American Home Shield 2011 Annual Report Download - page 11

Table of Contents
technology, thoroughly reviewing market segment growth opportunities and targeting adjacent sectors through partnerships.
Increase market segment share and household penetration of our services. We believe that our size and geographic scale, strong brand
awareness and customer service focus will enable us to increase our market segment share across our portfolio of businesses. At the same time,
we believe there are significant opportunities to increase the relatively low household penetration of our services and products and thus expand
our addressable market segments.
Pursue expansion opportunities. We intend to take advantage of opportunities for domestic and international expansion in territories where we
believe macroeconomic conditions and local demographics can support profitable operations in the segments in which we operate. We believe
that increased geographic penetration, both domestically and internationally, will further diversify our business portfolio.
Talent Management. We intend to continue our focus on developing and retaining key associates to best align our business to the needs of our
customer base. We are implementing this strategy through four key initiatives:
Alignment of organization structure with business strategy. This focused effort allows us to quickly and effectively identify and address talent
gaps in relation to implementing our strategic initiatives.
Rigorous and ongoing talent management. Our comprehensive talent review process aligns associate performance with the goals of our
organization. The process is designed to improve performance management and attract and retain high caliber talent.
Accelerate talent development. To drive improved customer retention, we are continuing our efforts to provide focused and ongoing customer
service training for our key associates. We have also developed a leadership development program designed to promote upward mobility for our
associates within our organization.
Increase associate engagement. We promote the consistent execution of our associate engagement plans across our business units, with the goal
of improving the experiences of our customers and increasing customer loyalty to our leading brands.
Best practice transfer and execution excellence. In recent years, we have employed a strategy of accelerating the transfer of best practices across our
businesses, investing in technology and mobility solutions, centralizing support functions and reducing layers of management, along with other business unit
specific initiatives. We believe there are appreciable opportunities for further improvement across and within each of our businesses, including further
utilizing the competitive advantages of our centralized support center to take advantage of combined capabilities and scale.
INDUSTRY AND COMPETITION
We compete in the residential and commercial services industry, focusing on lawn care, termite and pest control, home service contracts, cleaning and
disaster restoration, house cleaning, furniture repair and home inspection. We target market segments that meet our criteria for size, growth and profit
potential. While we compete with a broad range of competitors in each discrete segment, we do not believe that any of our competitors provides all of the
services we provide in all of the market segments we serve. We believe that our widely recognized brands, size, geographic footprint and reputation for
service quality provide us with significant competitive advantages in reaching both residential and commercial customers. All of the primary segments in
which we
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