Our 2005 report presented an opportunity to present our first year of performance against our Quality Growth Plan expectations. “Driving quality growth,” said it all. In my shareholder letter, I was able to report that “our company has delivered a year of quality growth, surpassing the financial goals we set for ourselves.” In this report, we also created a sense of mission for our company as we aspired “to build the world’s most extraordinary food company.”
We chose two metrics to evaluate our progress: a marketplace metric and a workplace metric. To win in the marketplace, we defined a goal of delivering the best total shareholder returns in our peer group over the next decade. Our annual marketplace goal was to deliver above-average total shareowner returns on a rolling three-year basis. To win in the workplace, we set a goal of enhancing employee engagement in a clear and measurable way every year.
We also highlighted the importance of innovation across-the-board in our pursuit of extraordinary performance.
