Conversation Series EXTRA: Scott Brickman, Brickman Group

SB: Landscape construction is just a tough business. It’s like the airline business – you could be the best airline, but you still might not make money. It’s commodity, low-bid, contracting business where you can expect to make 2 to 5 percent a year.

I think one of the hardest things in business is to turn away business. We constantly get opportunities to do install work, but because it’s a low-bid business and people don’t always do quality work, our customers come to us and say, ‘Do this job for me.’ We say, ‘Here’s our price,’ and they tell us we’re way too high. But that’s what they’ll have to pay to get us to do the job.

BW: You grew working in the business, being a crewmember from the time you were 13 years old. Did you feel like a real part of the crew, like your name didn’t matter?

SB: Absolutely. I was just another guy on the crew. And part of the reason I can do the job I do now is that I was in the field and I was part of this company before most of the executives I lead came on board, yet they have been with the company a long time. They saw me working just like they did, and I could run any piece of equipment and ball any tree as well as anyone.

The other thing that people don’t realize is that when I was doing that the business was small. We had five trucks, so it’s not like we were the rich kids who came to work with daddy. We were going to work one way or another.

Obviously, the business has grown a lot since we’ve been in the business. And my father could have said he was going to keep the business and control it, and that we could have done things his way or been gone. But he was willing to step aside for us to do what was right for us, and he didn’t force us to work together because he has seen the damage that can do to a family. So my brother decided to leave the business, and he has Lakewood Landscape in Michigan.

BW: Do you and your dad still talk about the business often?

SB: We talk a lot, and one of the nice things is that prior to bringing in the partners and me taking over, the business was all we ever talked about. Now that my siblings and I have families and kids, we talk about other things as well. And I talk to my brother a lot about business as we share customers and equipment.

BW: How has the industry changed since your grandfather founded the company in the 1930s?

SB: There are probably 10 different answers to that question. I look back to 14 years ago when I first came into [the Washington, D.C.] market, and there has been a huge change just since I’ve been here. Obviously, there has been an even greater change since my father started in 1957. So the industry has changed a lot, but the basics haven’t.

And I’ve got to tell you that it’s nice to get up in front of people and say our vision has not changed since my grandfather started this business. Our vision is based around treating people fairly with trust, honesty and respect, building long-term relationships with your customer and having the mindset to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy. That hasn’t changed, and you know what? That’s not going to change for us.

The industry is also much more sophisticated and more business oriented. A job costs the same today as it did in 1975, but it’s getting done for fewer dollars today. You put inflation into that and it’s amazing, but there have been huge efficiencies in the sophistication of using the information to manage the business, better management techniques, equipment, products and pesticides. There is just huge improvement there.

The level of education out there is also so different. I remember when it was a big deal and a big sales point that you had college-educated people working for you, and now that’s pretty basic. Actually, I think we take some of that for granted, and doing acquisitions helps you realize what you take for granted. For example, it’s amazing how few companies do something as simple as a budget, which is the fundamental building block for our whole business – our whole job costing/estimating system is tied into our budget. But companies who you would expect to have real budgets don’t even know how to do them.

BW: The Brickman Group has done a handful of acquisitions over the last few years. What make acquisitions successful?

SB: Part of what we’ve learned with acquisitions is not to go in there and say, ‘Here’s our structure.’ What we do now is say, ‘OK, here’s your structure – how can we help you be better?’ Then, when they’re ready, we’ll come in with our structure.

So Brookwood Landscape, which we bought this summer, is Brookwood, a Brickman Group company, and you won’t see any difference in it now compared to before we bought it. The customers don’t see any difference, and the employees don’t see any difference other than receiving more support. We help them recruit the people they need. They get equipment faster, and they say, ‘This is great.’ Over time, we’ll work with them to say, ‘Here’s our model,’ and they’re excited about that because they know we have a proven model.

BW: In an industry with so many family-owned businesses, why do you think there are so few family-owned companies as big as The Brickman Group?

SB: I think the reason we’ve succeeded gets down to my father, his vision and his ability to educate himself on business and leadership. He was a real scholar at leadership who saw his job as leading people, not being a landscaper. So he built an organizational structure that empowers people, then he took the risk of turning over control to other people for running regions and going into new markets. He knew he couldn’t have his hand around everything.

I think Ruppert Landscape was just getting to that point because it had gone to Atlanta and Philadelphia. I was very interested in watching how they made the transition because most of the company’s work was in an area close enough for the key managers to control it and managing that work that is further away profitably is a real challenge.

Philadelphia and Washington weren’t financial successes for us right away – we lost a ton of money in both markets until we learned how to do it. Fortunately, my father was willing to persevere to do that, and he risked a lot because he could have stayed in Chicago and lived a great life off of what he created there. That’s what a lot of people do – they say, ‘Why would I want to risk this?’

My father did it primarily because he wanted to grow the business and continue to provide opportunity. If you’re going to recruit the best people, you have to be willing to provide them opportunity to grow. For example, I’ve got 30 people here who could run their businesses and do fabulously, but they get compensated well and they’ve got opportunities to grow. They’ve got ownership in this business and they’re the ones running it, so why would they leave? But if they couldn’t grow, they’d be out the door in a heartbeat.

BW: So your dad wasn’t focused on building the biggest landscape company?

SB: Size isn’t what motivated my dad – quality is what mattered to him. My dad is meticulous about quality. That has driven through the organization.