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Chief executive officer’s statement

I’m immensely proud of what we’ve
achieved as a company in 2010.

Andrew Moss, group chief executive

We improved performance right across our business: operating profit up 26%, 70% increase in net operating capital generated (£1.7bn), dividend up by 6% and positive underlying indicators in General Insurance, Life and Asset Management. The executive team and I are also heartened by the positive reaction both to the actions we‘ve taken and the strategy we‘ve set out for the future.

Equally important to us, however, is our performance in a much more rounded sense, bearing in mind that our financial stakeholders, important as they are, are only one area of a much wider canvas of responsibility.

We pride ourselves on having been the first company in the UK – and the first Financial Services company in the world – to put our corporate responsibility agenda to a separate shareholder vote. Please believe me, this is not a question of corporate back-slapping – exploring new territory of this type is an exercise that continually reinforces what you’re not doing and what you don‘t understand. But we remain determined because we believe that positive and sustainable commercial outcomes only come from a properly joined–up understanding of our commitments to our people, our customers, our environment and the communities in which we work.

For me, the highlights in this year’s report are:

  • We’ve increased our community investment to £11.4 million (2009: £8 million)
  • Our people are more involved in raising money for our causes, with 29% now included in payroll giving
  • We are one of only 54 companies across the world to be recognised for our commitment to sustainability (UN Global Compact LEAD membership, one of only 54 companies recognised)
  • We have developed our work to promote sustainability to stock markets around the world
  • Our flagship global community development programme ‘Street to School’, a five–year commitment to help 500,000 children fulfil their potential, is gaining momentum with pilots in 17 different countries and support from our global marketing campaign to raise awareness. You can read more about the progress we’ve made here.

We know our CR agenda really resonates with people inside Aviva: in a recent survey 74% of them praised the genuineness of our commitment. And while we know that there is always more to do, I hope you will also be impressed by the content of this report and by the continued focus that we’re putting on this area.

Andrew Moss's signature

Andrew Moss
Group Chief Executive

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