Ask Tom Lied, CCLP, past ALCA president, founder of the Crystal Ball Committee, and successful entrepreneur, what his business philosophy is and there is no hesitation in his voice. "It is simple," he says, "and it is something we teach our employees from their first day on the job. They are here, and so are we, to serve the client. That goes for everyone, no matter what position he or she has with the company. Either directly or indirectly, we are all serving the customer."
Tom learned that lesson early on from his father, Delmar, who started Lied's more than 55 years ago. "Dad entered the business with no formal training or experience," remembers Tom. "He was a farm boy who ran a milk route, and he loved people and plants. He started out after the war by doing maintenance and simple residential garden design. People loved him because he was sincere, and he made them feel better about themselves."
The younger Lied worked with his father throughout high school and, in 1955, graduated from Michigan State with a degree in horticulture and a minor in landscape architecture. He returned to the family business and, a year later, became a full partner with his father by buying half the operation. "Dad was the kind of guy who built up your confidence," Tom relates. "He let me make mistakes, so I learned a lot from experience. In those early days, I worked in sales and design, and we worked well together. We were both kind of stubborn, but, at the same time, we challenged each other." As Tom recounts, opportunities grew faster than their company. "We let the business grow slowly, adding new crews, new managers, salespeople, and office staff as we needed them. Essentially, we invented processes as we went, since there were no models after which we could pattern ourselves." He admits they made some mistakes along the way. The company added a wholesale nursery but later changed it into a retail outlet after too many of its "competitors" failed to pay them for their plant material. They also gave up maintenance because construction was going so well, only to later bring back the service.
"History oftentimes tells you when you make a mistake," says Tom. One mistake he says he didn't make, however, was attending ALCA's formative meeting in Chicago in the early 1960s. As he recalls, there were between 15 and 18 landscape contractors in attendance. "I was with all these 'big fish.' I heard about half-million-dollar landscaping jobs, oil money, and more and decided I had to become part of the organization to steal some ideas. Today, we call it 'benchmarking' and 'best practices.' So, I agreed to become part of the early organization and found that these big landscape contractors were interested in what I had to say, too."
Being a member of ALCA exposed Tom to the business side of the industry, something he wasn't able to learn from his father. It also gave him an insider's look at other markets from around the country, many of which were 10 years ahead of the Milwaukee market he served from his company's headquarters in Sussex. "Thanks to this exposure, we became a market leader," Tom relates.
In the early 1970s, Tom founded ALCA's Crystal Ball Committee and challenged it to predict future industry roadblocks and opportunities and, in his words, "to help landscape contractors find ways to maximize their opportunities and to minimize roadblocks while becoming more profitable." Chairing the meetings over the years had a side benefit, he says with a smile. "It gave me another opportunity to interact with some of the most intelligent and forward-thinking leaders in the industry and to take their ideas back home."
Tom also joined TEC (The Executive Committee), giving him another way to practice his benchmarking skills, this time with leaders from outside the industry. He stayed with the group 12 to 15 years and met monthly with members and sharing his ideas with them.
TEC and ALCA members became Tom's mentors and helped him grow as a businessperson. Throughout, though, he never forgot his roots. "I believe that our success originated and still comes today from our sensitivity to clients," he emphasizes. "We've always believed that listening skills were just as important as technical skills. Hence, we always hired people who wanted to listen. At Lied's, it is never appropriate for a landscape architect to say to a client, 'If I lived here, I would do it this way.' Every person is different. Some want a tame design. Others want something on the wilder side. Others still may have one definition of 'formal,' whereas the person down the street will have another definition. We serve clients by understanding what they want and using our talent to deliver their dream."
Lied's takes its clients' satisfaction to an even higher level by literally getting their approval first before trying something new. Says Tom, "Even if we thought that changing the way we do monthly statements would save us time and money, we wouldn't make the change without first testing it out on some clients. If they didn't like the idea, we wouldn't go forward with it. All proposed changes at Lied's are judged against the impact on the clients. If there will be a negative impact, we don't do it. Again, we're all here for one reason and one reason only, to serve our clients and their changing needs."
Lied's reached another plateau when Tom's son Robb joined the company. Robb is now president and part owner of Lied's. Until his grandfather died at the age of 84, Robb had an opportunity to learn from two generations of Lieds. "Robb has brought a different dimension to the business," Tom explains. "He has an accounting degree and is well prepared to work on the business, whereas both my father and I worked in the business primarily."
Tom says he still works in the business today, enjoying interacting with his clients and delivering what they want. Yet, he says, if he had his career to do over, he would spend more time working "on," and not "in," the business while he was the president. People who know Tom may find that to be wishful thinking on his part. In his own words, Tom says, "The best people will take us where we need to be. All we have to do is release their power." Tom's power was, and still is, with his customers, and who can argue with his success.
1/03
By Rod Dickens, ALCA Contributing Writer
