HIGHLIGHTS 1984 1983 HOW 1984 COMPARED WITH 1983 Sales Profit Sales Profit £m £m £m £m CONTENTS Electronic Systems and Components 1,578 200 1,409 158 Chairman's Statement 3 Telecommunications and Business Electronic Systems and Components Systems 735 94 735 87 4,5 and 6 Automation and Control 448 53 425 48 Telecommtmications and Business Systems 7 and 8 Medical Equipment 435 24 412 16 Automation and Control Power Generation 623 52 680 70 9, 10 and 11 Medical Equipment Electrical Equipment 754 50 653 52 12 Power Generation Consumer Products 279 24 264 20 13 and 14 Electrical Equipment Distribution and Trading 197 14 214 13 15, 16 and 17 Consumer Products 18 5,049 . 511 4,792 464 Distribution and Trading 19 Associated Companies 20 Total Profits made before tax 671 670 Research 21 and 22 Training 23 and 24 Average number of Employees 170,865 178,061 Their Employment Costs £ 1,584m £ 1,545m Number of Shareholders 177,267 159,984 Cost of their Dividends £ 95m £ 82m Dividend per Share 3.45p 3.00p 2 CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT When Lord Carrington was to serve its customers, at home people we do need increasingly There is plenty of room in the I have been very glad to appointed Chairman of the or overseas, whether individuals, are those with higher skills; the world for a British manufacturing see the good response to the Company in February 1983, it corporate bodies or demand for electronic engineers industry much larger than today, Share Option Schemes we was far from his thoughts, that he governments. and technologists, software and plenty of demand at home introduced in 1983 and under would be called upon to re­ It is about twenty years ago specialists and computer for its products, many of which which further options were dedicate his life to public that the Company's management programmers is unabated. We are now being imported. GEC granted in February this year. service. We wish him well in his developed the pattern of do much to train our own, but has proven that relatively small We intend, with shareholders' new appointment as Secretary­ behaviour and attitude which the supply of young people with companies can grow into large permission, to improve the General of NATO, and we know has led to the remarkable the right basic educational ones in twenty years, even Savings-Related Share Option he will bring to the success of GEe. In the first requirements and with the right during a period of intense world Scheme, and to introduce a new accomplishment of his task the decade there was a dramatic inclination for these types of competition in our products. It Option Scheme for GEC same high quality of leadership, improvement in efficiency, work, is as yet insufficient to will help us all if other Managers, as made possible by good humour and professional reduction in costs and meet the demand. At a time of manufacturir)g companies do the the enactment of the excellence as we have increasing research and high unemployment, it is difficult same, for Britain cannot look for Chancellor's 1984 Budget witnessed in the Company development - all this in a to understand why the its future prosperity to the proposals. during his period of period of full employment when educational system is apparently service and financial sectors to We are also recommending chairmanship. we are told these things can not unable to satisfy the demand replace the wealth created by to shareholders that the It falls to me, as Deputy easily be achieved in the nation when and where it is required. I its manufacturers. Company be granted authority Chairman, to present this year's as a whole. And in the second hope universities as well as What is clear, however, is to purchase its own shares, Chairman's Statement. It is a decade, amidst fast schools will find ways of that the demand for labour is which can be of benefit to them. privilege to do this as I shall be technological change and one correcting this. Too many concentrated on highly These are detailed, but retiring from the Board at the economic crisis after another, graduates emerge from the productive skills. It is, indeed, potentially important changes Annual General Meeting, having the Company added further to universities ill-equipped to fill the two countries in the world which will, I am sure, help the reached the age of 70 years. I the strength of its base, as well available vacancies and become whose productivity is highest, Company in the future. became a director of The as to its sales overseas and at disillusioned because the jobs to the United States and Japan, I have emphasised the General Electric Company in home. I know of no opportunity which they aspire do not exist. which have been able to retain importance to GEC of highly 1957, and it is 20 years almost for sound investment which has Lord Nelson of Stafford, in something like full employment. skilled and well motivated exactly since I began a four­ been missed, but many his 1982 Chairman's Statement, In Britain it has been the high people. Over the years we have year period as Chairman of the proposals have been examined expressed concern for the productivity industries, such as to say goodbye to many such Company prior to the merger and discarded for sound problems raised by the high \ electronics, where levels of people. There is one this year, with English Electric. One reasons. level of unemployment; to quote employment have remained Sir Robert Telford, to whom I indication of the growth of the During this time the his words: "improved high. want to pay a special tribute. He Company in those twenty-seven Company has been directed productivity and the exploitation In GEC we believe we is leaving after working for 47 years is the profit for the year from a small headquarters of new technology will bring contribute to national years in the Marconi Company, ended 31st March, 1957, after tax building at 1 Stanhope Gate. about far reaching changes in employment in three ways. As a which when he joined was still and attributable to the There is no large central staff the patterns of education, highly productive company with operating under its original shareholders, compared with and no elaborate institutional training, work and leisure". He healthily increasing profits we name of Marconi's Wireless that of the year ended 31st structure. Responsibility has went on to say that "we cannot have maintained a good level of Telegraph Company and was a March 1984; the 1957 figure was been placed on the managing expect to see again what used employment. As exporters, constituent part of Cable and £2,397,336, the 1984 figure is £389 directors of the operational units, to be called 'full employment'. making extensive use of Wireless. His contribution to the million. How far we have come following the financial and The maintenance of stability in subcontractors, we bring work Company's success and to British in providing fuller information to management disciplines now the community requires a steady to Britain. As manufacturers of electronics will never be our shareholders is illustrated by well known. There is no change in attitudes and the the most advanced electronic forgotten, as he leaves to make the fact that in 1957 the intention to change that formula. evolution of new social patterns. and electrical equipment, we way for younger people. Accounts did not even disclose With the advancement in To think out how to control this help raise productivity - and the turnover of the Group, and I technology, the composition of process is surely a subject on that in turn helps to inspire the must add that not only our workforce has changed. which the efforts, ingenuity and competitiveness of British shareholders but directors too, More automation, more use of brains of our national and industry. The rise in British were short of important microprocessors, and the micro­ political institutions should be productivity in recent years is information in those days. But miniaturisation of many of our concentrated" . the solid ground for hope about one thing has not changed over products, mean that fewer and I agree; and it is to be the future of employment in ~\~~ the years, and that is the fewer people are needed for a hoped that we shall find a way Britain. preoccupation of the Company unit of production. But the to a kind of full employment. Lord Aldington 3 ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS AND COMPONENTS Production of a wide variety of terminals were delivered, Award for Export Achievement PERFORMANCE products for the Tornado aircraft particularly a tactical anchor has been received for the continues satisfactorily, as does terminal for the UK military growing export sales of Rapier the supply of advanced data Satcoms Network, and an tracking radars, and artillery and processing equipment for upgraded version of the highly tank fire control equipment. 1984 1983 passive sonar for ships and successful naval Satcom A separate company, United aircraft. Considerable terminal, SCOT. A third Satellites Ltd. , was formed with importance is attached to MARECS maritime British Aerospace and British Turnover £1,578rn £1,409rn exploiting spin-off from military communications payload has Te1ecom International, to technology; one example is the been delivered and will be provide through the Unisat including Exports supply of radars for the launched later this year to series of satellites, a television measurement of bunker content provide a service for broadcasting service for the from UK £ 411rn £ 359rn for the National Coal Board; International Maritime Satellite BBC and a transatlantic and another is a pattern recognition Organisation (INMARSAT), to European communication equipment for automatic whom a major prime bid has service for British Te1ecom.