Why settle for “ Half & Half” when you can have “ the full Monty “ ?
Adding a sip of whipped milk into your coffee automatically transforms it into a tasty and exclusive Cafe Latte, a really value-added thing to do nowadays if you are in the Coffe-Shop business.
However, adding a bit of price-beaten landscaping or low-balling lawncare into the huge pot of facility services, doesn’t automatically transform a cleaning company into a dedicated Outdoor-Professional! The Know-How of the real Landscaping Industry and the Hearts of the Green Professionals give the customers something more than just mere management. Something to do with dedicated leadership, true committment and specialized organizations that have nothing what-so-ever to do with dry-cleaning, catering or housemaids!
It is often righteous said in this business that the best ideas to increase productivity and strengthen the competitive capability comes from the working men and women out in the field, or from their co-working foremen. This is indeed very true today when we are struggling in an ever more competitive market with hundreds or thousands of new service-firms wanting to “ take a share of the market “ and offers a wide mix of services to a wide range of customers.
But are they really capable of handling all these different services with the same competence, attention and long-term commitment as the Landscapers themselves?
Is it not so, that landscaping and grounds maintenance plays a subordinate role in their big structures and when it comes to management it is more a question of facility management in general than it is of particularly grounds management?
In Sweden, we have long seen the development of facility management firms and how they grow through mergers and acquisitions instead of growing the normal way, through building reputation and relations, loads of hard work and a genuine mission for developing the living, green On-stage surfaces into an out-door environment filled with activities, re-creation and experiences.
Sure, Landscapers, are also both keen on building and performing excellent functionality on back-stage surfaces where low-cost installation and maintenance goes hand in hand and they are most willing to find cost-efficient solutions for cleaning and maintaining all green surfaces, but primarily the Landscape Industry is The Defender and The Innovator of Building with green materials for both a sustainable and enjoyable future for Mother Nature.
“ Markservice “ in Swedish means integrated grounds services and that is also part of the name of the leading independent Landscape contractor in Sweden.
With more than 20 local offices around Sweden, from north to south, they manage to succeed extremely well by focusing on the Grounds Management as a entity and instead of diversifying the business into all kinds of facility services, they offer a complete solution for all professional outdoor services ranging from design and installation to maintenance and renovation with a true green commitment from the top leadership down to the landscape gardeners, technicians and machine operators in the field.
Also when it comes to staffing they take a different position from the facility services, when their own staff capacity is not enough they don’t just lease workers from an agency or so, which often is the case, but they try seriously to subcontract or temporarily hire other qualified green professionals, namely the Farmers, the men and women who keeps our landscape open, have a good common sense and knowledge of working “down to earth” and a genuine feeling for plants and nature that almost seems to be streaming through their blood.
Those working as subcontractors or helping them staffing the contracts, they even have a real, substantial influence over the entire organization as they, how should I put it, partly own the company. Indeed, it is a new idea for successful grounds management!
It is refreshing to see a new, strong actor, though still an independent, pure Landscaping company, fast forming their men and women into line, and not only do they take up the fight with the cleaning business but they lead the way on a national scale while still remaining outdoor professionals.
So if you fear the competition from the ever growing multinational giants, let there be no doubt that it is possible to grow and become number 1 without offering catering or dry-cleaning to your customers. Just do it the natural way, work with green professionals all the way. How do you find those substantial numbers of men and women to keep up the growth and maintain competence and working spirit? Literally in the field... Many farmers need side works or may even be ready to quit farming and go fulltime into our part of the Green world. That’s how!
With the right basic skill, professional training and a true committed overall leadership it can go sky high. It isn’t rocket science you know, just pure common sense set into a the right framework.
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Claes-Anders Malmberg is the director of ACAMA Konsult HB and you can find more appropriate information on Swedish Landscaping Markservice at www.acama.se
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