Waste Management (WM), North America’s largest provider of waste disposable services, has become about a lot more than collecting trash. The last few years have been transformative as the company fully embraces sustainability and breaks new ground in areas like renewable energy, turning the gas from landfills, for example, into fuel for its natural gas-powered trucks.
Company veteran Devina Rankin, CFO of Waste Management since 2020, has played a pivotal role. “We’re a financially sound organization that’s also working on exciting things that make our upside potential a lot of fun,” says Rankin.
Rankin will share her journey at WM, highlighting the strategies and initiatives that have led to the company’s modern evolution, at the CFO Leadership Council’s Fall 2024 Conference in Dallas on October 7-9. StrategicCFO360 spoke to her last week about her long service in WM’s finance department and how the $20 billion revenue company strives to put people first.
What’s kept you at Waste Management since 2002?
Waste Management is a people-centric organization where I feel respected, admired and appreciated, and I love the people I work with; that is all you can ask for. This industry is very human capital-intensive. About seven years ago or so, we refreshed our commitments and values, and our first commitment was to put our people first because by putting people first, you can take care of all the other stakeholders. Our second commitment is success with integrity. As the CFO, knowing that this organization is committed to success with integrity makes my job much easier and allows me to sleep at night.
Is there something about how you operate as a CFO, or perhaps your personality, that aligns well with the culture at WM?
I would say that humility is something I’m proud of, and it’s crucial when you think about who WM is and what we do. Most people have the privilege of not thinking much about their waste services provider. When they put their waste out on the curb, they expect it to be picked up reliably, week in and week out. When you commit to doing something that often goes unnoticed, that requires humility, that resonates with me. The men and women who serve our customers on the frontline [do their job] for the most part without getting a thank-you from the customer in return.
I’m also gritty and a hard worker. I grew up in a military family. I learned at a young age a commitment to service—a commitment to being part of something bigger than myself, and at the core of that is service.
CFO turnover has been very high the past few years, and less and less often, the CFO ascends from the rank-and-file. Do you think having a revolving door in the CFO office puts a company at a disadvantage?
A big part of a CFO’s job is to connect people, processes and data and leverage all those things to create value. If you come from the outside, it takes you a little longer to figure out how to connect all the disaggregated pieces of a large organization. I ‘grew up’ at WM, and I’ve established relationships across this business for over two decades, so I came into the CFO position with an advantage. Growing your own and promoting from within for the CFO role is a best practice.
But I certainly can understand and appreciate that when companies need a fresh perspective. A CFO often can provide that because CFOs create management practices and disciplines within an organization that help it become well-run. And if, for some reason, you can’t create that organically with the people you already have, then I guess that’s time to look outside the organization. But I do think a revolving door in the CFO seat is something that should be mitigated.
Waste Management has invested in automation on the frontlines—robotics in recycling facilities to improve safety, remote-operated heavy equipment, dynamic routing capabilities, computers and cameras on trucks to provide customers with information about their waste streams and much more. Is that positive for workers whose job involves interacting with that technology? Does that lead to better retention rates for those workers?
We’re trying to use technology to address jobs for which it’s difficult to build a solid talent pipeline and that have high employee turnover. Think of workers in the sorting line at a recycling facility or call center reps. The turnover in those two jobs is incredibly high. We use technology to require [fewer workers] in those roles. We’ve used the attrition that happens naturally to move forward with technology without disrupting our people. On the second point, if you have a modern toolkit, you feel empowered to do your job well. Team members feel better positioned to deliver on their core responsibilities, and that’s a win.
Waste Management has many innovative sustainability initiatives. Last year, the company partnered with Dow on a residential recycling program. What do you hope to achieve in partnerships with upstream goods providers?
We partner with our customers in many ways, and the Dow partnership is not unique. We must understand the problems our customers are working to solve and what we can do to help be part of the solution. With Dow, working on the impact of single-use plastics and some of the less recycled plastics that are consumed is something we should all be doing. There’s far too much plastic generated that is not recycled. We work across markets to create circular economy and [the] systems and processes to support our customers’ initiatives.
You’re on the board of directors of KeyBank, the 27th largest U.S. bank. What have you learned from that?
I didn’t jump into board service. Once I felt I had a good grasp on the CFO job at WM, I became more interested in the board recruiting calls. I hope the KeyBank board feels like they get as much value from me as I do from the experience; it must be a mutually beneficial relationship. In return, I have a window into another management team’s culture, systems, processes and decision-making. I can take that back to my experience at WM and use it to become an even better executive. I now know how difficult it is for a board member to understand the business because they don’t live in it daily. I think I have always appreciated [WM’s] board, but even more so now.
What have you learned about the banking industry?
The regulatory environment is fundamentally different from our industry. The other difference is the talent model. We started this conversation by discussing why I’ve been with the company for so long and what’s kept me here. We have strong tenure within our industry, but we also have the luxury of bringing in team members from outside the industry. Once you’re in banking, it seems like you stay in banking. A lot of talent from other industries doesn’t find its way there. I’m not convinced it’s the right thing because one of the things organizations can benefit from is understanding how other industries work. Financial institutions could gain a lot from thinking about bringing in talent from other industries.
Devina Rankin will be speaking at the CFO Leadership Council’s Fall 2024 Conference on October 8 in Dallas. See the full agenda for details.
