Sustainable profitable growth requires more than a focus on financials, according to Swedish manufacturer Atlas Copco (STO: ATCOA, ATCOB). The company recently updated its nonfinancial goals as part of its mission to achieve that end.
"We develop and grow our business through strategically increasing our presence, innovation, service, operational excellence and investing in our people," the company said in a statement on its website.
"This means ensuring that we grow in a way that is ethical, even if that sometimes means saying no to sales. It means innovating with a long-term perspective when we expand into new markets or segments. It means making sure that our employees are safe and healthy and are able to contribute to operational excellence. And it means ensuring that we stay lean and efficient as we continue to grow."
The mission for sustainable profitable growth launched in 2015, with a list of five priorities: ethical behavior, health and safety, competent teams, resource efficiency and innovation.
The newly established goals for the first four priorities are common for all Atlas Copco Group companies and include such things as zero fatalities, 100 percent of managers signing compliance to Atlas Copco’s Business Code of Practice and continued reduction of energy consumption from operations in relation to cost of sales.
The innovation key performance indicators and goals are set individually by each division to be relevant to their specific businesses.
According to Atlas Copco, the greatest potential to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions is though innovation. However, the overall goal of innovation is to make life easier for the customer.
"When you look at our company, every employee can contribute to innovation," Leten said. "It can be in the way we interact with customers, the way we provide service, do accounting, follow up on our business. But of course the core of innovation is to develop new products, creating better productivity for our customers."
“We achieve sustainable profitable growth by continuously developing the most energy efficient and productive products for our customers,” he said.
