cooper

culture & values

The company’s roots go back all the way to 1833, when brothers Charles and Elias Cooper opened their foundry in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Cooper Industries is the third oldest share company listed on the S&P 500. Cooper’s history has spanned 37 U.S. Presidents, numerous global events such as the two World Wars, the Great Depression of the 1930s, and massive transformational technology advances resulting in the first automobile and first personal computer. Since the beginning, our success has been attributable to a focus on innovation, modernizing our business practices while maintaining the highest ethical standards, and meeting our customers’ needs. As we celebrate the history and accomplishments of the Cooper team over the past 175 years, we come to better understand our role in securing this proud company’s bright future. Cooper Industries’ employees, product portfolio, business model, Cultures & Values, principles and ability to execute its Business Initiatives. These are the criteria that combine to provide us a great sense of optimism for the years ahead.

Corporate Culture & Values

  1. Ethics & Integrity
  2. People & Leadership
  3. Accountability
  4. Speed & Adaptability
  5. Strategic Vision

Principles

  1. Customer Focus
  2. Innovation
  3. Efficient technologies
  4. Stand out from globalization
  5. Continuous improvement of our activity

Business initiatives

Customer Loyalty
- Ease of Doing Business / Quality / Delivery
Customer Loyalty began with the Cooper Connection initiative and challenges us to put the customer first in everything we do. Our goal is to incorporate innovative process disciplines, improve quality, thereby to enhance customer value making Cooper easier to do business with. Leveraging our brand strength and building customer relationships are central to Cooper’s growth strategy.

Innovation
- Leveraging Efficient Technologies to Drive Customer Value
Innovation is our lifeblood. Sales from newly introduced products have more than quadrupled during the past four years, and sales of such products delivered 20% of annual revenues over the past three years. We are focusing on expanding technology platforms in every business. Development enables us to make “dumb” products “smart,” differentiating Cooper in the marketplace. With the development of new products and technology, we enhance growth by continuously expanding the technical solutions and value we can deliver to our customers.

Globalization
- Competing and Winning Everywhere in the World
Globalization continues to be an area of major opportunity and investment for Cooper, and we have significantly improved our competitive position in international markets. Our company has developed region and country specific strategies and expanded its physical presence in local markets. Today, we generate approximately 34% of total company revenue outside of the USA. Our products are sold in more than 100 countries, and our global presence is solidified with manufacturing in more than 20 countries worldwide.

Talent Development
- Acquire, Assess, Develop and Deploy
Continuous Talent Development allows us to attract, develop and retain the best and brightest who will lead Cooper in the achievement of our growth and performance objectives. We started our Cooper University program in 2006 to develop the potential of our leaders to meet the challenges of operating in an increasingly complex global and technical environment. We are introducing a number of integrated talent initiatives that will accelerate the achievement of our organizational capability.

Operational Excellence
- Driving Continuous Improvement For Perfection
The new strategy for Operational Excellence builds off our earlier productivity initiative and takes a broader, holistic view of our operating environment. Under the new initiative, we are planning to incorporate lean manufacturing principles, conscious sales and operations planning, supplier management and materials management and place them under the rigor of our previously established MVP initiative. Our goal is to better service the customer and also to deliver ongoing productivity savings and working capital improvements.