Abengoa’s growth is based on five strategic axes:

  • Creating new businesses that will help reduce climate change and contribute to sustainable development.
  • Maintaining a highly competitive professional team.
  • Ongoing strategy of value creation through the generation of new options, defining present and future business following a structured procedure.
  • Geographical diversification in high-potential markets.
  • High efforts of investment in research, development, and innovation.

These five axes are supported by a management model characterized by three elements:

  • Corporate social responsibility.In recent years corporate social responsibility has taken on growing significance among businesses and their stakeholders, to the point of becoming one of the main aspects affecting company performance. More than ever, company performance in the social and environmental spheres, as well as in the economic sphere, has become a key factor in assessing future profitability and in ensuring operational continuity. Corporate social responsibility means understanding that a company’s results improve to the extent that the company is able to build relationships based on trust with their stakeholders. Abengoa has thus undertaken a commitment to a strong CSR policy at all company levels, and this policy is to be taken into consideration in the process of strategic reflection.
  • Transparency and rigor in management. La integridad, la legalidad y el rigor profesional son algunas de las características esenciales de la compañía, como queda reflejado de forma explícita en su listado de valores. Es posible considerar dichos valores como parte de la seña de identidad de Abengoa; y es que en Abengoa estamos convencidos de que solo de este modo es posible asegurar el éxito de una organización.
  • Encouraging entrepreneurial spirit. Another identifying element of the company is the encouragement of entrepreneurship. Abengoa innovates and runs risks, which is a necessary part of adapting to a changing world; the greatest risk is that of not to take any risks at all. And within this philosophy it is vital that each and every member of the company adopt an attitude of entrepreneurship, being willing to continue seeking new opportunities to continuously improve performance.
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Case Study
Management System Portability

The philosophy behind Abengoa’s management model is clearly manifested in the promotion of the portability of the company’s management systems. Many of the company’s key applications may be remotely accessed using a Blackberry. Employees can access the management systems they need to perform their duties at anytime and from anywhere. This not only streamlines processes considerably, but also helps to optimize time management, while at the same time enabling people to be in contact from any part of the world.

New applications were added in 2009, so that it is now possible to access eleven different tools using a Blackberry:

  • NOC (internal norms of mandatory compliance) authorizations.
  • Business Action (business option and new business opportunity management).
  • Travel center (travel management).
  • Corporate directory.
  • Sos-helpdesk (computer incident management).
  • SICOP approvals (ERP).
  • SAP approvals.
  • Travel expense reimbursement approvals.
  • Peoplesoft (Human Resources) approvals.
  • Troubleshooting reports.
  • Improvement actions.
2009 Milestones
  • Creation of the Corporate Social Responsibility internal auditing department.
  • Increased Blackberry issuance, now over 3600 units.
  • Management system portability; new applications added to the Blackberry device.
  • Telecommuting; over 2500 employees with remote access.
  • Promotion of collaboration tool use (e.g. Webex).
  • Development of a new intranet, with access to corporate applications and employee services (including payroll, vacation time and training plan management).
  • Beginning of the SAP implementation process (10 companies in 3 countries).
  • Updating of the application for reimbursement of expenses, incorporating the system for calculating Greenhouse Gas emissions.

Abengoa has a management model that is based on Corporate Social Responsibility, transparency and rigor, and encouraging entrepreneurial spirit