Mike McDermott grinned as he advanced to the next slide in his PowerPoint presentation. It featured a wide-angle shot of DuPont Professional Products’ impressive line-up. “It brings a tear to my eye every time I see our family photo,” half-joked McDermott, global business leader for DuPont Professional Products. “We’ve grown our family from zero registered products to 12, our team... read more
Making a profit today relies on your ability to sell. In the old days, the key to profit was production management. Sales were easier to come by: You answered the phone and delivered a proposal. If we’re honest, we would admit we were not really great salespeople; we were just great gatherers. Today, the customers make the rules — and... read more
During tough economic times, it’s not unusual for companies to make cuts. But how company executives should do this isn’t always spelled out. Should managers strip out service bells and whistles? Shave time on job sites? Lower sales force incentives? Reduce head count? And what about product purchasing? When it comes to eliminating weeds, insects and diseases for client accounts,... read more
From the state that gave us skateboards, the Beach Boys and many of the trends we associate with modern landscaping comes an outdoor living innovation that is figuring larger in our industry: Synthetic turf. No, artificial turf wasn’t invented in California and it’s not manufactured there, but it has become one of the hottest landscape products in the Golden State... read more
From the time he was 14 years old, it was pretty evident that Dean Carpenter was going to be an entrepreneur. The teen opened a body shop in his parents’ garage. He now owns and operates Houston Landscapes Unlimited (HLU), which offers a variety of services, including landscape and irrigation installation and maintenance, as well as beautification management. TOP TRENDS ... read more
If you study employee behavior, as I have for most of my career, you cannot help but realize that much of it is habit-driven. I have been spending hours with companies helping them to improve production during this time of low prices — and the influence of habits on performance is huge. It builds a very strong case for a... read more
