Systematic Solutions: Setting Up Systems

Inspired by Michael Gerber’s book The E Myth, which focuses on business success through system development, DiBenedetto decided he wouldn’t settle for this negative perception and structured N.D. Landscaping’s first official system.

“It took me 200 hours to write that system, which is about 10 pages long,” said DiBenedetto, president of the Topsfield, Mass.-based company. “And since I wrote that system in November 1997, I haven’t personally been in a snow truck to plow snow and we haven’t lost one plowing account - not one. I spent two years managing the system and getting it in place, and now the system runs itself. My managers and employees don’t need me around because they know how to do it the right way every day by following a system I put in place.”

According to DiBenedetto, setting up systems within a company can make or break a business. “When you run a company, you have philosophies in your head on how you’re going to do things,” he said. “You put people in positions and then you get distracted doing other things. Suddenly, no one is happy. By setting up a system, we have a structure in place we can count on. We branded the N.D. Landscaping name on that system, and now no one is left disappointed with our service.”

Although time is sparse in a business owner’s day, taking time to formalize a system pays off. In DiBenedetto’s case, it became addictive. To date, he has 13 systems in place.

SYSTEMS & FRENCH FRIES. In 1998, McDonald’s spent $1.5 million researching french fries, said DiBenedetto, who has studied the McDonald’s business philosophy.

“McDonald’s owners use a potato supplier who grows potatoes to their starch content specifications,” DiBenedetto explained. “And, today, 80 percent of McDonald’s orders include french fries. That’s how deep within an organization a system penetrates.

“A system isn’t only about your little nucleus of an organization - it gets into your suppliers too,” DiBenedetto continued. “For instance, if I work with a brick supplier who helps me better organize my brick storage - maybe makes a different-sized brick for me - then I can purchase more bricks per square foot of storage space and more efficiently control that space. This could save my customers money, as well, if due to this new supplier relationship, I can lay brick for half the cost of other local contractors. I’m selling my expertise and knowledge to that customer by internally setting up a simple system of organization.”

But looking at every area of an unsystematic organization and transforming it into one with structure can prove daunting. Where does one start? According to Phillip Fox, estimator, Showplace Landscaping, Crittenden, Ky., focusing on original company goals or mission statements can be helpful.

“Before you succeed in business, you have to first define what your goal or destination is,” Fox said. “A system is the highway you take to reach your destination. Of course, the reason we are in business is to make a profit. And having efficient systems in place is critical in the competitive landscaping market. There is simply no room for sloppiness - you have to constantly be on guard to turn a profit in this business.”

Maria Threadgill has seen first-hand what a positive outcome implementing systems can have on a company. Threadgill, now the operations manager at James River Grounds Management, Glen Allen, Va., was originally hired for office administration. In this position, she realized how disorganized a business is without systems.

“From an accounting standpoint, there were massive amounts of unnecessary paperwork,” she said. “Each invoice was a Word document that had to be manually reentered into the accounting system - it was truly a mess. From a human resources perspective, there were no defined job responsibilities. We had the people who did the work and the people in the office and that was all the clarification that was made. From a customer standpoint, the person who handled the account was the same one who answered the phone call; the same could be said for the office. Any task needing completion was taken care of by whoever found the problem. There was no organization.

“That was $4 million and six years ago,” Threadgill continued. “Our fast-paced growth has made it crucial that we take each one of these areas and implement systems for them.”

When helping to implement James River Grounds Management’s systems, Threadgill focused on forming checks and balances, eliminating waste and duplication and strengthening the company’s vision.

“Integrating an inexpensive database program into our existing accounting software eliminated excess paperwork for routing, job costing, inventory and sales,” Threadgill said. “Writing well-thought-out job descriptions for each position eliminated the overlap of responsibilities. And the implementation of an account management system where each customer knows exactly who is taking care of them and who that person’s back-up is helped us give customers one or two contacts to deal with for their sites instead of 10, so they weren’t being transferred to different people every time there were different requests.”

These simple systems achieved what Threadgill believes is the end result of a sound system: “A process that enables a task, or set of tasks, to be performed without the chance of something falling through the cracks and in the most simplistic way possible but still reaching optimum performance.

DON’T JUST SAY IT - WRITE IT. Developing a system takes commitment, Fox pointed out. “In the early stages of implementing a new system, more time and effort is involved,” he said. “And there will be temptation to revert back to the old way of doing things. Adjusting to the new system takes time for everyone involved.”

The first step is writing out the necessary steps involved to keep the system running smoothly. But simply writing out the steps can prove discouraging, DiBenedetto admitted. “There isn’t a book available on how to write a system,” he said. “But if it’s not written, it’s not a system - it’s just a habit and will vaporize over time.”

DiBenedetto learned this lesson the hard way. He developed a system for his construction division, explaining to the production manager that he must arrive 15 minutes early every day before the crew and foremen to prepare for a morning meeting. As the foremen came in, the production manager was to discuss with them the day’s jobs, available employees and equipment, help load trucks and send crews out.

But after a short while, the production manager started coming in later, claiming that the process worked better if the trucks were loaded nightly, DiBenedetto explained.

“The system wasn’t written down so the production manager adapted the system to what he felt worked best,” he said. “I had to explain to him that I felt the foremen weren’t managing themselves in the morning. Therefore, I needed him to be there early to manage the foremen and prepare questions to get them thinking and talking. Then he needed to efficiently get the crews out the door on time. I told him, ‘If your idea of a different system can do that - great, let’s talk about it when we get a chance. But, right now, we have to do it this way because that’s the current system we have in place.’

“I understand that systems need to be constantly reviewed and upgraded,” DiBenedetto continued. “I’m willing to change my systems, but to do that we need to discuss system ideas, write them down and then implement them. And until we do that, we can’t abandon the current system that is in place.”

Few landscape contractors have the time to stop what they are doing to write out a new system, which is the main factor discouraging most of them from implementing systems. But this is a challenge worth facing, DiBenedetto said.

“Sure, there’s no time while running a business to write a new system - that’s the challenge,” he said. “As a business owner there’s always something to do other than develop a system. But you can’t have someone else come in and develop a system for you; they don’t know who you are, what your customers expect from you or how you want a job site to look when you leave.”

While writing and implementing systems can be a challenge, contractors who set them up can eliminate time-consuming activities and recognize their employees’ capabilities, Threadgill pointed out. “Systems are usually fairly easy to set up, but keeping them going is critical,” she said, adding that her company’s biggest mistake in the past was not having a specific person responsible for monitoring and enforcing specific systems. “By implementing systems, we learned that we spent a lot of time doing unnecessary tasks and no time doing really important ones. Also, we learned that a good system helps us capitalize on an employee’s strengths.”