BD today continues to focus on a proven strategy: driving growth through innovation, and expanding margins by improving operating effectiveness. Delivering ever more innovative solutions to the global healthcare community drives the top line. A relentless dedication to operational effectiveness delivers on the bottom line. Working together, these two essential elements of our strategy drive our performance.

At BD, a constant focus on the customer–from the individual patient to clinicians, researchers, pharmaceutical companies and government agencies–is the factor creating that synergy. For BD associates, regardless of geography or function, keeping customer needs first and foremost is the means of fulfilling the Company's vision of taking healthcare from where it is in the present and elevating it to higher levels in the future.

Along with a focus on the customer, two additional attributes help BD make higher-value contributions to global health. The first is BD's drive and desire for continuous improvement. BD is a company that will make repeated incremental improvements whose net effect over time adds up to dramatic advances, as evidenced by the many significant innovations in our 108-year history.

The second is the passion that BD associates bring to their work. Says Jim Brown, Vice President, Quality Management: "People are excited about doing new things, and there is a level of energy and passion in the Company today that creates a wonderful atmosphere."

Knowing the customer makes a difference
BD's close working relationship with Dr. Frederic Preffer, profiled here, dates back more than 20 years and brings to life how BD's focus on the customer materially impacts medical science. "The flow cytometers BD is providing at the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Harvard Stem Cell Research Institute put BD in the first row of cutting edge science," Dr. Preffer says, adding, "The Company is an asset to us with its many technical resources and scientific expertise–not only in instrumentation, but also in reagents, which my experience has convinced me are the best available."

BD's customer focus permeates the entire Company. A customer-driven perspective on the part of sales and marketing associates may not be unusual, but a strong customer orientation in manufacturing, distribution, information technology, regulatory affairs and similar functions is. Commenting on the BD Operational Effectiveness Task Force (see pages 2-3), David Malpiedi, Vice President, Global Business Processes, says, "Typically, people think of operational effectiveness as an inwardly-focused initiative. Actually, every conversation among Task Force members starts and ends with the customer and ways of continually elevating service and quality levels so that we routinely delight all of our customers."