Making people successful in a changing world - Annual Report 2012

Excellent technology remains one of thelynchpins of Adecco’s success. During thepast year, we continued to make hugestrides in the development of our Internetand technology capabilities. Despite thebursting of the dot com bubble, the Internetis now more important to our businessthan ever. We are getting down to the nubof this technology – allowing instant accessto information - anytime, anywhere it isneeded. We continue to strive to have theInternet available on all desktops in thecompany, and will have Internet access inover 95% of our offices by July 2002. Overthe past three years, we have invested nearlyCHF 1 billion in our technology initiatives,integrating the web into our business anddeveloping new web-based businesses.Our vision of delivering our business on abrowser is coming ever closer to realization.Nowhere has this integration of the Internetwith our core branch business been moredramatic than in Italy. Adecco.it, the world’sfirst fully web-enabled recruitment andstaffing system grew from strength tostrength, generating over 300,000 applicantsby the end of 2001 and making a substantialcontribution to our revenues in Italy. It isfully integrated to allow Clients to managethe entire staffing process on-line, whilegiving job seekers a quick and powerful jobsearch tool. We are on schedule to launchsimilar systems throughout Europe –capitalizing upon the success of the pilotinitiative in Italy.To ensure that we respond to marketconditions, we continue to implementsensible cost control measures. However,we remain committed to maintaining ourbranch network. This year we added 12%more branches while some competitorswere contracting. We now have nearly6,000 branches in total, spanning58 countries. Our experience shows thatmaintaining branches during a downturnis critical to improving market share whenbusiness revives.As the market leader, Adecco stronglypromotes legislation that encouragesflexible work. Countries with flexible labourmarkets have shown they can reduceunemployment and increase productivity,thus providing real benefits to workers aswell as Client organizations and society ingeneral. The benefits to organizations andindividuals of more liberal flexible workregulations have been demonstrated inSpain, Italy and Japan, where temporarywork laws have been eased in the last fiveyears.The positive role of our industry in societyis there for all to see, with reducedunemployment, more flexible careerchoices and increased productivity. Sincethe laws in Spain were liberalized five yearsago, the Spanish staffing market has growndramatically to nearly CHF 3 billion. As thecountry becomes more accustomed to theuse of staffing services, the market couldpotentially be worth CHF 6 billion. Italy isdeveloping the same way as Spain, thoughperhaps even more rapidly. Staffing waslegalized in January 1998, at which timeAdecco had few branches in Italy. We havesince opened over 500 branches and todaythe country accounts for CHF 1.2 billion ofbusiness.Most recently, the Japanese temporarystaffing market has grown nearly 20% yearon year since the Temporary Dispatch Lawwas modified in December 1999, injectingnew flexibility into the economy andproviding additional options for bothindividuals and corporations. We remainconvinced that there is great potential togrow our business in those places that haveyet to fully adopt laws encouraging the useof flexible work. We strongly endorselegislation that provides protection forworkers without restrictions on the use offlexible work. It is good for our industry,temporary Associates and the wider society.Adecco will continue to contribute to settingthe labour market agenda. We also realizethat supporting research into leading edgebusiness theory, practice and education is akey role of industry leaders. To help in thatmission, Adecco recently announced thecreation of a fully endowed chair, fundedwith £2 million, at the London BusinessSchool. The holder of the chair will bothteach and lead research into areas such aslabour markets and their segmentation,education finance, labour mobility andmigration, social capital and other relatedissues. Through endowment of this chairwe will help enhance the world’sunderstanding of these important issues,build Adecco’s knowledge base and mostimportantly contribute to the educationand development of the business leadersof tomorrow.Outlook for the futureWhile the outlook for our business in thefirst half of 2002 is difficult, we remainconvinced that the medium- and long-termoutlook is as bright as ever. Thousands oforganizations and the nearly four millionindividuals we place in jobs each year havegrown to see the importance of flexiblework with Adecco. Clearly, Adecco is thebest-positioned company in the industry toensure they meet their goals. Moreover, weare now beginning to move into new areasof human resources services to furtherextend our reach and capacity to serve ourClients. I want to thank our 30,000 Colleaguesfor their efforts as we continue to transformthe company. I am gratified by theirdedication and the continued confidenceplaced in us by Clients, temporary Associatesand Shareholders. I assure you that all of usat Adecco will do our utmost to deliverexcellence as we move into the new year.John BowmerChief Executive OfficerCEO Letter13