Full Annual Report - Inchcape

Business review
Strategy
Group Chief Executive’s
strategic review continued
Decentralised and empowered
organisation
I believe that this unique position also
extends to the quality of our global and
regional management teams, on whose
personal judgement and freedom to make
decisions so much depends.
It is our people across the world who
have enabled us to deliver a performance
in 2009 that was ahead of our own
expectations and which improved as the
year progressed. Revenues declined year
on year but due to our committed
operational focus, we ended 2009 with
a robust gross margin performance,strong
cash flows, improved customer service
globally and increased market share
in many territories across the world.
This performance was due, in no small part,
to the tight management of our five key
priorities – growing market share, growing
aftersales, reducing costs, managing
working capital, and selective capital
expenditure investment – augmented by
the in depth personal knowledge that our
local management teams have of their
markets. Our decentralised structure
enables management to act swiftly with
relevant, local, innovative propositions to
meet the particular needs and preferences
of their customer base, ensuring that a
localised customer focus builds on our
global strategy.
High quality people are vital to ensure that
the business model works, and I would like
to thank all our employees for playing a
fundamental role in delivering a record
operating cash flow in 2009.
3
Decentralised
and
empowered
organisation
The unprecendented
economic crisis
brought out the best
in our organisation,
achieving success
through a balanced
approach to cost and
cash initiatives as well
as superior customer
service and strong
market share
performance.
Five Key Priorities
Growing
market share
Reducing
costs
Managing
working
capital
Growing
aftersales
Controlling
capital
expenditure
16
Inchcape plc ¦ Annual Report and Accounts 2009