Strategy

The long-term strategy of the Bosch Group takes its lead from fundamental global trends. The core elements of our strategy thus remain in place even after the crisis. These include a strong international presence, focused diversification, and a high level of innovative strength. The crisis has not proved us wrong in sticking to these objectives. On the contrary, it has shown us how right we are:

• Internationalization – we shall continue to press ahead with expanding our business worldwide, thereby further strengthening our international presence.
• Diversification – we shall continue to balance out our sectoral sales structure. This means taking full advantage of our opportunities for growth in automotive technology, but at the same time growing by above-average rates in consumer goods, building technology, and industrial technology. In doing so, we shall concentrate on areas of business that fit our technological competence – this is what we call focused diversification.
• Innovation – We shall focus our innovative strength on technology that is “Invented for life.” We see significant economic opportunities arising with the attention given to ecological needs, since these needs require more, not less, technology.

Bosch already benefits from a broad-based international presence. Even today, the countries in which Bosch has regional companies account for 93 percent of global economic output. They will be joined by Egypt, Cambodia, and Peru in 2010. It is emerging markets such as China and India that are providing new impetus for our business. Between now and 2020, Bosch expects to see annual average growth of 6 percent in the Asian emerging markets – twice as high as in the two other major economic regions. We have every reason to expand our business in the region, but without neglecting our opportunities in Europe and the Americas. According to our present estimates, the share of our sales generated in Asia Pacific will rise to some 30 percent by 2015.

A key strategic goal is to achieve a better balance in our sales structure and expand our business sectorally. As before, our objective is a balance between Automotive Technology on the one hand and our remaining business sectors on the other. To achieve this, we want our Industrial Technology and our Consumer Goods and Building Technology business sectors to grow faster than the Group average, but without neglecting any market opportunities in Automotive Technology. As the comparatively stable development of our consumer goods business in the crisis year 2009 shows, such a balance helps to spread risk. Therefore, we have every reason to continue our strategy of focused diversification. This means we shall make further acquisitions provided they match our core competencies.

It is part of our strategy of focused diversification to significantly grow our business with systems and components for generating renewable energy. Acquisitions in recent years in the area of photovoltaics have been made to complement our operations in solar thermal systems, heat pumps, and wind-power components, thus establishing a further business pillar that we will continue to strengthen in the future. Despite the sometimes restrained demand in 2009, we recorded consolidated sales of around one billion euros last year with products for generating renewable energies.

We retained our considerable innovative strength during the crisis. Annual research and development expenditure was maintained at a high level of around 3.6 billion euros. The efficiency of our 33,000 engineers around the world also plays a key role. They were again able to file around 3,800 patent applications in 2009 – an average of 15 per working day. We are launching further major innovations in 2010, such as the first parallel hybrid powertrain that also allows all-electric driving.

In the years to come, we will continue to make the most of our strength, but without overestimating our capabilities. We make considerable upfront investments – be it to develop electromobility or to harness renewable energies. At the same time, it is every unit’s task, whether they are working on vehicles, heating systems, or industrial technology, to improve the energy efficiency of established systems. In our research and development, therefore, we also have a balancing act to perform – between our diverse tasks for the distant future and the urgent tasks of the immediate future.