Mike Malatesta, president of Advanced Waste Services, says his company can do a lot more than just take care of your waste.
In order to stay competitive, the company does everything it can do to be more valuable to its clients by including services such as laboratory services and managing their clients information, he said.
“If our clients can come to rely on us for managing their information, it’s the most effective way for us to do what we do better and faster,” Malatesta said. “That way we’re going to be more beneficial and a lot harder to replace.”
The clients of Advanced Waste Services aren’t the only ones who find the company irreplaceable – they have the lowest employee turnover rate in the industry, Malatesta said, because workers are encouraged to grow and increase their capabilities every quarter.
“Everyone here is invited for their ideas and not just their back,” he said. “We try to create goal-setters and goal-achievers out of everyone who joins the company. People have the opportunity to grow, and that creates opportunities and ideas.”
Malatesta knows what it’s like to grow within a company. When he started Advanced Waste Services with one partner in 1993, he said he was forced to learn skills and business protocol that he never thought he would have to in order for the company to grow.
Today, he says, he admires businesspeople who started with nothing.
“I recognize it’s not something they did all by themselves, it’s something they put into place,” he said. “This recognition has little to do with me and a lot to do with all the other folks who create the opportunities that we’ve been able to grow upon.”
Advanced Waste Services, Inc.
Address: 1126 S 70th St, Milwaukee
Website: www.advancedwasteservices.com
Industry: Industrial Waste
Revenues: $30 million
Employees: 135
