Siemens AG Headquarters Siemens Group AG, with headquarters in Berlin and Munich, is one of the world's largest electrical engineering and electronics companies. Sustainability has been a distinguishing feature of Siemens since the company was founded. At Siemens, sustainability means long-term economic success as well as the environmental awareness and social responsibility that a good corporate citizen should have. In fiscal year 2005 (ending September 30), the company had approximately 461,000 employees worldwide, achieved sales of 75.445 billion euros, and net income of 3.058 billion euros. 80% of sales come from outside Germany.
Siemens is a large international company with operations in more than 190 countries around the world and approximately 600 factories, R&D centers and sales offices around the world. The company's business mainly focuses on six major areas: information and communications, automation and control, power, transportation, medical systems and lighting. Siemens' global business operations are managed by 13 business groups, including Siemens Financial Services Co., Ltd. and Siemens Real Estate Asset Management Group. In addition, Siemens also owns two joint ventures - Bosch-Siemens Home Appliances Group and Fujitsu Siemens Computer (Holdings) Company.
Siemens has a comprehensive business portfolio in the fields of electrical engineering and electronics. Siemens' business activities are affected by various regional and industry factors. In addition to international businesses (such as the power generation, transmission and distribution, medical systems and transportation technology groups, which generally have long business cycles), businesses in other areas (such as the Communications Group and Osram's consumer products business and the Automation and Drives Group capital goods business) are susceptible to short-term business trends and prevailing economic conditions. A good business portfolio helped Siemens to calmly cope with the severe challenges brought about by the difficult business environment in fiscal year 2005. In addition, Siemens' business areas can fully reflect the general trend of future development. Currently, Siemens is developing new solutions to meet future challenges in the fields of health, energy, water treatment, communications, transportation, security, logistics and automation.
As a global company, Siemens gives full play to the synergy advantages of its multiple business portfolios, takes the company's overall strategy as a guide, has a clear structure and clear responsibilities, and actively creates value for local areas. The company's traditional strengths lie in its innovation, customer focus, global presence and financial strength. Siemens' business activities are mainly concentrated in the global electrical market, which had a total market volume of 2.69 trillion euros in 2005. With the current cooling of the world economy, it is expected that the growth rate of the global electrical and electronics market will decline slightly in 2006. But with a growth rate of nearly 7.5%, the market will still maintain its long-term growth momentum.
For a world-class company in electrical engineering and electronics, innovation is its top priority. In 2005, in order to maintain technological leadership, the company invested 5.2 billion euros in R&D. In fiscal year 2004, Siemens' R&D personnel created approximately 8,800 inventions, an increase of 7% over the previous year, two-thirds of which applied for patents. In the field of patents, Siemens ranks first in Germany, second in Europe, and among the top ten in the United States. Among Siemens' nearly 47,000 R&D personnel, most are engaged in the development of software projects, making Siemens one of the largest software R&D organizations in the world. Siemens is also committed to continuously increasing its range of services, solutions and systems to further complement its product portfolio.