenKrupp sold treasury shares equivalent to 9.6% of the capital stock at the
beginning of July 2011. We sold 49,484,842 shares at a price of €32.95 per share, resulting in a cash
inflow of €1.6 billion. The shares were placed mainly with German and international institutional investors
in an accelerated bookbuilding. The transaction strengthened equity and reduced net financial debt.
ThyssenKrupp AG now no longer holds any treasury shares.
– The strategy is supported by a new Group mission statement. As a new “corporate constitution” the
mission statement creates a common roof for all the Group’s employees. It requires and promotes more
transparency, openness and teamwork in our operating culture.
Corporate program impact
To implement the Strategic Way Forward with the active involvement of our employees, we launched the
corporate program impact. impact has the aim of creating sustainable value in the Group. We want to
achieve profitable growth in our businesses and markets while securing competitiveness, profitability and
capital efficiency.
impact replaces the previous corporate program ThyssenKrupp best. It retains proven methods, tools,
templates and processes, and builds on successful ThyssenKrupp-best approaches. One example of this is
continuous benchmarking. To make the effects of impact transparent the program is integrated into our
financial planning and reporting systems.
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