Dialogue with society
Providing answers to today's challenges
People all over the world identify Siemens with the latest in advanced technology, and many of our products and solutions have a profound impact on their lives. We as a company rely to an exceptional degree on people’s acceptance of us wherever in the world we do business. Society’s willingness to embrace technology and innovation as drivers of sustainable development is an important requirement if our businesses are to remain successful in the longer term. This is why we place special importance on providing the public with a wide range of information and on engaging with people from all segments of society. Through dialogue with stakeholders, we understand how they see us and what they expect from us – and this is crucial to building strong relationships with them.
Information on important issues
Siemens publishes information on numerous topics that are of importance both for the company and for the public at large. Besides extensive information on the company and its activities around the world, we offer information on a number of key topics. These include:
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Pictures of the future
Published twice yearly, our magazine Pictures of the Future offers in-depth coverage of key trends in technology. It reports on scenarios of the future and related R&D activities in progress at Siemens and within the global research community, and conducts interviews with internationally acclaimed experts in the field of science and technology.
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Research & Development website
Siemens’ web site on research and development reports on strategies, approaches, focuses and outcomes of our R&D activities.
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Megacities
For the first time in the history of humankind, half the world’s population is now living in urban areas. Humanity is becoming increasingly concentrated in megacities. What can these cities do to address the challenges?
Dialogue: Opportunities for debate and encounter
For government offices, business organizations, local neighbors at company locations, the science and research community, and the general public, dialogue with Siemens is important. We engage in an open dialogue with many different groups within society. Siemens develops and produces highly complex systems and solutions that touch people’s lives – in areas like power generation and supply, transportation and healthcare – so we are aware of our duty to take their concerns and ideas seriously.
In the countries in which we operate and in the communities in which our many offices and plants are located, we are involved in a large number of initiatives to engage people in dialogue.
Regional relations
We believe in fostering excellent relations with neighbors at all our company locations. We want to be a good neighbor to everyone who lives in a town or city in which we have a manufacturing location, a sales office or a head office. Our ties with local communities are shaped by local and regional interests, focal issues and projects. Responsibility for local relationship-building lies with our Regional Companies. They engage in a dialogue with public offices, local policymakers and civil society that fosters a spirit of trust and helps us to integrate fully with host communities.
Yearly Siemens summer fairs or sports contests are hlights for local youngsters .
To build good relations with host communities, we regularly open the doors of our Regional Companies’ offices and manufacturing plants to groups of visitors, school parties, and the general public. Our employees use events such as open days, summer fairs and sports contests as opportunities to engage in dialogue with people from local communities – to help them get to know our company and our people, to find out about issues of importance to us, and to form their own opinions of us. These initiatives play an effective and indispensable part in community relations worldwide. Getting to know each other in this way fosters trust and encourages an open dialogue.
Examples:
- The "Side by Side” project – launched by Siemens apprentices in Erlangen, Germany – aims to communicate scientific and technical knowledge and interest to children and young people with physical or mental handicaps. The initiative was previously organized by the apprentices as a one-day event encompassing a wide-range of sports and recreational activities. It has now been expanded to include regular afternoon sessions spread over the entire year. Working hand-in-hand with the apprentices, participants research and explore the natural world with the help of small-scale scientific experiments, a variety of hands-on activities at the training center and specially designed PC courses. The materials used in the sessions have been developed in cooperation with teachers and caregivers and are targeted to the participants’ particular skills and abilities.
- On Girls’ Day, we open up Siemens offices and plants all over the world to thousands of female school students for a behind-the-scenes look at what the company does. The aim is to encourage an interest in technical occupations and careers. In many countries, girls who have received a solid school education in science and technology still frequently opt in favor of apprenticeship and university programs that prepare them for non-technical occupations traditionally the domain of women.
Every year, female school students take the opportunity to get informed about technical career opportunities in our company.
These and scores of other community initiatives around the world offer important insights into how our host communities see us and what they expect of us, helping us to bring about positive change, especially in future citizenship programs.
A visit to the SiemensForums
We also engage with the general public through the SiemensForums in Munich, Berlin, Erlangen, Vienna and Zurich. The Forums all have a rich offering of information aimed at people with an interest in Siemens, technology, or industry. Munich and Zurich, for instance, have permanent exhibitions on Siemens’ past and present landmark innovations. Most of the Forums also host special exhibitions on key Siemens technologies that are helping humankind to overcome major challenges.