AT&T Uverse 2008 Annual Report Download - page 7

AT&T Annual Report 2008
5
Disciplined leadership
and execution
No one knows for certain when the
economy will improve. But I can
promise you that we will continue
to follow a proven strategy to
manage through downturns.
We are pursuing every avenue
to control expenses and improve
processes. We are prioritizing
investments to capitalize on our
growth opportunities. And we will
continue to maintain a strong
balance sheet. Behind these efforts
is a seasoned, disciplined leadership
team that knows how to execute.
Our objective is to drive cash flow,
enabling us to create long-term
value for stockholders and invest
in AT&T’s future. I have every
confidence that we will emerge
stronger than our competitors
when the economy recovers.
I’m just as confident in our ability
to generate long-term growth by
strategically investing in areas that
build on our industry leadership:
Adding mobility to meet our
customers’ growing need to
connect and access content and
applications anytime and from
more places.
Delivering more bandwidth to
support the exploding volume
of traffic that travels over
our networks.
Expanding our scale to provide
connectivity to more people in
more locations.
Delivering additional value-
added applications and services
efficiently and seamlessly over
our networks.
Investing in our communities,
our environment
We remain committed to investing
in our communities, too. That
includes bringing 3,000 jobs back
to our U.S. payrolls. It’s part of
our total commitment to return
5,000 jobs, most of which were
previously outsourced offshore
by our vendors.
As always, our employees reached
out to help their neighbors, from
rebuilding efforts in the wake of
devastating storms to mentoring
students through job shadowing
initiatives. And AT&T supports
their good work with charitable
dollars, including our $100 million
AT&T Aspire initiative to combat high
dropout rates in U.S. high schools.
We also recognize our responsibility
to minimize our impact on the
environment. So, we’re more
committed than ever to sustainable
operations. We formed an Energy
Council, comprised of executives
across the company, to improve and
optimize energy efficiencies. We use
alternative energy where possible
and have expanded the use of
alternative-fuel vehicles in our fleet.
What sets AT&T apart
Let me leave you with
a couple of thoughts:
Our long-term future remains
very bright. The underlying global
demand for connectivity continues
to grow — and no company is
better positioned to meet it than
AT&T. My confidence flows from
the knowledge that we offer the
best products and services in
every customer segment.
As a result, we expect continued
revenue growth in 2009.
When the economy rebounds,
we will be ready to capitalize on
our financial strength, our market
leadership and our disciplined
investment strategy to accelerate
revenue growth beyond our
current expectations.
I’m also confident that the people
of AT&T — with their competitive
drive, their passion to serve and
their commitment to innovation
— will be a significant competitive
advantage as we continue to lead
our industry.
Our employees are a big reason why
AT&T has been named the world’s
most admired telecommunications
company by Fortune magazine nine
of the past 12 years. I thank them
for all they do.
Finally, I thank you, our investors,
for your continuing confidence.
We have substantial opportunities
ahead of us to deliver more for our
customers and to build value for
you. I look forward to reporting on
our continuing progress.
Sincerely,
Randall Stephenson
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer
and President
February 17, 2009