Building a challenging and supportive culture 25 Heineken N.V. Annual Report 2004 Report of the Executive Board Chairman's Message RELEASING THE POTENTIAL OF OUR EMPLOYEES AND BUILDING A TRUE PERFORMANCE BASED CULTURE Performance management and leadership development go hand in hand. Last year we began to truly unlock the value in developing strong leadership capability within the business through a global performance management system amongst our most senior executives. As we move into 2005, we will have a consistent way of setting, measuring and ultimately achieving personal and professional development objectives. Becoming a learning organisation was a commitment we made in 2004. We established 'passion for learning' as one of our four ways of working. We believe embedding this philosophy will help us maintain our edge and encourage us to attempt new and different approaches to long-standing issues and challenges. Responsibility and sustainability The year 2004 ended with a tragedy in Asia on a massive human and geographic scale. We take great pride in the way in which our people have responded, raising money in a variety of ways. Alongside this, we as an organisation have made a significant donation, our Indonesian operation has provided vitamin-enriched soft drinks to the disaster areas and we have identified how best to focus our efforts in order to play a part in the long-term task of re-constructing communities and, ultimately, lives. Elsewhere in the business, during 2004, we demonstrated our approach to responsibility and sustainability in other ways. We extended our pioneering AIDS programme, which offers free voluntary testing and medical care for employees and their families, to Asia; we published an award winning sustainability report covering the years 2002 and 2003; we developed and launched a Code of Business Conduct, and we revised our already stringent approach to responsible marketing. All of these initiatives are critical components of both our business and our culture and underpin everything we do. Global initiatives, local delivery As you read through the rest of this report We hope you will recognise how some of the platforms for growth have taken shape and how we have managed the balance between providing returns now and securing growth in the future. We have the people, the talent and the desire to continue this growth and we are proud of, and grateful for what each and every one of our employees has contributed to our performance this year. Together, we are passionately committed to ensuring that Heineken remains, as now, one of the world's great consumer and corporate brands. Amsterdam, 21 February 2005 Thony Ruvs Chairman of the Executive Board

Jaarverslagen en Personeelsbladen Heineken

Jaarverslagen | 2004 | | pagina 31