Sustainability

"We provide state-of-the-art technological solutions to meet complex needs. We consider our customers to be essential partners who must be provided with effective answers, ensuring constant long-term support throughout the product life cycle. In 2010, we received new orders totalling over €bil. 22."

Satisfying complex needs and not merely selling products. In recent years Finmeccanica has found itself facing a change in paradigm. There has been a change in the nature of our relations with customers: it no longer ends when a product or service has been supplied. This is often only one element in a much more complex relationship, which starts with understanding the customer’s needs, passes through mutual planning of a solution and its delivery, and continues with assistance in management of the system provided by us. We call all this “through life cycle management”.

It is for this reason that we consider our commercial counterparts to be genuine partners. Partners that we make every effort to listen to, through initiatives such as the Customer Satisfaction Survey, in order to understand their needs and work together to find answers and solutions to them.

It is to respond to market needs that we have started to incorporate environmental elements when designing our products. We are adapting our range of products to suit today’s priorities, trying at the same time to anticipate the priorities of tomorrow by working on eco-efficiency and management of product life cycle.

The social aspects of our relations with customers and markets obviously do not end here. We are aware of how important the ethical factor is in complex and delicate sectors such as those in which we operate.

Fighting all forms of corruption, guaranteeing the traceability of our products, avoiding industrial or commercial relations with Countries that are unable to provide adequate assurance of democracy and respect of human rights. These are just a few of the specific commitments we have made through our Code of Ethics.

To find out more on how Finmeccanica manages its relations with its customers and the market, please see the chapter “Customers and the market” in the 2010 Sustainability Report.