Waste Management 2007 Annual Report Download - page 4

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To Our Shareholders, Customers, Employees, and Communities:
As with every year in our recent history, 2007
was a time of change for Waste Management.
We are proud to continue saying this, because we
understand that progress is possible only where
there is the willingness, desire, and ability to change.
In our view, change is essential.
The fact is, every time we reach a goal, we move
the goal line. We set our standards higher.
We challenge ourselves to achieve more, to dig
deeper, to go farther. We change.
In this report, you will read more about the change
and progress that we made in 2007. A few
highlights are worthy of mention here to give you
a sense of how the critical components of our
business are coming together to forge a stronger,
better company than ever before:
Delivering strong financial performance.
Our company continued to deliver outstanding
financial results in 2007. We significantly expanded
our operating margins and increased our return on
invested capital. Based on the company’s proven
ability to generate consistent and strong cash flows,
we were able to return $1.9 billion to our
shareholders—a notable accomplishment.
Serving customers better. We continued to
strengthen relationships with our customers by
improving our ability to provide excellent service.
We are standardizing best practices in recruiting
and training employees to make every encounter
with every customer the best it can be.
We’ve consolidated our call centers, added
powerful new telephone technology, and equipped
our customer service representatives with more
information and more real-time solutions. We have
partnered with J.D. Power and Associates to find out
how well we measure up to—and exceed—customer
expectations. We are working on all fronts to make
our customer service second to none. We know that
it is up to each of us to achieve this.
Empowering people, developing leaders.
I am most proud of the progress we are making with
the development of this great resource: our people.
In 2007, we rolled out a breakthrough performance
leadership initiative to retain and attract the best
talent in the industry, to increase employee
engagement, and to develop leaders and managers.
It is providing impetus and momentum to the
corporate culture we are creating at Waste
Management. It is making us a more innovative,
flexible, and entrepreneurial organization. It is driving
everything we hope to achieve in the future.
Keeping safety first. An absolute imperative in our
company’s culture is the unwavering commitment
to safety. Our safety performance continued to
improve in 2007. We significantly reduced the rate
of work-related injuries, as well as the frequency
and severity of accidents. The numbers alone are
gratifying, but they also tell us something else:
More and more, safety is becoming an everyday
way of working at Waste Management, imbedded
in the fabric and framework of our company.
As it should and must be.