QUARTERLY OPERATIONAL REVIEWS

Steven Cesare, Ph.D.

A business owner from Wisconsin called me the other day to talk about the compelling need to increase operational efficiency (e.g., gross margin, revenue per employee, labor utilization) in an ever-competitive industry circumscribed by the antipodal forces of unprecedented wage pressures from employees contrasted against stern customer resistance to corresponding service rate increases. Misled by years of books, articles, and propaganda peddled by myriad sources claiming to have the silver bullet solution to the search for the Holy Grail of Success, I told the business to become more narrowly focused, address field execution, and define organizationally-organic best practices.

All too often business owners and field managers are dominated by the issue of the day, crisis of the moment, or fad of the month, instead of isolating and refining the fundamentals toward optimization. This is routinely seen in tactical one-on-one meetings, monthly financial review sessions, or reacting to an ad-hoc customer complaint, all of which typically yield a band-aid answer rather than reimagined insight.

I know. I know. This does not happen at your company.

But I bet you know a company where it does happen.

As a capitalist, I suggested the Wisconsin business owner schedule one eight-hour meeting each quarter to fixate exclusively on one topic; go deep, get into weeds, call it out, zero-base the entire process to uncover inefficiency, white-board the re-engineering, specify the waste, publicize the blind spots, etc.

For example, I recommended that he and his management team meet on April 5th to review the entire snow operation (e.g., goals, planning, marketing, renewals, proposals, preparation, staffing, training, execution, using BOSS Snow, scheduling, metrics, evaluation, equipment utilization, quality) spanning August through March. Only focusing on snow execution.

Then on July 9th, have a similarly-configured meeting to review the entire Spring Ramp Up (i.e., “the 100 days of hell”) process (e.g., goals, staffing, reboarding, wage rates, equipment readiness, new production rates, mulch, installation, clean ups, vendor management, scheduling, routing circles, new job start-ups, job sequencing, job quality, client communication, time management) spanning March through June. Only focusing on field ramp up execution.

Guess what?

Let’s schedule another meeting on October 2nd to review Customer Service. I keep hearing we are not in the horticulture business; we are in the people business. Prove it to me and your team on October 2nd. Examine the soup-to-nuts range of customer service provided by your employees (e.g., goals, customer profiles, contact points, response time, communication format, need for overcommunication to Tier 1 clients,
face-to-face interactions, personal vs. transactional rapport, customer service training given to ALL staff, number and genre of customer complaints, focus groups, customer satisfaction, renewal rates, enhancements ratios, metrics, referrals). Only focusing on how we treat our customers.

You knew it was coming.

On January 7th, have the final meeting of the calendar year to review fiscal year-end close. There is a lot going on in Quarter 4 every year, with ample points of focus (e.g., goals, fall clean ups, winter layoffs, year-end audits, recalibrated production rates, legal requirements, tax avoidance, computer upgrades, insurance renewals, staffing decisions, budget reconciliations, bonus payouts). Only focus on year-end close.

Normally, landscapers address issues in a topical fashion. That works; but it’s not optimal. Instead take a more serious, surgical approach and delve into the essence of a single business process, examining root causes, systemic inefficiencies, false assumptions, substandard decisions, poor design, or bad execution, with the goal of identifying operationally-specific practices that are the silver bullet for your company.

Trust me: That silver bullet will have much better aim.

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