Chief Executive Officer’s letter The strategy reflects our ambition: to bring  greater food security in an environmentally  sustainable way to an increasingly populous  world, by creating a worldwide step change in  farm productivity. The positioning of growers  at the center of the strategy is fundamental to  its success, with a recognition that their needs  differ from one country to another, indeed  often from field to field.  In the face of mounting economic and  environmental challenges, growers’ lives are  increasingly complex as they seek to optimize  their crops. That is why we have made integration  the first pillar of our strategy, bringing together our  crop protection and seeds businesses in order  to deliver complete solutions from pre-planting  through to the harvesting and marketing of the  crop. The combined offer will be marketed by  a single sales force whose competence is being  enhanced through extensive cross-training.  This model, successfully piloted in our second- largest market Brazil prior to this year’s launch,  was introduced in 16 of our 19 territories in 2011.  It will be fully implemented in all territories by  mid-2012, six months ahead of schedule. Integration of the portfolio will also enable us to  go beyond pest control and yield, looking more  broadly at areas such as the efficient use of  water and nutrients. We will do this by building  on our proven strength in chemistry and  genetics and incorporating services and  adjacent technologies. Our offer will continue  to be judged in terms of yield and quality,  but it will bring added benefits – not simply  convenience, but also the capacity to deal  with previously unsolved or even  unidentified problems.  The second pillar of the strategy is innovation.  Our annual investment in Research and  Development (R&D) exceeds US$1 billion  and by leveraging this across the combined  business, we will achieve higher returns on that  investment. Our R&D teams are now fully aligned  behind a model that moves away from the single  product paradigm and takes a crop-based  approach that can deliver a merging of genetic  and chemical solutions. Our definition of innovation  includes the development of novel go-to-market  models and actively encourages value-adding  partnerships and collaborations in order to  bring new offers to the grower more quickly. Outperformance is the third pillar and means  delivering superior customer and shareholder  value. Customer value is measured in terms  of crop yield and quality for the grower and  business potential for our channel partners.  The initial response to the strategy from both  these customer groups has been very positive.  Meanwhile our portfolio continues to  demonstrate its strength in the field and I am  pleased to report that in 2011, with the integration  process in full swing, we were again able to  increase our global market share. Our sales  increased by 12 percent at constant exchange  rates and earnings per share by 18 percent. We  achieved record free cash flow of US$1.5 billion  and cash flow return on investment exceeded  our 12 percent target. We are therefore able  to continue our record of returning cash to  shareholders and will propose at the Annual  06 Syngenta Annual Review 2011 1.  Speaking with Jung-Ho  Kwak of the National  Institute of Horticulture  and Herbal Science at the  horticulture facilities of  the Rural Development  Administration of the  Republic of Korea. 2.  Syngenta co-hosted  a private session at the  World Economic Forum in  Davos, Switzerland, to put  the spotlight on the vital  role of rural economies. A year ago Syngenta announced  its new strategy, based on the  development of a fully integrated  offer on a global crop basis.  1. 2.