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OLATHE, Kan. – Highland Outdoor, a high-end residential and commercial design/build and maintenance firm that services the Midwest, has announced that Chief Operations Officer Chad Fulk has been appointed president and chief executive officer for the company, effective Jan. 1, 2006. Fulk has almost 10 years of experience in the landscaping and green industry.
Fulk will focus on propelling Highland Outdoor as the regional leader in design/build, landscaping, irrigation and maintenance services in the high-end residential and high-end commercial markets. Fulk’s systems approach to leading the company will contribute to continuing to achieve the sales, operational and financial goals of the company on a day-to-day basis.
“The appointment of Chad Fulk as president and chief executive officer will allow the company to continue on its aggressive growth path to be the forerunner in innovation for our industry in the Midwest,” said former president and CEO Jason Cupp. “I’m excited and encouraged by the level of leadership Chad will provide to our team members and clients in the coming years, and am equally excited about the opportunity I will have to use my gifts and talents in a new way to make maximum impact in our company.”
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In passing the baton to Fulk, Cupp has been named chairman of the board for Highland Outdoor. He currently holds numerous national leadership positions in the landscaping and design/build industry, including sitting on the board of directors of the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET), the leading national trade association for green industry companies. Cupp has almost 20 years experience in the landscaping and green industry.
Cupp will focus on the strategic initiatives of Highland Outdoor, including the sales and marketing plan, being the voice of the company, as well as working with Fulk to provide national best-practices from companies in other markets similar to Highland Outdoor. Recently, Cupp and Fulk visited Mariani Landscape, Lake Bluff, Ill., one of the top design/build and maintenance firms in the country, to share best practices.
“One of the things that really refines us as a business is to learn best practices from our friends in the industry that aren’t our competitors,” Cupp tells Lawn & Landscape. “As a company, we’re working on identifying friends we have through PLANET or other aspects of the industry and invite them to share their best practices with us and we share ours with them.”
Expanding on the professionalism of industry networking, Cupp says that while Highland Outdoor isn’t the biggest company in the industry, it’s “thinking in ways that are unconventional for a company our size and age. One of our goals in the industry is to expand on our investment in the trade associations and also help other companies ask the critical questions that have helped us become successful.”
Cupp and Fulk co-founded Highland Outdoor in late 2004, with the merging of their two legacy companies, The Kincaide Co. of Kansas City, Kan. and ADKI Group of Olathe. Both men will continue to be the sole shareholders and partners of Highland Outdoor.
“Highland Outdoor was formed a little over a year ago and we’re very pleased with how things are going,” Cupp says. “We called 2005 our ‘Year of Refinement’ because there were challenges bringing two great companies together because Chad and I are dynamic but very different leaders. In June 2005, we looked in the mirror and said that we knew we had great clients and great opportunity, but we weren’t clicking on all cylinders. We hired a consultant to walk us through a process of redefining our roles and making sure we had the right people in the right places. We had to make some hard decisions during the summer, but that’s part of the refining process.”
Cupp explains that in the same way iron comes out pure after being refined in fire, Highland Outdoor became a stronger version of itself after a year of focusing on areas of improvement. For 2006, Cupp says the company will capitalize on the changes made during 2005 and has identified two areas that will take the company to the next level: A distinct focus on people and processes. “There are the areas where Chad and I each thrive,” Cupp says. “I’ll focus on the people aspect, he’ll focus on processes and that’s going to help us be successful in 2006.”