1 j D 113 D Q XI ~O D BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 B.A.T Industries Limited Prepared by: Business Opinions Ltd. 30 Farringdon.Street London ENA 4EA January 1980 N3 C:) N) C) r1 j co c0 %~o (-n BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 INTRODUCTION Business Opinions Ltd. was commissioned by B.A.T Industries Ltd. - to conduct a survey amongst its. City panel in order to assess:- City awareness of the main areas of activity of B.A.T 1-ndustries. City opinion of B.A.T Industries diversificatioh 'policy. City opinion of the areas in which B.A.T Industries is looking for growth. - City opinion of B.A.T Industries' comunications with the Ci.ty, and of the company report and accounts. City attitude to B.A.T*Industries' shares. The fieldwork for this research was conducted between January 23-29th 1980. Throughout the report the analysis has been divided between those who do and those who do not follow B.A.T Industries' affairs professionally. M) N) C=) r%j CC) co BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 2 SAMPLE A sample comprising 100 respondents was drawn from the Business Opinions City panel. The composition was as follows:- Do not Follow follow affair.s affairs profes- profes- Business Title sionally sionally TOTAL E YES) ( NO) Accountants Partners 2 Banks Bankers; Investment Advisors & Managers; Investment Analysts; Directors; Pension Fund Managers. 7- 14 21* Companies Investment Managers; Pension Fund Managers; Accountants; Finance Directors; Managing Directors. 6 10 .16 Discount Houses Investment Directors 4 4 Insurance Cos. Investment Analysts; Investment Directors & Managers. 8 9 17 Stockbrokers Partners; Stockbrokers; Investment Analysts and Managers. 13 19 32 Unit & Investment Managing Directors; Trusts Director & Investment Managers 4 4 8 .39 61 100 r%j c0 cx:> BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 3 GENERAL FINDINGS 1. The picture which emerges from this survey of the City's awareness of and attitudes towards B.A.T Industries is consistent with those from other surveys conducted by Business Opinions,'in which B.A.T Industries has figured for comparison purposes. 2. The City's view of B.A.T Industries as it emerges from this Business *Opinions survey 'is broadly correct in outline, but unclear and imprecise in detail. 3.' The City's basic confidence in B.A.T Industries is based on-an appreciation of its basic qualities of size and stability but this-is overlaid by a critical view of aspects of B.A.T Industries' performance. 4. Outstanding examples of the imprecision of the City's information about B.A.T Industries are:- (a) it is very widely believed in the City that B.A.T Industries is involved in "he food industry, as well as in retailing., and one third of the" sample believe that B.A.T Industries is involved in brewing (b) the City overestimates the importance to B.A.T Industries of North America and the U.K. and underestimates the current importance of the tobacco industry and Europe (c) though.the City realises that B.A.T Industries is a very big company, it does not know quite how big. 5. Top of the mind descriptions of B~-A.T Industries are largely to do with its size, stability, international spread, etc. but'the most common evaluative comments are in the area of conservative/pedestrian. 6. Less than half the sample is satisfied -with B.A.T Industries' diversification performance'and the company comes out slightly worse in a comparison with Imperial in this -context. 7. The City has very little clear idea of where B.A.T Industries' future growth is to come from - by region or by sector. 8. B.A.T Industries' communications with the City are generally seen as unexceptional. C) M.) 9. There is more divergence among the panel.on the question C:~ of the current, desirability of a holding in B.A.T. Industries r1j than might be expected'from a company of this size. 03 00 BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 4 - Possible reasons for this are:- (a) the City has very little idea of B..A.T Industries' corporate strategy as evidenced in questions 5, 6 and 11. (b) the divergence of view about the success of B.A.T Industries' diversification. pol icy as evidenced in responses to questions 3 and 4. Conclusion 14 e consider that the survey provides evidence that there is a need to improve'both knowledge of B.A.T Industries' activities and, 'in particular, of its corporate strategy, and attitudes towards B.A.T industriW. performance and future prospects, particularly. among those who follow the companies' affairs. professionally. C:) N) CO CO 1.0 BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 5 DETAILED FINDINGS For the purpose of clarity Question 12 has been put first. Question 12 "Do you follow B.A.T Industries'.affairs professionally?" It should be borne in mind that this is a purely subjective self-allocation to on~ of two categories. Sevieral panel m-ambers hesita'ted to give a positive response -and* they ivere allocated to the 'no' group. Besides the different degree of interest in the affairs of B.A.T Industries there will also be a variation between what constitutes a professional interest in a line banker-, for example, and in an-analyst. -However, the proportion of.the sample allocating themselves to the 'yes' and 'no' camps is in line with previous surveys and we regard it as an unremarkable finding. I-t will also be apparent that the contrast between the amount of factual kn'owledge possessed'-by the two groups is not as black and white as it would be on a perfect categorization, though there is clear evidence from t-he following tables that the .yes' group are more expert, and indeed more critical of the company. Yes 39 No N) CD T111) C) M) 00 -.0 CD C> BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 6 Question la "What are the main areas of activity of B.A.T Industries?" The order of frequency of mention among the whole panel is: 'tobacco', 'retailing', 'food', 'cosmetics', 'packaging', 'paper' and 'brewing'. The surprisingly high figure for 'brewing' is evidence that there may be some confusion with Imperial, especially as the figure for 'food' is so high. We suspect that even though, on prompt ing, retailing' was offered as an activilly before 'food" in thiis question, respondents may be describing Interna 'tional Stores as not.only 'retail.ing', but as 'food'. It may be.th -at we shoul'd have got a different rating if we had used the expression 'food-manufacturing'. One might cornclude that if B.A.T Industries did buy a food company, on this evidence it would be regarded as a very natural form of diversification. We think it also significant that 'cosmetics' gets a higher total score than 'paper' and ~packaging' and, in particular, that it gets a much higher unprompted score. This finding is borne out by later questions and indicates a relative lack of awareness of B.A.T Industries' involvement in paper and packaging, which seems to us to be sufficiently out of line to be worth considerable communications attention. . It will also be noted that there is no mention in the 'other' category of home improvements involvement. YES NO TOTAL SAMPLE Un- 4Jn- Un- promp- Promp- promp- Promp- promp- Promp- Combined ted ted ted ted ted ted Tobacco 39 61 100 100 Retailing 29 8 39 19 68 27 95 Paper 15 16 12 28 27 44 71 Packaging 13 20 9 37 22 57 79 Cosmetics 23 13 25 24 48 .37 85 Brewing 8 7 3 17 11 24 35 Food 24 11 33 24 57 35 92 Other* 1 - 2 - 3 - 3 N) C) c0 *Other - Entertainment 10 Engineering CD chemicals 13 AT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 7 - Question lb "What proportion of B.A.T Industries' turnover would you estimate derives from: (a) tobacco (b) North America (c) U.K. (d) Rest of Europe?" The pattern of response to this question is fairly typical of *a ,.-tell-known company, with a cluster of responses around the right answer. The interesting finding is whether the tendency for the response is to be too high or too low. In the case of the tobacco industry, respondents tended, on the whole, to underestimate the proportion of turnover. This should, we believe, be regarded as encouraging in the sense of an appreciation of B.A.T Industries' diversification activities. In the case of North America, there was a very heavy emphasis on overestimating the importance of this area. For the U.K. there is again a tendency to overestimate the imp ortance of the area. This is reversed in the case of Europe, where the tendency is, on the whole, to underestimate the importance to B.A.T Industries. Among the 'yes's' there is a striking tendency to overestimate the importance of North America, but it is possible that this is, to some extent, due to respondents recollection either of propor-tion of profits or proportion of assets data instead of turnover. While we are not, in general, surprised by the responses to this question, we do believe them to be an indicator of insufficient general awareness'of the spread of B.A.T Industries' activities, which is capable of improvement. It is remarkable that even 3% of the sample, all of whom claim to be following B.A.T Industries' affairs, should believe 70-80% of the turnover comes from North Arne r i ca. NJ C) rN.) co BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 Rues t p!~ I b. "What proportion of B.A.T Industries' turno ver wo uld you esti mate derives from:- (a) to6acco industry (b) -North America (c) U.K. CD (d) Rest of Europe?" 0 YES NO TOTA L CD (a) (bL OL (a) C!D (b) (c) (d) (a) (b) (c) (d) M. _ _ 0 0-10% 5 5 2 6 6 2 11 11 1 M 0 11-20% 3 17* 9 4 15* 18 7 32* 27 21-30% 1 1* 12 15* 1 5'A 14 18* 1 16* 26 33* 0 31-40% 8 2 6 4 16 8 8 4 24 10 14 41-50"' 6 10 3 1 15 8 9 7 21 18 12 8 51-60% 7 12 10 7 5 1 17 19 5 0 0 61-70% 17* 1 22* 6 1 39* 7 1 . 71 - 80'A, 7 3 8 15 3 81 -907,* 2 3 91-100% 1). know 1 3 3 3 4 3 4 ~069ZOZOZ *Actual figure as quoted in Report and Accoun ts 1978 - 9 - Question lc "Where do you think B.A.T Industries ranks in the Times 1000 list of major British companies?" Response to this question demonstrated extremely clearly the imperfect state of the City's awareness of B.A.T Industries. The City knows that B.A.T-Industries is a big company but has no clear idea of its real dominant position. Only 60% of the sample-puts B.A.T Industries in the top 10. first second thi-rd in top ten in top twenty Other L YES NO 'TOTAL 3 1 4 25 31 56 10 27 37 1 2* 3 *Other 'no' Top 40 Top 50 N) CD NJ co BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 10 Question 2 "What one word or phrase springs to mind as describing B.A.T Industries?" Interestingly, only half the sample unprompted chose the expression 'tobacco dominated' as the first thing to spring to mind. The subsequent order of mention on the unprompted list is 'conglomerate' , 'big' , 'international ' , 'pedestrian' Combining both prompted and unprompted answers,. the order of mention -is 'international 'tobacco dom-inat-ed' , 'big.' we) -1 .1 established', and 'conglomerate'. and 'pedestrian" are At a lower level, 'conserva.. accompanied by 'very profitabl-e'. The proportion of respondents willing to describe B.A.T Industries as 'dynamic' is very low and was not the un- prompted response of any panel member, though two described the company as 'progressive. The six respondents whose first reaction was 'Pedestrian' were joined by two others, who used the expressions 'sluggish' and 'boring'. and perhaps by one who appears to-have described B.A.T. Industries as 'lost' In general, though we find the comparatively weak ranking of tobacco-in this context as an encouraging sign for B.A.T Industries, we would consider the responses to the 'pedestrian/ dynamic' contrast as worrying. C) N) C) N) 03 I'D CD (-n BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 Question 2 (cont) YES NO Un- Un- promp- Promp- promp- ted ted ted ' big -3 33 6 well established 1 36 - pedestrian 1 17 4 dynamic conglomerate 6 19 6 tobacco dominated 18 16 33 international 1 36 6 conservative 1 27 2 very profitable - 24 - other* 6 - 9 *Other diversifying .3 successful 2 progressive 2 respectable 1 colonialist I sluggish 1 fluid: overseas owner I boring I soli d I lost 1 not specified I TOTAL SAMPLE' Un- Promp- promp- Promp- Combined ted ted ced Total 47 9 9 1 89 52 1 88 89 18 5 35 40 14 14 44 12 63 75 23 51. 39 90 51 7 87 94 33 3 60 63 29 - 53 53 - is - 15 C) co BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 12 - Question 3a "Do you regard B.A.T Industries' overall policy of diversification as:- highly successful satisfactory disappointing disastrous don't know?" 56*~' of the City think B.A-.T Irdustries' diversif4cation policy has teen less than satisfactory and this tendency more -nar~ed amorig those-who claim to follsw the com- p.any's affairs professionally, where 28 out of 39 gave an unfavourable response. It should be noted, howeveri that only 7% chose the forcefu.1 description 'disastrous'. Even allowing for the City's present tendency to be highly critical of acquisitions and of the general falli-ng out of favour of the concept of the conglomerate in recent years, we would regard this finding as.quite unsatisfactory. YES NO TOTAL highly successful 2. 1 3 satisfactory 9 31 40 disappointing 23 26 49 disastrous 5 2 7 don't know - 1 1 r1 j CD CD r\-) c0 CD BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 13 - Question 3b Nithin the following fields, do you regard B.A.T Industries performance in retailing, paper, packaging and cosmetics as:- (a) highly successful (b) satisfactory (c) disappointing (d) disastrous (e) don't know The response to this question could not have been entirely predicted from the overall rating the respondents gave to B.A.T Industries' performance. For instance, some respondents who marked B.A.T Industries overall as disappointing were able to distinguish highly successful achievements in a particular category. The high proportion of 'don't knows' in relation to paper and Dackaginq reinforces the earlier finding that this sector of B.A.T Industries' activity is, particularly in relation to cosmetics, quite markedly unknown. The panel was particularly severe on the reLdIling sector, with 63% expressing dissatisfaction. On the other hand, 61% are satisfied or better by performance in the paper sector and 66% with packaging, which seems to indicate approval of the Mardon packaging acquisition. Cosmetics provided the most varied response, with 4% being highly satisfied and 10% regarding perf0mance as disastrous. In fact, only l9t' of the sample put cosmetics in the 'satisfactory' cate6ory. YE, --J. NO TOTAL (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) retailing 1 7 11 17 3 - 20 27 8 6 1 27 38 25 9 paper 6 22 5 1 5 4 29 4 - 23 10 51 9 1 28 packaging 3 27 3 1 5 4 32 4 - 21 7 59 7 1 26 cosmetics 1 8 21 7 2 3 28 .11 3 16 4 19 32 10 18 rQ C) r1 j C) r1 j CD 1.0 C) co BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 14 - Question 4a "How would you rate B.A.T Industries diversification programme in comparison with Imperial's?" B.A.T Industries rates slightly worse than Imperial on this question, though opinions are very divided. Two thirds of the SaMDle made a distinction between the two,' 26f~ in favour of B.A.t In-dustries and 4.0"' against. It is notable that the split among Oro-fessional followers is ve:--ry.niuch more even than among the 'no s This is one of the few occasions during-the survey on which the knowledgeable responded more favourably than the rest. Factors that were overall considered most important were size of acquisition (32%) and the-exer-cise of good management (27%). As between those favouring B.A.T Industries and those Imperial, the significant difference is that of compatability -of acquisitions with traditional business, which e-eceived 16 votes from Imperial fans, but only 3 from B.A.T Industries'. There is also a possibly significant difference in the 12:7 split in 'bought good management with -business'. It may also be a pointer that five who favoured Imperial could give no particular reason. It suggests that they are simply following received wisdom. It should also be mentioned that the reasons selected are indeed those that appear to count, since no other explanations got any noticeable support. YES NO TOTAL more successful 1 14 12 26 about the same 6 24 30 less successful 18 22 40 doWt know 1 3 4 Question 4b "Which of the following factors do you think apply to the more successful of the two companies?" NJ C) r1 j C) r1 j CD NO BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 15 - Question 4b (cont) For those who thought B.A.T Industries more successful YES NO TOTAL* bought good mandgement witK business 6 1 7 exercise good management over business 9 4 13 have made acquisitions of appropriate size 8 7 15 their acquisitions are compatable with traditional business 1 2 3 other+ I - 1 don't know - I I *Multiple responses +Other - all well thought out beforehand For those who thought B.A.T Industries less-successful YES NO TOTAL* bought good management with business 11 1 12 exercise good management over business 8 6 14 have made acquisitions of appropriate size 10 7 17' their acquisitions are compatable with traditional business 9 7 16 other+ - 3 3 don't know 1 4 5 *Multiple responses +Other - started diversifying earlier, knowing what is coming up, C) r%j co NO C) BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 16 - Question 5 "Which of these regions would you expect B.A.T Industries' growth to come from especially?" There is no particular pattern to the response to this question in relation to, for example, responses to question lb. There was a tendency for respondents to lump North and South America t.ogether. Among the 'yes's', the highest vote was for South America, and Africa got as many votes as Eu -rope. The fact that no respondent mentioned, for example, a particular European ccuntry -.-iculd SUggeSt that there is. v- ery little -knowledge of where growth is likely to come from, and it may eVen be that it represents a lack of curiosity-aoout the world outside the U.K. in this context. lie M~ve noticed before that the panel assumes that, for example, a.U.K.-company making a fore-ign acquisition will have done its homework on local conditions. YES NO TOTAL* U.K. 12 9 21 Europe 9 16 25 N.-America 14, 29 43 S. America 18 21 39 Africa 9 11 20 Other 4+ - 4 Don't know 1 - 1 *Multiple responses +Other Far East 3 unspecified 1 C:) r1 j co BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 17 Question 6 "Which sectors would you expect B.A.T Industries' future growth to come from especially?" Only one respondent suggested a sector outside 'B.A.T Industries' current experience. Retailing was a clear leader over tobacco, paper and packaging, with cosmetics very low. Retailing's lead was not apparent among the 'yes's'. There did not seem to be any correlation between expectations of future and est jrates of' s-uccess, so thett, for -example, some respondents t-tho rpoarded B.A.T Industries' eyperience of re*tailing as poor were still prepared to suggest it as a growth area. It is not at all clear whether the ;igh vote 'for tobacco represents pessimism about other activities or confidence aboul B.A.T I.ndustries' competitive ability in tobacco. A possible conclusion from this question is ~_hat the City believes that B.A.T Industries is in enough- different sectors already. YES NO TOTAL* tobacco 10 16 34 retailing -14 34 48 paper 14 22 36 packaging 13. 24 37 cosmetics 3 7 10 other I+ *Multiple responses +Other - growth will 'come from investing in other successful companies. r1 i * C) N) 00 -.0 r"i BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 18 - Question 7a "Turning to B.A.T Industries' communications with the City, do you regard them as:- bad communicators about average for a company their size good communicators don't know?" There was a fairly luke warm.response to this question, with only one third of the sample expressing_a strong view either .4 ay. On the otilTer hani. v~_ry Few ;-espDndents felt ur,.,;-,.I,e to express-a view, which sugge'sts that B.A.T !ndustries' co.mmunication channels must.be seen as fairly wel-l established. We have noticed in other surveys that respondents tend to lump companies together on this sort of topic, that is, some people in the City believe that compani.'es on the whole communicate badly or well. A rating of 'about average' therefore may mean 'i.e. badly' or 'i.e. well'. One could not conclude from the answers to this question that the City feels particularly strongly about B.A.T Industries in the context of its communications. bad communicators about average for a company their size good communicators don't know YES NO TOTAL 10 6 16 20 44 64 8 11 19 I - 1 r1 j C) r1 j C:) r1 j co 10 BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 19 Question 7b "At present, B.A.T Industries issues reports to the press and the Stock Exchange half yearly and at the year end, as well as the annual Report & Accounts. Do you believe this frequency of communication to be sufficient?" There is general satisfaction wi 'th the frequency of reporting. However, it is conceivable that more frequent reporting would emphasize in the minds of the City the absolute size of B.A.T industries. YES N 0 TOTAL Yes 27 50 67 No 12 10 22 Don't know Other comments - helpful to do qua-rterly results 3 *Question 8* "Do you regard B.A.T Industries' annual Report and other communications as good,*bad or indifferent as regards giving detailed information about geographical regions and individual business sectors?" There was a relatively high degree of admission of ignoraince on this point from our panel, but the favourable rating, especially from the 'yes's', suggests that B.A.T Industries' breakdowns are well appreciated. Good YES NO TOTAL 31 33 64 Bad Indifferent 6 15 21 Don't.know 2 11 11 rQ C) r1 j C=> r1 j c0 _~D 4 _1~. BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 20 Question 9 "If you wanted some specific inforriation about B.A.T Industries, where would you go to find it?" Responses to this question were fairly typical of our panel, though there is perhaps a higher proportion than usual of people expecting to find the information inside their own company (42%). There is no mention of a particular work of reference'and there is a s-lightly higher than expected proportion of the sample who would be willing to contact the cc-mpany dir-~--t for YES 140 TbTAL- B.A.T itself 8 12 20 own tuttings file 6 9 15 someone in own company- 7 20 27 a.banker 2 4 6 a stockbroker 22 17 39 Report & Accounts 11 11 22 Other+ 3 8 11 *Multiple responses +Other - Extel cards 6 Library 3 Paper 2 CD N) CD BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 21 Question 10a "At current prices, would you buy, hold or sell B.A.T Industries' shares?" Two thirds of the sample voted 'hold'. which is, in our view, a fairly low proportion. We would normally expect over 90% to hold, since current price is, in effect a barometer of the City's views. There were more buyers. than sellers among the followers of B.A.T Industries by a margin of 10 to 1. If translated into action, this - -eading ought to have resulted in a rise in share price following the survey, though eyen if accurate,' this observation %..,ould hdve~ been overshadowed by the publication of the results. Asked towards the end of the survey, of course, the responses to this question are in one sense-a summation of attitudes rather than necessarily the result of clinical analysis. YES NO TOTAL buy 10 7 17 hold 27 40 1 .67 sell 1 9 10 other+ - 1 1 don't know 1 4 5 +Other - would not buy tobacco shares. CD N.) CD r\.) co BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 22 - Question 10b "Which of the following factors (if any) have a significant positive/negative bearing on your view?" We believe that there was some difficulty in interpreting this question and there are a great deal more positive factors quoted than negative. In other words, some respondents tended- to give profits, dividends and growth at positive indicators, even though their view might be 'sell ' or 'hold' as regards B.A.T Industri6s. In contrast, there wai a tendency to select simply one factor as a negative point and there is clearly a lesser expectztion of capital growth from B.A.T Industries than there is of profit and dividend benefits. Though a fairly high positive vote was recorded for 'business largely outside U.K. , we were surprised to find that 20% of the sample identified this as a negative factor in relation to their views of B.A.T Industries' shares. YES NO TOTAL Posi- Nega- Posi- Nega- Posi- Nega- tive tive tive 'ti ve tive t,i ve profit expectations 31 7 44 13 75 20 dividend expectations 37 2 43 12 80 14 capital growth 20 is 33 22 . 53 40 business largely outside U.K. 32 6 42 14 74 20 other - 1+ 1* - 1 1 +Other - unidentifiable corporate image. Not very dynamic Board of Directors. strength of i Got to get retailing under proper control if wish to stay in supermarket business. r1 j C> N) CD NJ 00 BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 23 - Question 11 "1 am going to read a list of attributes and I would like you to tell me for each one whether it is particularly applicable to B.A.T Industries." Respondents tended to give a 'yes, no, don't know' response to this list, rather than simply picking out the positive attributions, but this was not universal and has not been analysed. The order of the combined, sample's attributions reflects the general view of the company as large and stable and there is a very powerful impressicn of B.A.T Industries as taking a long v On tne evidence of 4-esponse to -this question one ...ould not be inclined to worry about the Gity's view of ~growth- 'prospects, which may indicate that the panel was not particularly rigorous in its allocation of attributes. Particularly low scores were recorded for outright condemnations of the structure of the company, and social responsibility does not appear to be an issue with the City. We would regard the very mediocre scores for 'clearly defined corporate strategy' and 'coi-i1prehensible- management structure' as causes for concern. C) Co ~10 c0 13 AT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999 - 24 Question 11 "1 am going to read a list of attributes and I !ould like you to tell me for each one whether it is particularly applicable to B.A.T Industries." YES NO TOTAL it is f-entral y control led 21 29 50 it allows 1.0cAl au~c.:nomy 31 41 j 72 it has a clearly defined corporate strategy 16 28 44 1. it has a*comprehansible management structure 19 23 42 it has an over-complicated management structure 9 10 19 it is excessively cautious 12 '15 27 it takes'a long view of its businesses 35 55 90 dominated by 'tobacco menta I i ty' 26 35 61 it has an excessi-vely hierarchical structure 9 9 18 promotes from within 17 34 51 receptive to new ide as 22 41 63 it has good growth prospects 26 42 68 it is a socially responsible company 28 47 75 it is a maior-conlributor ' ' K. ecor to the U lomy 38 55 13 C) C) r1 j co BAT Industries document for Province of British Columbia 23 April 1999