Waste Management 2008 Annual Report Download - page 8

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Our continuing ability to generate cash is a critical
advantage in this economy. Cash provided by
operating activities in 2008 was $2.58 billion,
which is available to fund the operating and capital
needs of our business and allows us to return
value to our shareholders. In 2008, we paid
$531 million in dividends and completed
$410 million in common stock repurchases.
Based on the company’s proven ability to generate
consistent and strong cash flows, our Board of
Directors announced its intention to increase our
annual dividend in 2009 by 7.4 percent, from $1.08
to $1.16 per share. Based on the share price at the
close of fiscal 2008, the expected dividend equates
to an annual yield of 3.5 percent. The yield from
this dividend would place Waste Management in
the top 30 percent of dividend-paying companies
in Standard & Poor’s S&P 500 index.
Acquisitions remain a component of our strategy
for growth, but only those that meet our criteria
for value and return on investment. We believe
that the prevailing economic conditions will
present new opportunities to acquire companies
under favorable terms.
While no company can say it is completely
recession-proof, we certainly believe that Waste
Management is well positioned to weather the
current economic climate. The United States alone
generates 413 million tons of waste a year, and we
help perform the essential service of managing a
good portion of it. We view the waste stream as a
resource, and we see significant value that can be
realized through recycling and energy generation
and conversion.
Our financial priorities remain the same: growing
earnings, expanding margins, maintaining strong
free cash flow, and increasing long-term returns
on invested capital. Our balance sheet is strong,
we use our liquidity wisely, and we continue to
follow a disciplined approach to grow our business.
We are confident in Waste Management’s ability to
generate strong financial performance in the short
term as well as over the long term.
e continue to invest in a culture of
customer engagement.
Good customer relationships are vital to our plan to
improve our company’s performance. We continue
to invest in creating and maintaining a culture of
customer engagement.
Two years ago, we began working with J.D. Power
and Associates to conduct detailed surveys of our
customers in all market areas to determine their
perceptions. Our goal is to cultivate customers
who would recommend our company to others.
Our results are encouraging, but they also give us
targets for continuing improvement. Customers
value communication. They want to be alerted in
advance of service interruptions or changes in our
schedule, and they want quick responses to their
issues or questions. Toward that end, we have
optimized our call center functionality and
consolidated call centers, taking advantage of
efficiencies of scale in training, staffing, internal
communication, and management. Our integrated
system provides customer service representatives
with added information to handle customer calls
more effectively and also provides the capability to
seamlessly reroute calls among our call centers.
This new model for customer service call centers
has proven so successful that during 2008 we
began developing a similar model for our fleet
dispatch system to realize similar benefits in that
area of our operations.
62008 ANNUAL REPORT