COVERSTORY
up-to-speed in terms of our virtual capabilities,” says Fullerton. “Now, we are 100-percent virtual and that’s a blessing that has come out of this.” Rossen echoes a similar story. “It’s not all doom and gloom. We’ve gained a ton of efficiencies because of this — including having become masters at Microsoft Teams meetings,” he laughs. “Previously, all of those meetings were done face-to-face. This has proven that we don’t have to all be in the same room together to get things done. We are functioning just fine remotely.”
Rossen did say that having the right software support has been crucial. “Our Aspire software program has been critical in this whole thing,” he says. “If we didn’t have everything that we did streamlined into one soft- ware program, it would have been a nightmare. Aspire has honestly been a lifesaver in this.” The company has even found some ways to keep things fun.
“I can’t take credit for this as it was my business partner Jason Navon’s idea, however, we’ve been doing ‘water cooler’ virtual meetings where once a week we’re getting all 15 members of
the middle management team together just to talk,” says Rossen. “We might put a funky background up, play a little trivia, or just chat. My key challenge as a leader is to find ways to continue to engage the workforce even as we work remotely — and that’s hard. But this has been one way to do just that.” Like others, Borst sees potential
changes in the future as a result of a “new norm.”
“It’s hard to know what exactly that will look like, but I do see more people working from home in the future — in our industry and others,” he says. “I think in the long-term, people won’t travel as much. They might even take fewer vacations but will instead say, ‘Let’s make our oasis here in our back- yard.’ Down the road, that could help our industry.”
My mantra is an ounce of prevention will save a whole tree.
Ramon Reyes champions the trees, landscapes and property investments of the customers in his care. And he’s one of the many reasons we’ve become the premier scientifi c tree and shrub care company in the world.
877-BARTLETT |
bartlett.com
Moore says that he’s doing every- thing he can to look at the positives — and the opportunities — that may arise from this situation. “We’ve been looking at buying real estate and we’re wondering if there may be reduced real estate costs that come of this,” Moore says. “We’ve also recognized that with some improve- ments, working remotely is a possibility for us. The point is, there are opportuni- ties. There’s no question that the illness driving this is absolutely devastating. You can’t lose sight of the fact that lives are being lost. But I do think in terms of business, there are opportuni- ties out there right now.”
RAMON REYES Arborist and
EVERY TREE NEEDS A CHAMPION. 26 The Landscape Professional //May/June 2020 Bartlett Champion
Zellner shares a similar sense of hope with a focus on the bright side. “While we’ve had some customers put their accounts on hold because of un- certainties, I have no doubt that once this calms down, we will be able to get those customers back,” he says. “They didn’t make a change due to being dissatis- fied but rather because they felt they were forced to be conservative in their spending. We’re continuing to focus on the things that have helped our business to grow in the first place and we remain positive and optimistic that we will come through this as a result.” TLP
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