We are excited to share with you our first edition of "The Communicator." With this addition to our customer outreach program, I would like to share just a few thoughts about how we can build on our current customer outreach programs through improved communication. First, we believe great communication is more important than ever. In fact, we believe communication is so important that we cite "communication both internally and externally" in one of our Cox Core Values tenants. Secondly, in the words of Jim Collins, we believe the right people in the right places with the right values and right tools are the recipe for great communication.

Eight years ago, via a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), I asked our family of employees what we believed was our number one organizational weakness. The overwhelming response was "communication." I would wager that if I polled the readers of this newsletter, most would recognize this as the number one problem in their respective companies as well. In 2006, we challenged ourselves to vigorously address this problem. First, we tackled this issue internally. A few of our internal efforts included: employee listening lunches, frequent plant visits, cross-training using team formats and a new Cox intranet. Back in December we rolled out our first internal monthly newsletter and took one more major stride in addressing internal communication. Although we continue striving for internal improvements, in 2007 we have begun to move our focus externally. Now a newsletter does not a panacea make, but we believe a forum is created by this medium to share our results both internally and now, externally.

I am also excited to report to you our work on the other major business challenge we see today - the right people. We have added resources to not only help improve our organization, but also to help you, our customers and vendors, improve your organizations. First, Tiffany Myers, is our new Director of Public Relations. This includes the areas of marketing, communications and this newsletter. Please share any ideas about how we can help you in any of these areas. Secondly, we are proud to announce the hiring of our first Director of Training, Al Breland. With Al's leadership, we began a number of training programs at the end of 2006 and continue to roll out new internal training in 2007. Our plans for our customers and vendors in 2007 is to offer both on-site training programs as well as the first Cox Treating College to be held later this year. How important are our people? The billionaire Andrew Carnegie said, "Take everything I have but leave me my people and I will be back on top in less than a year." We share this belief.

During the first quarter of 2007, we have set an ambitious goal of reaching out to all of our customers and vendors to solicit your input on improving our relationships. This outreach program has been dubbed, "Reach out and touch someone." We appreciate your support as we pursue this lofty first quarter goal and we will listen carefully to your feedback. We know your time is valuable and we plan on making the best use of your candid criticisms, comments and suggestions. Our communication teams will be contacting you soon to request an appointment. I'll be traveling with some of them and I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Best,
Mikee