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Philosophy Corporate Philososphy Operating Principles Compliance Success Factors Go Back To: \| Home \| About Us \| Philosophy Print this Page Corporate Philosophy Our Mission Our Vision Our Special Strengths An Important Challenge Our Business Culture Our Associates, ADP's Success Is Due To You Operating Principles ADP's key objective is sustained growth in shareholder value, achieved by ever-increasing revenue and profitability. This objective will be achieved through our total commitment to: (i) the highest ethical standards; (ii) “world class service” levels that exceed our clients' requirements and expectations; (iii) “product leadership” within our markets; and (iv) associate “employer of choice” programs that attract and retain exceptionally talented, knowledgeable, dedicated, and engaged associates. We believe in: (a) treating everyone with honesty, fairness, and respect; (b) conducting our business with the highest level of integrity; and (c) open, informal communications, hard work, and prudent financial management. These are ADP's core values, the foundation on which our business culture is based. But a statement of values is not enough. Unless our values consistently guide our actions, they become mere platitudes. Consistent implementation occurs only when each of us respects the rights of others, when our actions are free from all forms of prejudice and discrimination, and when each associate is accorded full equal opportunity. As we continue to grow globally and as our businesses become ever more complex, a shared, well-communicated, up-to-date corporate philosophy is critical. We are not perfect. Our actions will occasionally fall short of our aspirations. Such shortcomings should be viewed as an opportunity to learn, refocus our efforts, and live up to our values. This document is designed to inform and guide you. Please read it carefully and do your best to ensure your actions and your business decisions are consistent with our core values and corporate philosophy. Sincerely, Gary C. Butler President Chief Executive Officer Automatic Data Processing, Incorporated OUR MISSION Our Mission is to add value to our clients by making available a broad range of premier, mission-critical, cost-effective transaction processing and information-based business solutions in selected markets on a global basis. Back to top OUR VISION 1. ADP's business is based on the belief that: Each client and prospect counts; each person counts; each deed counts; and each contact between a client or a prospect and an associate counts. Each client and prospect is either prospective future business or a prospective loss…depending upon the quality, reliability, and responsiveness of our products, services, and associates. 2. We are committed to providing world class service levels that exceed our clients' requirements and expectations with solutions that enable them to succeed in their businesses. We define service broadly — from initial contact with a prospect, to product and process quality, to anticipating client needs and preferences, to overall client satisfaction. It requires associates to treat every interaction with a client as an opportunity to enhance that client's perception of ADP. We are committed to advancing a world class service vision in the belief that service quality is the ultimate competitive advantage for our businesses. We see world class service as a journey where, whenever we approach an identified destination, we increase our objectives and raise our goals in order to become even better. 3. Outstanding associates are the key to our success. We cannot succeed as a world class service company unless we globally attract, motivate, empower, and retain exceptionally knowledgeable, talented, committed, and engaged associates. Our associates have a strong work ethic and results-orientation, believe in and support our core values, and reflect the diverse business environments in which we operate. We will offer our associates challenges, opportunities, advancement, competitive compensation and benefits, and personal training and development in an informal, fast-paced, non-bureaucratic environment that is sensitive to work/family and flexible schedule issues. We will provide technologies that enable our associates to meet our clients' ever-changing product needs and preferences. We want each associate to feel like an integral part of a team that is making discernible positive contributions to both ADP's and our clients' success. Our goal is to be the clear employer of choice for our current and future associates. 4. We are committed to product leadership. To meet that commitment, we shall deliver the best products and services to the market ahead of our competition on a consistent basis. Continual, high quality, rapid development of new products, services, and internal systems is central to maintaining and enhancing our competitiveness. We must stay in tune with unmet client needs and proactively address them. We must explore the latest innovations so that we are the market leader in all our businesses. 5. ADP seeks to achieve and maintain market-share leadership, primarily through internal growth of its core businesses. Internal growth will come from further penetration of our existing markets, extending our market opportunities through broader product offerings, increasing our client retention rates, and continuing our global expansion. We seek acquisitions and alliances to supplement our internal growth whenever we can effectively telescope time and/or reduce risk in the pursuit of new markets, products, services, clients, and technologies. We will continue to look for entry into new markets that capitalize on and leverage “Our Special Strengths.” We want to be the market leader (in terms of our product and process quality, client-service levels, revenues, and earnings) in each market we serve. 6. We are committed to maintaining the highest level of financial and corporate governance controls, integrity, and transparency. Financial statements are much more than accounting documents. They require considerable effort to be accurate, timely and concise, with clear displays of trends and comparisons that help managers understand, control, and manage the risks and opportunities surrounding their businesses. We will immediately focus on any ethical issues that may arise. ADP's Code of Business Ethics (which may be found on ADP's Web site at www.adp.com ) expresses our commitment to the highest ethical standards and to conducting our business with the highest level of integrity. We are committed to setting a standard for Corporate America by always making the ethical choice and by not getting even close to crossing a line of impropriety. 7. Our Shareholders expect and deserve growing profits and returns from their investments in ADP. We are proud of our record of consistent earnings growth. We seek to maintain this consistent growth without sacrificing our other important principles. 8. Success is measured by increasing numbers of extremely satisfied clients, higher client retention rates, broader client relationships, increased market share, higher associate satisfaction, engagement and retention rates, and consistent implementation of our values and corporate philosophy, resulting in ever-increasing revenues, earnings, and shareholder value. Back to top OUR SPECIAL STRENGTHS We have a number of strengths which we capitalize on and leverage to aid our growth, including: being in transaction processing and information-based business solutions businesses; a leading market-share position in each of our core businesses; a powerful financial position from which to compete; solid, time-tested “Operating Principles”; a strong client service orientation; a superb direct sales capability; robust, powerful and well-controlled operations, production, and communications capabilities; a strong commitment to world class service, being an employer of choice, and product leadership; and a clearly articulated corporate philosophy and set of core values. Our most critical special strength, the key element in our success, is our global team of associates. They share “Our Vision” and help us succeed in the marketplace. Back to top AN IMPORTANT CHALLENGE Our business team needs to respond to constantly changing client needs, and changes dictated by the marketplace. Past successes do not ensure a successful future. Nothing can be taken for granted. Complacency is a powerful enemy. We must continuously anticipate, and adapt to, changing conditions. We must seize and exploit new market opportunities, and aggressively and consistently seek to implement “Our Vision” 100% of the time. Back to top OUR BUSINESS CULTURE Our core values are the foundation for all our activities. Our ever-evolving culture is guided by our core values and motivated, results-oriented associates. We must nurture a culture of ideas, questions, challenges, feedback, and prudent risk-taking without the fear of occasional failure. Learning must be a continuing process. On-the-job development of each associate must be supplemented with suitable training. We recognize the benefits of cross-training to provide additional perspectives and skills. It is important for each associate to participate in self-development and aid in the development of others. This continuing learning, cross-training, and development will significantly contribute to better “career paths” for associates. We must maintain an environment for top performers to progress as rapidly as they can effectively do so. We are a meritocracy where advancement is based on ability. We try to fill most new career opportunities by internal promotion, while also supplementing our environment with external hires. Involved, knowledgeable, “hands-in” management is a desirable style. Each manager should regularly spend time talking to and visiting clients, prospects, and other associates to get first-hand insights from them. To encourage an open, honest and informal flow of communications, we support an apolitical, candid environment that quickly responds to constructive input. We encourage lateral and vertical communications, both inside and outside of formal reporting relationships. We discuss challenges openly and support an environment where constructive differences of opinion are encouraged and welcome. After differing viewpoints have been clearly registered in interactive discussion, we also recognize the need for final decisions with effective communication and implementation. We ask each associate for more than a usual amount of conscientiousness and flexibility. We must always do what it takes to suit client convenience because ADP is a critical information lifeline to most of our clients. While doing so, we should also try to minimize avoidable inconveniences to our associates and their families. Associates are expected to respect the rights of fellow associates and others. Our actions must be free from all forms of prejudice and discrimination, libel, slander, or harassment. We are committed to offering each person equal opportunity regardless of age, race, sex, sexual orientation, color, creed, religion, national origin, marital or veteran's status, handicap or disability. Our commitment to the highest ethical standards is supported by effective enforcement mechanisms, including a company-wide ethics program and an ethics hotline. These ethical standards are more fully articulated in our Code of Business Ethics. Back to top OUR ASSOCIATES - ADP'S SUCCESS IS DUE TO YOU We thank each of you for your talent, dedication and efforts, and for the superior results you have helped ADP achieve. Your efforts and contributions make ADP what it is today and what it will become in the future. It is your continued dedication that will ensure our success. Back to top OPERATING PRINCIPLES As a supplement to our Corporate Philosophy, we have evolved a number of operating principles. While they are not cast in stone, we feel that the following principles are critical to our ongoing success: 1. PLANNING GROWTH Strategic Directions: We are singularly interested in products, services, and marketplaces of substantial potential, where we can be an ever-growing leader and industry standard through offering superior business solutions and providing world class service. We prefer markets where our solutions have significant value-added uses to clients (not mere commodity-like offerings), or where we are well equipped to outshine competitors so that our success cannot be easily emulated. We most favor directions where we have the greatest chance of becoming the market leader, because a casual or small participant seldom can maintain an adequate return on managerial and financial resources. Innovation - Selectivity and Focus: New ideas, products, and services are exciting. We need a continuing array of new ideas, and must recognize and reward associates who produce them. At the same time, it takes focus and self-restraint to maintain the discipline of thinking and researching very broadly, while implementing more narrowly. Many organizations tend to pursue more projects than they can effectively handle. We must balance reward and distraction. Nonetheless, we will try more new directions than we need in order to leave room for the inevitable disappointments. And since major new projects or directions are especially difficult and uncertain, we aspire to focus our best associates on these newer opportunities, as full-time champions. Unless regularly challenged, many organizations tend to allocate resources by inertia and tradition rather than by priorities and results. Resource optimization requires sunsetting lower priority projects to make room for more promising opportunities. Business Plans: Good plans help maintain consistent growth with fewer surprises. The specific objectives, priorities, strategies, and processes in strategic and operating plans should be initially guided by senior management, and then be directly created in more detail by each manager who must ultimately own responsibility for the results. The planning processes should be interactive and responsive to differing views. Associate Development: Associate training and learning are critical components to our being an employer of choice and for realizing consistent revenue and earnings growth. We are committed to providing each associate with 40-hours a year of consistently high-quality training through classroom and e-training courses. This training will be specific to each position within the company. Each associate will, therefore, have the ability to gain access to the training resources required (i) to succeed in his or her current position and (ii) to acquire the skills necessary to achieve a future position. To that end, we are committed to continuous associate development, succession planning, career-pathing, and recognition of superior performance. 2. ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE In our business environment, the best decisions, best attitudes, and best efficiencies are usually attained through substantial delegation, empowerment, and self-sufficiency. We encourage operational decentralization to the fullest practical degree as is consistent with world class service, efficiency, highly automated and standardized systems, and centralized Corporate Headquarters oversight. While each business unit must inform Corporate Headquarters of important issues, decisions and problems, each business unit is responsible for making all day-to-day operational and client decisions, consistent with Corporate guidelines. We recognize that certain policies and functions should clearly be and remain centralized “shared services” to varying degrees, depending upon the need for uniformity, cost efficiency, and/or specialized knowledge. Regardless of location, all functions must cooperate and work together to achieve our common goals. Excess layers of management increase costs and retard communication and responsiveness. We aim to keep working units lean, small, and cohesive enough to empower associates and to give them a clear sense of their mission, their accomplishments, and their accountability. 3. RISK MANAGEMENT Risk vs. Reward: We want to pursue substantial long-term revenue growth while preserving, to the fullest degree reasonable, ADP's history of consistent revenue and earnings growth. This consistency is worth protecting because it enhances our financial standing and predictability, and is an important component of shareholder value. Evolution vs. Revolution: In ADP's businesses, most improvement is best attained in manageable increments by evolutionary change, to ensure continued world class service to clients as change is implemented. Conversely, big successes in new directions, or urgent quantum gains with existing clients, will occasionally necessitate revolutionary strategic leaps. We favor the incremental approach where large numbers of decentralized activities and clients are involved, but only to a degree that does not unduly sacrifice our competitive position. We must continually challenge our activities and methods so that we aggressively upgrade our technologies, products, services and processes, and minimize the need for a catch-up revolution. Role Before We Roll: Since many new ventures will fail, we will generally try to minimize the cost of failure to a manageable level by not acting on an unnecessarily large scale too soon. Changes that involve many clients and associates are particularly difficult and error-prone. As we change processes, we must minimize the risk of a poor transition. We should role-model, inspect, and stress-test new products and approaches before we roll them out to many locations, clients, and/or associates, without forfeiting windows-of-opportunity that require fast time-to-market. 4. SPECIAL OUTSIDE RELATIONSHIPS Business Friends: Many prospects and clients are introduced to ADP by third-party recommendations from accountants, trade associations, franchisers, and bankers. We must maintain effective and proactive communications and relations with our business friends. Suppliers: Suppliers are good business partners and are critical to our success. We expect suppliers to earn our continuing relationship, as we must with our clients. We expect the best service and prices that a supplier is offering to any equivalent customer. We, in turn, will fulfill our obligations promptly and deal in a forthright, open manner. We should always have back-up sources. Community: We support worthy sectors of our society with both effort and money. Our pro bono activities encompass financial support (through the ADP Foundation), and contributions-in-kind. Our primary areas of philanthropy and leadership are education, health, the arts, and social welfare. Back to top

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Corporate Philosophy

Our Mission
Our Vision
Our Special Strengths
An Important Challenge
Our Business Culture
Our Associates, ADP's Success Is Due To You
Operating Principles

ADP's key objective is sustained growth in shareholder value, achieved by ever-increasing revenue and profitability. This objective will be achieved through our total commitment to: (i) the highest ethical standards; (ii) “world class service” levels that exceed our clients' requirements and expectations; (iii) “product leadership” within our markets; and (iv) associate “employer of choice” programs that attract and retain exceptionally talented, knowledgeable, dedicated, and engaged associates.

We believe in: (a) treating everyone with honesty, fairness, and respect; (b) conducting our business with the highest level of integrity; and (c) open, informal communications, hard work, and prudent financial management. These are ADP's core values, the foundation on which our business culture is based. But a statement of values is not enough. Unless our values consistently guide our actions, they become mere platitudes. Consistent implementation occurs only when each of us respects the rights of others, when our actions are free from all forms of prejudice and discrimination, and when each associate is accorded full equal opportunity.

As we continue to grow globally and as our businesses become ever more complex, a shared, well-communicated, up-to-date corporate philosophy is critical. We are not perfect. Our actions will occasionally fall short of our aspirations. Such shortcomings should be viewed as an opportunity to learn, refocus our efforts, and live up to our values. This document is designed to inform and guide you. Please read it carefully and do your best to ensure your actions and your business decisions are consistent with our core values and corporate philosophy.

Sincerely,

Signature

Gary C. Butler
President
Chief Executive Officer
Automatic Data Processing, Incorporated

OUR MISSION

Our Mission is to add value to our clients by making available a broad range of premier, mission-critical, cost-effective transaction processing and information-based business solutions in selected markets on a global basis.

Back to top

OUR VISION

1. ADP's business is based on the belief that: Each client and prospect counts; each person counts; each deed counts; and each contact between a client or a prospect and an associate counts. Each client and prospect is either prospective future business or a prospective loss…depending upon the quality, reliability, and responsiveness of our products, services, and associates.

2. We are committed to providing world class service levels that exceed our clients' requirements and expectations with solutions that enable them to succeed in their businesses. We define service broadly — from initial contact with a prospect, to product and process quality, to anticipating client needs and preferences, to overall client satisfaction. It requires associates to treat every interaction with a client as an opportunity to enhance that client's perception of ADP. We are committed to advancing a world class service vision in the belief that service quality is the ultimate competitive advantage for our businesses. We see world class service as a journey where, whenever we approach an identified destination, we increase our objectives and raise our goals in order to become even better.

3. Outstanding associates are the key to our success. We cannot succeed as a world class service company unless we globally attract, motivate, empower, and retain exceptionally knowledgeable, talented, committed, and engaged associates. Our associates have a strong work ethic and results-orientation, believe in and support our core values, and reflect the diverse business environments in which we operate. We will offer our associates challenges, opportunities, advancement, competitive compensation and benefits, and personal training and development in an informal, fast-paced, non-bureaucratic environment that is sensitive to work/family and flexible schedule issues. We will provide technologies that enable our associates to meet our clients' ever-changing product needs and preferences. We want each associate to feel like an integral part of a team that is making discernible positive contributions to both ADP's and our clients' success. Our goal is to be the clear employer of choice for our current and future associates.

4. We are committed to product leadership. To meet that commitment, we shall deliver the best products and services to the market ahead of our competition on a consistent basis. Continual, high quality, rapid development of new products, services, and internal systems is central to maintaining and enhancing our competitiveness. We must stay in tune with unmet client needs and proactively address them. We must explore the latest innovations so that we are the market leader in all our businesses.

5. ADP seeks to achieve and maintain market-share leadership, primarily through internal growth of its core businesses. Internal growth will come from further penetration of our existing markets, extending our market opportunities through broader product offerings, increasing our client retention rates, and continuing our global expansion. We seek acquisitions and alliances to supplement our internal growth whenever we can effectively telescope time and/or reduce risk in the pursuit of new markets, products, services, clients, and technologies. We will continue to look for entry into new markets that capitalize on and leverage “Our Special Strengths.” We want to be the market leader (in terms of our product and process quality, client-service levels, revenues, and earnings) in each market we serve.

6. We are committed to maintaining the highest level of financial and corporate governance controls, integrity, and transparency. Financial statements are much more than accounting documents. They require considerable effort to be accurate, timely and concise, with clear displays of trends and comparisons that help managers understand, control, and manage the risks and opportunities surrounding their businesses. We will immediately focus on any ethical issues that may arise. ADP's Code of Business Ethics (which may be found on ADP's Web site at www.adp.com ) expresses our commitment to the highest ethical standards and to conducting our business with the highest level of integrity. We are committed to setting a standard for Corporate America by always making the ethical choice and by not getting even close to crossing a line of impropriety.

7. Our Shareholders expect and deserve growing profits and returns from their investments in ADP. We are proud of our record of consistent earnings growth. We seek to maintain this consistent growth without sacrificing our other important principles.

8. Success is measured by increasing numbers of extremely satisfied clients, higher client retention rates, broader client relationships, increased market share, higher associate satisfaction, engagement and retention rates, and consistent implementation of our values and corporate philosophy, resulting in ever-increasing revenues, earnings, and shareholder value.
Back to top

OUR SPECIAL STRENGTHS

We have a number of strengths which we capitalize on and leverage to aid our growth, including:

being in transaction processing and information-based business solutions businesses;
a leading market-share position in each of our core businesses;
a powerful financial position from which to compete;
solid, time-tested “Operating Principles”;
a strong client service orientation;
a superb direct sales capability;
robust, powerful and well-controlled operations, production, and communications capabilities;
a strong commitment to world class service, being an employer of choice, and product leadership; and
a clearly articulated corporate philosophy and set of core values.

Our most critical special strength, the key element in our success, is our global team of associates. They share “Our Vision” and help us succeed in the marketplace.

Back to top

AN IMPORTANT CHALLENGE

Our business team needs to respond to constantly changing client needs, and changes dictated by the marketplace. Past successes do not ensure a successful future. Nothing can be taken for granted. Complacency is a powerful enemy. We must continuously anticipate, and adapt to, changing conditions. We must seize and exploit new market opportunities, and aggressively and consistently seek to implement “Our Vision” 100% of the time.

Back to top

OUR BUSINESS CULTURE

Our core values are the foundation for all our activities. Our ever-evolving culture is guided by our core values and motivated, results-oriented associates. We must nurture a culture of ideas, questions, challenges, feedback, and prudent risk-taking without the fear of occasional failure. Learning must be a continuing process. On-the-job development of each associate must be supplemented with suitable training. We recognize the benefits of cross-training to provide additional perspectives and skills. It is important for each associate to participate in self-development and aid in the development of others. This continuing learning, cross-training, and development will significantly contribute to better “career paths” for associates. We must maintain an environment for top performers to progress as rapidly as they can effectively do so. We are a meritocracy where advancement is based on ability. We try to fill most new career opportunities by internal promotion, while also supplementing our environment with external hires. Involved, knowledgeable, “hands-in” management is a desirable style. Each manager should regularly spend time talking to and visiting clients, prospects, and other associates
to get first-hand insights from them.

To encourage an open, honest and informal flow of communications, we support an apolitical, candid environment that quickly responds to constructive input. We encourage lateral and vertical communications, both inside and outside of formal reporting relationships. We discuss challenges openly and support an environment where constructive differences of opinion are encouraged and welcome. After differing viewpoints have been clearly registered in interactive discussion, we also recognize the need for final decisions with effective communication and implementation.

We ask each associate for more than a usual amount of conscientiousness and flexibility. We must always do what it takes to suit client convenience because ADP is a critical information lifeline to most of our clients. While doing so, we should also try to minimize avoidable inconveniences to our associates and their families.

Associates are expected to respect the rights of fellow associates and others. Our actions must be free from all forms of prejudice and discrimination, libel, slander, or harassment. We are committed to offering each person equal opportunity regardless of age, race, sex, sexual orientation, color, creed, religion, national origin, marital or veteran's status, handicap or disability.

Our commitment to the highest ethical standards is supported by effective enforcement mechanisms, including a company-wide ethics program and an ethics hotline. These ethical standards are more fully articulated in our Code of Business Ethics.

Back to top

OUR ASSOCIATES - ADP'S SUCCESS IS DUE TO YOU

We thank each of you for your talent, dedication and efforts, and for the superior results you have helped ADP achieve. Your efforts and contributions make ADP what it is today and what it will become in the future. It is your continued dedication that will ensure our success.

Back to top

OPERATING PRINCIPLES

As a supplement to our Corporate Philosophy, we have evolved a number of operating principles. While they are not cast in stone, we feel that the following principles are critical to our ongoing success:

1. PLANNING GROWTH

Strategic Directions: We are singularly interested in products, services, and marketplaces of substantial potential, where we can be an ever-growing leader and industry standard through offering superior business solutions and providing world class service. We prefer markets where our solutions have significant value-added uses to clients (not mere commodity-like offerings), or where we are well equipped to outshine competitors so that our success cannot be easily emulated. We most favor directions where we have the greatest chance of becoming the market leader, because a casual or small participant seldom can maintain an adequate return on managerial and financial resources.

Innovation - Selectivity and Focus: New ideas, products, and services are exciting. We need a continuing array of new ideas, and must recognize and reward associates who produce them. At the same time, it takes focus and self-restraint to maintain the discipline of thinking and researching very broadly, while implementing more narrowly. Many organizations tend to pursue more projects than they can effectively handle. We must balance reward and distraction. Nonetheless, we will try more new directions than we need in order to leave room for the inevitable disappointments. And since major new projects or directions are especially difficult and uncertain, we aspire to focus our best associates on these newer opportunities, as full-time champions.

Unless regularly challenged, many organizations tend to allocate resources by inertia and tradition rather than by priorities and results. Resource optimization requires sunsetting lower priority projects to make room for more promising opportunities.

Business Plans: Good plans help maintain consistent growth with fewer surprises. The specific objectives, priorities, strategies, and processes in strategic and operating plans should be initially guided by senior management, and then be directly created in more detail by each manager who must ultimately own responsibility for the results. The planning processes should be interactive and responsive to differing views.

Associate Development: Associate training and learning are critical components to our being an employer of choice and for realizing consistent revenue and earnings growth. We are committed to providing each associate with 40-hours a year of consistently high-quality training through classroom and e-training courses. This training will be specific to each position within the company. Each associate will, therefore, have the ability to gain access to the training resources required (i) to succeed in his or her current position and (ii) to acquire the skills necessary to achieve a future position. To that end, we are committed to continuous associate development, succession planning, career-pathing, and recognition of superior performance.

2. ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

In our business environment, the best decisions, best attitudes, and best efficiencies are usually attained through substantial delegation, empowerment, and self-sufficiency. We encourage operational decentralization to the fullest practical degree as is consistent with world class service, efficiency, highly automated and standardized systems, and centralized Corporate Headquarters oversight. While each business unit must inform Corporate Headquarters of important issues, decisions and problems, each business unit is responsible for making all day-to-day operational and client decisions, consistent with Corporate guidelines.

We recognize that certain policies and functions should clearly be and remain centralized “shared services” to varying degrees, depending upon the need for uniformity, cost efficiency, and/or specialized knowledge. Regardless of location, all functions must cooperate and work together to achieve our common goals.

Excess layers of management increase costs and retard communication and responsiveness. We aim to keep working units lean, small, and cohesive enough to empower associates and to give them a clear sense of their mission, their accomplishments, and their accountability.

3. RISK MANAGEMENT

Risk vs. Reward: We want to pursue substantial long-term revenue growth while preserving, to the fullest degree reasonable, ADP's history of consistent revenue and earnings growth. This consistency is worth protecting because it enhances our financial standing and predictability, and is an important component of shareholder value.

Evolution vs. Revolution: In ADP's businesses, most improvement is best attained in manageable increments by evolutionary change, to ensure continued world class service to clients as change is implemented. Conversely, big successes in new directions, or urgent quantum gains with existing clients, will occasionally necessitate revolutionary strategic leaps. We favor the incremental approach where large numbers of decentralized activities and clients are involved, but only to a degree that does not unduly sacrifice our competitive position. We must continually challenge our activities and methods so that we aggressively upgrade our technologies, products, services and processes, and minimize the need for a catch-up revolution.

Role Before We Roll: Since many new ventures will fail, we will generally try to minimize the cost of failure to a manageable level by not acting on an unnecessarily large scale too soon. Changes that involve many clients and associates are particularly difficult and error-prone.

As we change processes, we must minimize the risk of a poor transition. We should role-model, inspect, and stress-test new products and approaches before we roll them out to many locations, clients, and/or associates, without forfeiting windows-of-opportunity that require fast time-to-market.

4. SPECIAL OUTSIDE RELATIONSHIPS

Business Friends: Many prospects and clients are introduced to ADP by third-party recommendations from accountants, trade associations, franchisers, and bankers. We must maintain effective and proactive communications and relations with our business friends.

Suppliers: Suppliers are good business partners and are critical to our success. We expect suppliers to earn our continuing relationship, as we must with our clients. We expect the best service and prices that a supplier is offering to any equivalent customer. We, in turn, will fulfill our obligations promptly and deal in a forthright, open manner. We should always have back-up sources.

Community: We support worthy sectors of our society with both effort and money. Our pro bono activities encompass financial support (through the ADP Foundation), and contributions-in-kind. Our primary areas of philanthropy and leadership are education, health, the arts, and social welfare.

Back to top