ÖBB Annual Report 2023

89 Group Management Report Österreichische Bundesbahnen-Holding Aktiengesellschaft Consolidated Financial Statements | Group Management Report 44 ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG is not only concerned with active climate change mitigation, but also with the existing and future challenges posed by climate change and how they affect the railway infrastructure ecosystem. Sustainability and climate robustness needs to be developed further in this area. Firstly, to minimise the impact on the environment caused by structural measures in railway operations, and secondly, to protect the infrastructure itself from environmental influences. The railway in its entirety is to become more climate-resistant, more robust and also optimised in this respect. C.6. Other important events and outlook Trend.Radar ÖBB needs to know the content of the trends that move the business and the industries or could influence them in the future. Should this knowledge be lacking, we automatically lack the basis for professional management. The discovery, analysis and evaluation of trends can therefore not be outsourced, but must take place within the Group. The motto is: Invest today in the future of tomorrow. Every day, companies make decisions that have a major impact on their economic success. All of these decisions are based on assumptions about how markets, society and technologies, as well as other factors, are expected to develop. Trend management has established itself as an essential building block for understanding and actively shaping future developments. The objectives of the Trend.radar at ÖBB are based on the core values “identification of growth potential” and “development of competitive advantages”. Analysing trends offers many opportunities to understand the market and its dynamics and to make future developments transparent and comprehensible. This results in advantages such as knowledge of the key future fields of action, setting the course for future topics at an early stage, strengthening competitiveness, positioning as a future-oriented company with strategic foresight, etc. Implementation and further development of the strategy – the annual strategy review process The Group-wide strategy review established at ÖBB in its standardised form and procedure offers an efficient and replicable annual cycle and allows a high degree of consistency in implementation. At the same time, the strategy review process ensures that the key strategic issues are taken into account in budget and medium-term planning. Consistent implementation of the strategy requires a clear orientation of the organisation, a structured approach to describing and sharpening the objectives and, on the other hand, the involvement of the organisation. ÖBB’s strategic orientation and strategic goals were confirmed in the last review process – despite some serious changes in the market environment. Increasing capacity, optimising operating costs, decarbonising the mobility system and the basic values of punctuality and safety all need to remain the focus of strategy implementation in order to further increase competitiveness. The market environment for operationalising the strategy has become tougher since the strategy was endorsed. The significant price and cost increases in the areas of energy, materials, labour, interest rates, etc. are particularly noteworthy. This includes volatile energy markets and the synchronous expansion of renewable energies in Europe, the disruptions and bottlenecks in strategically relevant supply chains (construction, digitalisation, vehicles) and the serious changes in the labour market. Corresponding countermeasures were implemented in the respective sub-strategies to ensure that the targets were achieved. The strategic KPIs (KPI = Key Performance Indicator) established in the Group serve to further operationalise the Group, market and functional strategies and to continuously track their achievement. These KPIs support the Group companies in the specific descriptions of the objectives and link the impact of the relevant initiatives (projects, programmes, etc.) on strategy implementation. This reinforces the direction of day-to-day work in its alignment with strategy. MR44 |