Landscapers Taking Time to Integrate their Purchases
I’m seeing more references to “integration” in the press these days and hearing it from buyers.
What does that mean?
After a period of exciting acquisitions, at some point it becomes clear to the board or the owner that the fun and frenzy of buying landscaping companies (especially the excitement of getting the big ones first) must be followed by a period of time to figure out what this combined group of companies should be. Buyers thought they were buying similar companies, and it’s true, a landscaping company is not a manufacturing plant. But even in similar types of companies, there are old ways, new ways, better ways and “our” ways of doing things. Now is the time to figure out what to do with all of this.
It’s not usually the “deal team” that leads the integration initiative; they will be part of the leadership team to support the integration. There will be incredible opportunities to add value, build competitive advantage and further grow the company through the integration stage. On the flip side, this is the time companies find out what they bought that was not worthy and/or not a good fit and will cut them before integrating them.
Integration can be a powerful way to go beyond simple cost reductions via economies of scale. You can use this kind of effort to engage and empower your best employees to drive value creation. With your leadership team’s commitment, your integration system will be tied to your mission, vision and values and work as a part of a continuous system that will result in
- Improved client satisfaction
- Improved employee satisfaction
- Cost reduction in elimination of duplicate or inefficient systems and processes
- High performing employee culture
All these results should be measured against goals on an ongoing basis and the needle can be moved for all of them simultaneously. You don’t have to give up cost reduction to improve client satisfaction. It’s exciting for owners, leaders, clients and employees to experience the results of a company that is working to achieve these kinds of results. I know, I’ve led these projects for public and private companies, both large and small.
If you’d like to have a discussion integration and how you can use it to ramp up your profits, please reach out to me at 224-688-8838 or email me at [email protected].
We’re here to help you Harvest Your Potential!
