Author: Ben Gandy

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Ben Gandy

Gandy is principal of Atlanta-based Envisor Consulting. Reach him at bengandy@envisorco.com or 404-556-8923.

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Leadership Advantage: The four C’s of planning

Ben Gandy dives into the four C’s of planning: Collaborate, Communicate, Course correct and Celebrate.

There’s only so much time in a day, week or month. How do you prioritize your time to allow for your personal margin? (Photo: skynesher/E+/Getty Images)

Leadership Advantage: Why personal margin matters to you and your business

Ben Gandy explains that there’s a difference between being busy and grinding away and the value in monitoring your personal margin.

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What are we looking at? Tips to be effective in the field

Motivation, education and developing skills are critical in order to effectively manage people in the field.

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Leadership Advantage: The formula for company culture

Ben Gandy shares the formula for success when it comes to creating a strong and supportive company culture within your business.

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How lean principles apply to your leadership team

Toyota pioneered lean manufacturing principles after World War II. These principles have found their way into many industries, including ours.

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Leadership Advantage: How to have successful meetings

Landscape Management columnist Ben Gandy describes what needs to be in place for landscape companies to host productive and efficient meetings.

Ladder from 2020 to 2030 (Photo: DariaRen/iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images)

Planning for 2020 and beyond

Where were you in 2010? Professionally? Financially? Personally? A lot has happened in 10 years. The whole world has changed. Likely, your world has changed quite a bit, as well. 2020 marks a new decade. 2030 will be here in 10 years, ready or not. Where will you be? Professionally? Financially? Personally? At this point, […]

Highlighters and spreadsheet (Photo: Ken Thomas and Ben Gandy)

Tips to improve your financial literacy

Ben Gandy reveals why lack of financial literacy is one of the leading causes of business failure and how to overcome it.

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The ‘what’ and the ‘how’

Strategy is the “how.” Strategy equals the specific plans for hitting your goals and achieving your vision. The term comes from military use: The plans for defeating the enemy and winning the war represent the “strategy.” As you look forward, it’s essential to develop or revisit your organization’s vision or picture of success. The vision […]

Leadership Advantage: Structure matters in maintenance

Business structure matters. As businesses grow, questions come up about who to hire and for what purpose. When the business is small, the owner wears all the hats: He sells the work, schedules it, manages production, manages the client, collects the check and takes it to the bank. As landscape businesses grow, the first thing […]

Leadership Advantage: Get out there

The value we deliver happens in the field, on our customers’ sites. Unfortunately, the more you advance, grow and mature in this industry, the further away from the field you get. If you advance high enough, the only field exposure you get is what you can see from the conference room window. But that doesn’t […]

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Leadership Advantage: An enduring differentiator

The differentiator in highly competitive industries often comes down to one thing: customer service. In a competitive marketplace, we generally see one or two providers rising to the top. Consider the fast-food industry. There are fast-food restaurants everywhere and many players in this market. Currently, the leader in this industry is Chick-fil-A. This chain generates […]

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Leadership Advantage: Problem solving 101

If you have a business problem that’s going to take $1,000 to solve, shame on you if you cheap out and try to fix it for $900. You risk not solving it at all and having to start over. Only now, it may be a $1,100 problem that’s going to cost you a total of […]

Leadership Advantage: Retaining to grow

Ensuring great relationships requires effort. Charisma and charm are great, but charm is not a strategy. Clients of landscape services are primarily looking for trust, expert advice, proactivity and effective communication. Trust is earned on two levels: honesty and keeping commitments. While few of us will blatantly lie to a client, it’s tempting to tell […]

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Overcoming the talent crisis

Understand the root causes of the landscape industry talent crisis. Then, find ways to promote the industry and your company. As I travel throughout the country, it’s become increasing clear the single overwhelming constraint facing landscape contractors is talent. From entry level to middle management to executive leadership, finding people to fill positions has become […]

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