2005 Financial Report - Capgemini

12 ANNUAL
V - THE GROUP’S INVESTMENT
POLICY
The Group has sufficient critical mass to operate efficiently
in its disciplines, geographic areas and market segments.
A return to profitability and a constantly improving financial
structure enable the Group to envisage boosting growth
by investing in skills and capacity.
Targeted acquisitions may take place in 2006 in order to
achieve the following objectives:
- backing the Group‘s RightShore TM strategy via the acquisition
of production capacity in areas offering high technical
quality and competitive costs;
- expanding the Group’s territorial coverage, particularly in
European countries where Group market share is not representative
of its global size;
- increasing technical skills as well as innovation in specific
high added-value fields within its client offering.
The Group will pay special attention to ensuring that these
targets do not compromise its financial structure or future
financial ratings, and that they all contribute to achieving
its growth and profitability targets.
With regard to technology services, the growing industrialization
of production will lead the Group to produce an
ever-increasing proportion of services within its applications
development centers. These will be specialized, in terms of
service offering or technologies, and the Group will choose
their locations based on factors such as the level of qualifications
and the cost of IT professionals and technicians
employed. In this respect, the Group may need to increase
its production capacity in Asia and Eastern Europe in the
coming years.
As part of the Group’s systematic performance review of its
business portfolio, and in parallel with this capacity development
policy, the Group could decide to press ahead with
the disposal of non-strategic businesses or activities that
are not consistent with its profitability requirements.
VI – CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY,
SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL
STEWARDSHIP
6.1 Corporate Responsibility and Social Stewardship
at the heart of the Group
Corporate Responsibility and Social Stewardship have
been integral to Capgemini since its inception in 1967.
At the heart of the company, the Group’s seven values set
the underlying context for Capgemini as a socially responsible
organization. These values are the behavioral
rules that every member of the Capgemini group is expected
to follow.
REPORT 2005 Capgemini
• The first is Honesty, meaning loyalty, integrity, uprightness,
a complete refusal to use any underhanded method
to help win business or gain any kind of advantage. Neither
growth nor profit nor independence has any real worth
unless won through complete honesty and probity. Everyone
in the Group should know that any lack of openness
and integrity in business dealings will be penalized
immediately upon it being proved.
• Boldness, which implies a flair for entrepreneurship and
a desire to take considered risks and show commitment
(naturally linked to a firm determination to uphold one’s
commitments). This is the very soul of competitiveness:
firmness in making decisions or in forcing their implementation,
an acceptance to periodically challenge one’s
orientations and the status quo. Boldness also needs to
be combined with a certain level of prudence and a particular
clear sightedness, without which a bold manager
could become reckless.
• Trust, meaning the willingness to empower both individuals
and teams; to have decisions made as close as possible
to the point where they will be put into practice.
Trust also means favoring open-mindedness as well as
wide-spread idea and information sharing.
• Freedom, which means independence in thought, judgment
and deeds, and entrepreneurial spirit and creativity.
It also means tolerance, respect for others, for different
cultures and customs: an essential quality in an international
group.
• Solidarity/Team Spirit, meaning friendship, fidelity, generosity,
fairness in sharing the benefits of collective work;
accepting responsibilities and an instinctive willingness to
support common efforts when the storm is raging.
• Modesty, that is simplicity, the very opposite of affectation,
pretension, pomposity, arrogance and boastfulness.
Simplicity does not imply naivety; it is more about being
discreet, showing natural modesty, common sense, being
attentive to others and taking the trouble to be understood
by them. It is about being frank in work relationships,
loosening up, and having a sense of humor.
• Fun, finally, means feeling good about being part of the
Group or one’s team, feeling proud of what one does,
feeling a sense of accomplishment in the search for better
quality and greater efficiency, feeling part of a challenging
project.
6.2 Fundamental Group objectives
As a standard-setting IT service provider, the Group’s fundamental
commitment is to deliver measurable and sustainable
results to its clients by bringing together expertise in
business, consulting, technology and operational skills
into truly integrated services.
Throughout its history, the Group’s stakeholders have accompanied
and encouraged its development. The Group’s principal
objective has therefore been to allow clients and
employees to benefit from its expertise through sustainable