Who wouldn’t want to grow?! This applies for us as people as much as it does for a company like BSH. That’s because growth means expanding, gathering experience, progressing, overcoming hurdles, and ultimately achieving goals.
Growth at any price? Not at BSH. For us, growth means not only achieving objectives but being mindful of our employees and our environment along the way. We have set ourselves an ambitious goal to increase our sales revenue to 20 billion euros by 2025 and, in the process, fulfill our ecological and social responsibility. Our understanding of values, which is firmly anchored in the BSH Corporate Principles, and a clearly described governance risk compliance model provide us with clear guidance in this regard. Our managers act as role models in putting this into practice together with our employees.
Our success has a long-term focus, and our Corporate Principles are omnipresent. We therefore act reliably, fairly and with integrity both internally and in contact with our business partners. Always with clearly-defined structures, responsibilities and guidelines. This also includes honoring our commitments, only ever promising what we can actually deliver, and always acting in compliance with the law and statutory provisions – in all areas and processes of the company.
Our integrated governance risk compliance model forms the basis for identifying potential risks in our business activities in good time and deriving measures to accommodate changing requirements to business management.
Doing the right thing – in compliance with the law and statutory provisions – is not a spontaneous decision, but instead demands reliable, clearly-defined structures and guidelines. It equally requires structures that governs decisions for the benefit of all and ensure respectful and targeted cooperation.
Compliance is firmly anchored at BSH in the values of the Corporate Principles. In addition, the compliance management system introduced in 2008 supports all employees in ensuring that they act in compliance with the law and statutory provisions at all times. It therefore forms the basis for our corporate culture: reliability, fairness and integrity both in dealing with our employees, as well as with our business partners and consumers. At the same time, we have included these maxims in our Business Conduct Guidelines, and introduced them as binding for all of our employees in 2006.
We protect what we consider valuable, whether it’s personal belongings and property, or friendship. In the meantime, this protective behavior is evident not only at a personal level, but at BSH, too, we want to protect what is important to us.
Alongside compliance, the Business Conduct Guidelines are an indispensable feature of our company. They are an important element of our understanding of values, and form the basis for all business processes and decisions. We are convinced that we can use such tools to strengthen trust in our company and our brands among consumers, employees and business partners.
Our managers, in particular, are called upon to ensure that the Business Conduct Guidelines become a firmly established part of BSH’s corporate culture along the entire value chain: As role models, they help employees worldwide to behave lawfully and act in accordance with the BSH Business Conduct Guidelines. These guidelines regulate dealing responsibly with customers and business partners, provide guidance on issues regarding competition and antitrust law, or anti-corruption, and avoid conflicts of interest.
A respectful, circumspect and fair attitude toward our fellow human beings and our environment is only possible when all the parties involved pull together and pursue the same goals. The behavior of each individual is therefore a determining factor. The basis for this at BSH is the “CECED Code of Conduct”, which was initiated by the “European Committee of Domestic Equipment Manufacturers”, and the “BSH Supplier‘s Code of Conduct”.
BSH is a premium supplier. We not only strive to ensure top-class quality and innovative products – but equally ecological, economic and socially correct business practices. We therefore require not only of ourselves but also of our suppliers to behave in a responsible and fair manner with respect to environmental protection, human rights, occupational safety and health. After all, our consumers should and can expect, along the entire value chain, products from us that are created on the basis of these principles.
BSH played a major role in drafting the “CECED Code of Conduct” in 2005. This is the Code of Conduct of the European Committee of Domestic Equipment Manufacturers, which deals with the principles of ecological and social responsibility, and many important guidelines for dealing with each other: from the prohibition of forced labor and child labor, anti-discrimination and limitation of working hours to fair pay, occupational safety, health, the right to collective agreements, and environmental awareness. These are all principles that have been a contractual component for our suppliers in the “BSH Supplier’s Code of Conduct” since 2007.
Globalization is both a blessing and a challenge. To ensure that it would benefit all people worldwide, the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched the UN Global Compact. It is aimed especially at commercial enterprises that want to deal responsibly with globalization and act in the interest of people. Overall, the UN Global Compact initiated by the United Nations includes ten principles of behavior, that have guided BSH’s actions since 2004: Their central focus is on topics such as the rights of employees and human rights, environmental protection and anti-corruption.
All information about the UN Global Compact