Over the last two months, we completed our first peer group meeting cycle for the 2023 calendar year. We refer to these as our ‘benchmark meetings’. During these meetings, we compare member company financial performance for the 2022 F’Y, and take a look ahead to 2023.

For the most part, our peer group CEOs are optimistic that 2023 will be a good year but are cautious about how the second half will evolve. Recession predictions are all over the place but so far, our industry feels good. Backlogs are still strong; some reductions in enhancement spending show clients are being cautious. Renewals on maintenance for most companies are strong with some resistance to price increases above 5%.

The labor market is improving, so staffing levels are closer to normal. Talent still comes at a premium so many CEOs are developing talent from within. Peer group companies tell us their clients are more receptive to green initiatives, water conservation, and more sustainable landscapes; they are starting to use more electric equipment–some by choice and some by local regulations.

Overall, a very productive round one of peer group meetings.

Are you interested in learning more about our CEO peer groups? Visit https://brucewilsoncompany.humblehunger.com/ceo-peer-groups-quick-view to get started.

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GREENVILLE, SC, March 15, 2023 ~ Bruce Wilson, founder of green industry consulting firm, Bruce Wilson & Company, and recipient of the National Association of Landscape Contractors’ Lifetime Leadership Award, has been named Chairman as the company refreshes its brand to Wilson360 to mark its next chapter of growth.

Robert Clinkenbeard, former managing partner, steps into new role as CEO.

“This is an exciting year for us as we celebrate Bruce’s 50-year legacy of leadership and introduce a new chapter in client services,” said Clinkenbeard, who became managing partner in 2021.

“Since Wilson & Co. began its journey more than two years ago, we have progressed successfully in many dimensions. We have further strengthened our client portfolio by being a highly relatable business partner, and we have grown our reputation and engagement as thought leaders worldwide. Collectively identifying as Wilson360 brings agility closer to the core of our business, allowing us to generate more opportunities for our peer group members, clients and partners. Bruce shaped our growth as he shaped our industry, and he will continue to inspire our vision forward,” he added.

The Wilson360 brand elements will be rolled out over the next six months in a staged approach as part of a reveal campaign that will be featured at the firm’s annual client Thought Leader Retreat in July.

As Chairman, Bruce will continue to be a driving force in the green industry and a strategic advisor for landscape business owners seeking next stage growth.

The Wilson360 rebranding will become official across the firm’s portfolio effective January 2024.

ABOUT ROBERT CLINKENBEARD

Robert Clinkenbeard is the chief executive officer of Bruce Wilson & Company, a leading privately-held green industry consultancy that specializes in helping landscape business owners and executives increase their influence and accelerate market growth.

Robert brings more than 20 years of executive leadership and management experience as former CEO and co-founder of ILM, one the largest landscape companies in the American southwest, which he and his partner subsequently sold to Aspen Grove Landscape Companies in 2016.

Robert is the past president of the Arizona Contractors Association and past president of the Arizona Chapter of the Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO). He has served in multiple senior leadership roles within EO, and is a global business coach with The Radix Group. In addition to leading the Wilson branded companies, Robert is a Certified Scaling-Up coach, podcaster, speaker, and author focused on behaviors that improve leadership, legacy and impact.

MEDIA CONTACT

Cheryl Steelberg –  cheryl.steelberg@brucewilsoncompany.com

818-554-5900 pacific

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“Peer groups for managers is a powerful and simple approach to help turn managers into better leaders of teams and a better wing team for owners,” said Bruce Wilson. “Peer groups are flexible, scalable, and practical ways for managers to learn and grow, build credibility, and become effective drivers of their company’s organizational needs.”

START DATE: January 2023.

WHO CAN JOIN? Managers, business unit leaders, and mid-level professionals lead mission-critical organizational functions. Peer groups will focus on common challenges managers and emerging leaders face in the following areas: finance, recruiting and onboarding, business development, operations, and technology.

MEETING SCHEDULE: Meetings will be 90-minutes in length, and held bi-monthly in the Wilson & Co. Zoom Room. They will be facilitated by Wilson & Co.’s experienced practice leaders in finance, operations, recruiting and onboarding, and systems integration.

STRUCTURE/FORMAT: Meetings will follow an agenda that allows flexibility for discussion. Each group will be limited to between five and six companies, with each company represented by one to two managers.

MEMBERSHIP: Membership is open to all landscape companies in the green industry, with preferred enrollment given to managers of existing Wilson & Co. peer group clients.

Looking to improve manager effectiveness? Get in touch. Contact Robert Clinkenbeard @ 480-251-2366 or email, information@brucewilsoncompany.com.

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“CEOs must embrace disruption to thrive,” says company founder, Bruce Wilson. “But the scope of disruption can also feel like the ‘wild west’ with no rules for business owners who are uncertain about what to do next. Our goal with this event is to take the fear out of transformative change, and use it instead to gain scale and become faster on our feet.”

This year’s Thought Leader Retreat theme, “Shift Happens”, will crowdsource solutions – allowing everyone attending to generate ideas and develop a collective framework that all participating CEOs can use to empower a culture of innovation in their own companies.

Event speaker lineup includes a roster of internally-known thought leaders, each with expertise and perspective on multiple disruptive fronts:

• Phill Sexton, Practical Next Steps for the Right Sustainability Strategy
• Scott Zimmer, Recruiting, Retaining & Leading Across Generations
• Billy Otteman, Robotics & Artificial Intelligence from R&D to Your Bottom Line
• Andrew Bray, Political Shifts, Policy Changes & The Road Ahead
• Thom Singer, Connecting with People in a Gadget-Crazed World
• Mark Adamson, Change Your Training – Change Your Culture

Join us July 25-27, San Antonio, Texas., at the JW Marriott Hill Country Resort & Spa. Learn to leverage upheavals, inspire innovation in your team, and influence meaningful organizational change.

Registration is open. Email Joe Kujawa at joe.kujawa@brucewilsoncompany.com or visit our Eventbrite.

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Founded in 2015 by Brian Helgoe and One Rock to acquire Signature Landscape Services in Seattle, another CCG client, Monarch has quickly become a leading regional player in the western U.S. Monarch operates in five states (California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Texas) and serves a broad set of blue-chip customers primarily comprised of commercial and corporate campuses, municipalities and HOAs.

Brian Helgoe, CEO of Monarch, stated, “It was a pleasure having CCG on the Monarch process as they bring 20 plus years of industry experience and momentum to a transaction. Brian Corbett has a unique perspective on thinking about how to drive more value for investors, customers and the people in the landscape industry. Their professionalism and care is impeccable.”

About CCG Advisors

CCG Advisors is an investment banking firm based in Atlanta, Georgia specializing in representing the owners of best-in-class privately held companies in the planning and implementation of strategic growth and exit strategies. CCG has an unrivaled 25-year history in commercial landscape management, having successfully closed transactions on behalf of many of the biggest and best companies in the green industry.

The Press Release

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In 2022, it’s the color of jobs.

The U.S. Government defines green jobs as: “Jobs in businesses that produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources.”

The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® green building certification criteria include categories for landscape design, landscape construction, landscape maintenance, and sustainable approaches and practices that reduce waste and improve environmental performance.

The business of landscaping and of building and ensuring the sustained health of open green spaces, habitats, parks and gardens requires the same kind of experience, expertise and discipline necessary to run any unique industry. Yet, while the public may credit the success of a thriving consumer company to a charismatic CEO, the success story of the landscape business often goes untold.

Green industry companies serve Main Street and Wall Street, and backyards across America. According to the U. S. Bureau of Labor, the services sector in which the landscape industry sits, is increasingly vital to world economic growth. Within this sector, family-owned businesses, a category that includes a large percentage of landscape services companies, account for more
than half of all new jobs created.

From the front lines to the corner office and hundreds of thousands of people and offices in between, careers in the landscape services industry provide the foundation for advancing the aspirations and goals of job seekers across all demographics looking to find a healthy work environment where ideas, imagination and creativity can thrive.

Landscape businesses are as environmentally friendly as they are people friendly. They are technologically advanced, financially strong and high performing career homes where biodiversity is the diversity of the workplace and the results of the work impact the health and well-being of the world we live in.

Whether you want to be an entrepreneur, work for an entrepreneur, lead a team, be a team player, or find a sense of connection through nature, purpose and common ground, there is an opportunity in the landscape industry waiting for you.

We’re green. We’re growing. And we’re hiring.

Interested? Contact our Talent Acquisition Partner David Krysh to learn more.
Email: David.Krysh@brucewilsoncompany.com

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There are a lot of professional advisory options to choose from and it’s hard to know where to start. To make it easy, here are our top 10 reasons to retain a consultant:

1. Your company lacks the internal expertise for a specific situation 
2. Your business is planning a major change and you need strategic direction 
3. Your company is exploring new markets or expanding its services
4. Your organization needs to fill a specific function or knowledge gap
5. You need a wider set of skills and extra hands to meet deliverables 
6. You need coaching or training for performance improvements 
7. Your business needs operational improvements for greater efficiency
8. You need to expand your professional network of resources
9. Your company needs extra support during periods of transition 
10. Your business needs to implement new systems and policies

Consulting can provide landscape CEOs with a low risk, high reward option for leaders who need someone who can hit the ground running, add immediate value, and provide unique subject matter expertise for as little or as long as required.

Ready for a solution? The Bruce Wilson & Company team of consulting professionals is here to help.

From updating your business strategy to executing change management to growing your team and your market. If you need a professional who can help with corporate strategy, succession or exit planning, operational performance, financial advice, business processes, technology systems integration, risk and compliance, recruiting, onboarding new employees, marketing, public relations, social media, customer surveys, coaching or training—or more simply, looking for a team of experts who can work together to give you a coordinated solution to improve growth and profitability, contact:  information@brucewilsoncompany.com

Our people are our greatest strength. Meet them at: www.brucewilsoncompany.com/about/our-team/

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“In today’s competitive environment, improving workflow is key,” said Brian “By looking at the activities landscape teams repeat all the time, we can eliminate bottlenecks and distractions, and improve factors that increase capacity and ensure consistent performance.”

“Brian is a great asset to our team,” says Robert Clinkenbeard, BW&Co managing partner, “and his work optimizing process-level improvements is a powerful tool for CEOs looking to manage profitability and speed up delivery.”

Brian says that increasing productivity and reducing costs improves the overall quality of landscape services and can help everyone from the front lines to the C-suite solve problems together. Brian is a trained horticulturist with a career that grew from the field to the corner office, so his deep understanding of how high performing businesses work, and his ability to come up with a better and more streamlined way of doing things is a plus.

Born and raised in Southern Illinois, Brian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Horticulture from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. His career includes core competencies across industry segments and operations, including wholesale nursery and botanical garden management, design-build, residential and commercial landscape services, and senior management.

In his new role, Brian will support Wilson clients as a productivity advisor and training consultant, specializing in performance improvements, and work flow and value stream
mapping.

Please join us in welcoming Brian to the team.

Brian can be reached at brian.brueggemann@brucewilsoncompany.com

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The 12 Days of a Learning Organization

On the first day of Learning, my Sustainability Officer gave to me
Mycorrhizae for my pear tree.

On the second day of Learning, my CFO gave to me
Two systems integrated!

On the third day of Learning, my Client gave to me
Three hearty thank yous!

On the fourth day of Learning, my Team gave to me
Four collaborations!

On the fifth day of Learning, my Mentor gave to me
Five innovations!

On the sixth day of Learning, my Peer Group gave to me
Six forward-thinking leaders!

On the seventh day of Learning, my Association gave to me
Seven knowledge champions!

On the eighth day of Christmas, my Zoom class gave to me
Eight new ideas!

On the ninth day of Learning, my Help Desk gave to me
Nine digital platforms!

On the tenth day of Learning, my Intern gave to me
Ten generational insights!

On the eleventh day of Learning, my CEO gave to me
Eleven big-picture perspectives!

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my career gave to me
Twelve loads of gratitude
Eleven big picture perspectives
Nine digital platforms
Eight new ideas
Seven knowledge champions
Five innovations
Four collaborations
Three hearty thank yous
Two systems integrated
And mycorrhizae for my pear tree.

May all things be merry and bright.

Bruce Wilson & Company

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