In Phil Harwood’s May 2014 Snow Strategy column, “How to use weather data for sales, renewals,” he offered snow management companies several suggestions about what snowfall data to collect and what charts are useful. Here are some examples he compiled for his home market of Detroit from National Weather Service data. Example 1: Detroit Seasonal Snowfall History by Year –... read more
Calculating probability of various snowfall totals is not all that complicated, although not quite as easy as calculating the average seasonal snowfall for your market(s). Probability is the likelihood of occurrence in terms of a percent. While there are different ways to calculate probability, one of the easiest is to sort your list of seasonal snowfall totals from smallest to... read more
When Patrick Hawkins left corporate America to join his wife’s family’s lawn care company, he brought with him a few tactics from his previous career. (See the May 2014 cover story, “New direction,” for more on Hawkins and others in their second-act careers.) One of them is a Service Quality Audit (SQA) program, used to ensure technicians in the field... read more
In “An ‘unprecedented’ dilemma” from the May 2014 issue of Landscape Management, we interviewed Lori Roman, president of the Salt Institute, about the reasons for what appeared to be a salt shortage this winter and how to better prepare for such occurrences in the future. Roman, among other experts, pointed to stockpiling as the most efficient means to prepare for a salt... read more
Are your ears ringing? They should be. People are talking about the collective landscape industry, and it’s a good thing. Who do I mean? Investors at private equity firms like KKR, which bought the Brickman Group last year for $1.6 billion. KKR also is reportedly in talks to acquire ValleyCrest Cos. for around a billion dollars. Readers of Forbes, which... read more
Are you getting the most out of your investment in production supervisors? In many cases the answer is no. The position has evolved into more of a firefighter or a gofer for account managers. To be effective, the person in this position needs to focus primarily on improving the effectiveness of the crew leaders he or she supervises. I believe... read more
