We continued to improve our systems to prioritise the needs & concerns of our various stakeholders, at relevant Corporate/Businesses/Unit level and address them appropriately.

Shareholders

As trustees of shareholder’s wealth, we believe that it is our responsibility to protect and enhance their wealth and we continue to enjoy their trust.

Their primary concerns remain continued profitability and growth, communication and investor servicing.

As one of India’s foremost private sector companies, we have performed consistently well and since inception of the Company, have rewarded our shareholders by way of dividend, without any break, and issue of bonus shares from time to time.

Our Chairman addresses and provides clarifications to shareholders at least once each year, at the Annual General Meeting, the principal forum for face-to-face interaction, in the presence of the entire Board. The Board encourages open dialogue with all the shareholders–individuals, corporate or foreign investors.

Our corporate website ‘www.itcportal.com’ provides comprehensive information and two exclusive sections on ‘Shareholder Value’ and ‘Investor Relations’ serve to inform and service shareholder needs and an exclusive e-mail address has also been provided to the shareholders for direct interaction.

Our Investor Service Centre (ISC) is accredited with ISO 9001:2000 certification and has a dedicated and trained team of professionals backed by state-of-the-art infrastructure to address relevant needs and concerns of our ‘providers of capital’.

Customers

Understanding and addressing customer needs and aspirations are key to our business strategy and plans.

Our customer focus is backed by continuous interaction, customer feedback through meetings, direct interactions, visits to customers and market surveys to understand their requirements.

During the year we continued our efforts in delighting our customers through newer products, value added services, improvement in quality through innovations and strong R&D and enhancing employee training to improve service quality.

We made significant investments in infrastructure and implemented SAP/other relevant ERP systems to further improve the supply chain management thereby improving availability of our products.

Employees

Our strategic agenda is to make each of our businesses globally competitive and create new engines of growth by blending proven skills and capabilities drawn from different parts of the ITC Group. The success of this strategy depends upon having an aligned workforce with requisite world class capabilities and leadership bandwidth.

Initiatives to strengthen engagement and alignment were undertaken, focusing on:

• Enhancing our value proposition as an employer by highlighting the ‘uniqueness of ITC’, both internally and externally.

• Building the talent bank in the organisation by expanding the channels of ‘building’ and ‘acquiring’ talent.

• Creating a shared mind-set across the organisation through training and development interventions, communication channels, etc.

• Building and acquiring competencies for the future by recruiting ‘specialists’ from the market as well as through internal capability building.

• Reviewing and changing organisation structures and remuneration to enhance the attraction and retention potential.

• Strengthening processes and mechanisms for dialoguing with employees and their representatives, including commissioning of engagement surveys, etc.

• Enhancing quality of life by providing quality amenities, improved work environment and enhancing administrative efficiency.