Our people A t Henk el our competitive adv antage is the quality of our people T o guar antee our suc c ess we build strong local regional and global te ams by prioritizing le adership and employee development International tr aining innov ative le arning opportunities and taking on responsibility at an e arly stage are some of the opportunities provided to talented employees Strong le aders mak e the differenc e in suc c essfully steering a business cre ating new growth opportunities driving change and establishing a strong performanc e culture Diversity contributes to corpor ate success As a globally oper ating compan y Henk el employs around 4 7 000 people from over 120 nations in more than 75 countries W orkplac e diversity which can also be seen in the attitudes knowledge and skills of our employees is an important v alue and competitive adv antage for Henk el The v aried cultures and abilities of our employees pla y a k ey role in helping us to better understand our mark ets and customers to achieve long term suc c ess Our job v acancies are filled solely on the basis of competenc e potential and performanc e W e focus on identifying and eliminating barriers that could restrict individual development opportunities The foundations for this policy are anchored in our Diversity Inclusion Str ategy which w as instituted in 2009 www henkelna com car eers R esear ch and development New ide as innov ations are the most important suc c ess factors for winning in the mark etplac e A bout 2600 people in Henk el s rese arch development and application engineering units around the world ensure that there is a continuous flow of innov ative products and system solutions In 2013 Henk el in vested 550 million in rese arch and development www henkelna com innovation 13