Siemens

It "works" and has many features - that's it! This is for most of today's mobile phone owners not enough anymore.
The combination of innovations and latest technology is important.
This is what Siemens does.

General information about Siemens:

Siemens has existed for more than 160 years and it is the world's largest and longest established company with a leading market position in the fields of electrical engineering and electronics.
Approximately 475 000 people in over 190 countries are responsible for developing and manufacturing products, with the actual head offices in Berlin and Munich.
The know-how and innovation concentrate on Automation, Power, Transportation, Medical, Information and Communication and Lighting (LED lamps).
In 2006 the annual turnover of Siemens was 87,325 billion euros with a profit of 3,033 billion euros.

Principles of the company:

The success of Siemens is based on five principles: The customer, the innovation, the employees, the responsibility and the value.
The most important facts for the customer are competence and optimal solutions.
The innovation is reflected in the ideas and inventions that arise with new technologies and products.
For the employees it is of particular importance to support their ability to dialogue, the observance of mutual respect, the pursuit of goals and the determination to lead.
Siemens shows its responsibility to the society with ideas, technologies, and in its actions.
The value is increased by growth and this by a balanced, effective and consistent corporate policy.

The history of Siemens:

The company was founded in 1847 by Werner von Siemens and the mechanic Johann Georg Halske. Their first product was a custom pointer telegraph that represented an improvement of the Wheatstone telegraph.

The construction of the telegraph line from Berlin to Frankfurt in 1848 and the construction of the Russian telegraph network in 1853 brought the first significant successes.

Submarine cables resulted in activities in England and a local branch. In 1866 the English telegraph network also expanded to Calcutta.

At the same time the dynamo-electrical principle was discovered which made it possible to use electrical energy in large quantities. After patenting this principle in the late 70s, heavy current engineering spread all over the world.

Besides the establishment of foreign representatives due to strong growth in international activities there also occurred in-house changes for the employees including the introduction of bonuses, profit sharing, a pension fund, the definition of working hours, and industrial training.

In 1890 and the following years a number of acquisitions occurred. Siemens' growth was nearly unstoppable and a bigger location was needed. Siemens city was born that had its own infrastructure to 1913.

In the meantime an important innovation was achieved as in 1909 in Munich-Schwabing the first telephone office was put into operation.

The First World War damaged the most important electronics company sensitively. It lost almost all patents, foreign holdings and 40% of its capital.
After 1918 this led to the reorganization of the company through various spin-offs and start-ups. In addition to a proprietary technology brand in the 1930s the assembly line was introduced.
After building the Shannon plant and electrification of Ireland
overseas business has been successfully stimulated.
With the newly established company of Siemens and Furukawa Schuckert named Fusi Denki Seizo KK electrical products could be produced for Japan.

With National Socialism starting in 1933 the emphasis was on the rearmament and increased order where placed with use of additional foreign workers, both voluntary and later even forced to work.

At the end of the war in 1945 four fifths of the company was destroyed but with the upcoming needs of railway, postal and electricity supply, the number of employees rose again very quickly.

Due to the political situation in Berlin the headquarters of Siemens & Halske was transferred to Munich and Siemens-Schuckert was transferred to Erlangen.

With the re-acquisition of numerous property rights abroad the revival of foreign business succeeded in the mid-50s.
Ten years later the world market position was retaken.

In 1965 an enormous innovation and the key technology of the future, the first integrated circuit was intruduced in Europe.

In order to focus the activities the plants of Siemens & Halske AG, Siemens-Schuckert and Siemens Reiniger AG where joined and the Siemens AG was born in 1966. This led to a significant strengthening on the global market.

In addition the organizational structure was adjusted and it was devided into six seperate areas. Information technology, telecommunications, energy, installation technology, medical technology and components. The first employee shares were issued in 1969.
With a further restructuring due to globalization 1989/90, the company was divided into 15 mobile units.

After the reunification of Germany and the reconstruction of eastern Germany the market of Central and Eastern Europe became available. To make it possible to be able to cope with global competition productivity, innovation and growth had priority.

1990 the largest computer business company Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG was created.
With the aquisition of Westinghouse (they took over the power plant business) and an extension to the Asia-Pacific region it was possible to strengthen its business with the U.S. market.