Our 2009 report communicated that we delivered another year of quality growth despite an increasingly challenging economic environment. “Defining Success” was meant to convey that we had a very clear understanding of what it was going to take for our company to succeed in the face of a very difficult global economy. We were pleased to report that we had delivered solid sales and earnings growth despite those challenges.
We reprised an enhanced version of our Campbell Success Model, a model we had employed for several years internally. While we were glad to be winning in the workplace, winning in the community, and winning with integrity, we were disappointed that for the first time since we had begun measuring, we modestly trailed our peer group with our winning in the workplace measure, rolling three-year total shareowner returns. Encouragingly, our five-year cumulative total shareowner return performance remained more than twice the peer group average.
All in all, it was a very challenging year.
