Synthesis through Engagement

“We live in a capitalist system, and in a capitalist system, the shareowners are key stakeholders in what the company does. We have an active shareholder engagement program, generally around our results announcements, where we try to reach out to our major shareowners and engage in a very open dialogue with them about their views on how the company should run, their views on return of capital, their views on the returns of the business. It's our job to synthesize those views into a strategy that reflects the commercial needs of the business, the financial returns to the shareowners and the needs of the people who actually deliver all the things for the shareowners: the employees.

“There is a productive tension between shareowners' desires for financial returns and employees' desires for professional reward and experience. That's just the give-and-take of the capitalist system.”

(Todd Stitzer, CEO of Cadbury Schweppes, in “CEO Interview - Todd Stitzer of Cadbury Schweppes: Candy Man.” by C.J. Prince. Institutional Investor: July 2007. pg. 1)