Bosch today

of Orientation: in addition to a clear future and result
focus, we also commit to responsibility, initiative and
determination, openness and trust, fairness, and cultural
diversity, as well as to reliability, credibility, and legality.
Associates
Our innovative strength plays a pivotal role in our efforts
to meet our long­term growth targets. That is why we have
continued to invest in expanding research and development
in particular, hiring highly qualified new associates
in this area. By the end of 2010, Bosch had 26,000 associates
working in research and development in automotive
technology alone, some 1,000 more than at the beginning
of the year. Our R&D workforce showed the strongest
growth in Asia, where the number of engineers rose from
some 7,000 to over 8,000. Some of them work in Singapore,
where in September we opened our Research and Technology
Center Asia Pacific, which also has operations in
Shanghai and Tokyo.
We are boosting our innovative strength in Germany as
well. The year 2011 will see the start of construction work
on a new center for research, advance engineering, and
process engineering near Stuttgart, which will initially
employ some 1,200 associates.
Diversity and equal opportunity are drivers of innovation.
We therefore plan to expand the number of women in
executive positions from currently just under 10 percent to
15 percent by 2012.