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This CEO hires local contractors for government jobs

“The government should put out good specifications, and it should get a quality product at a fair price in return,” says Andre Mayfield, CEO of LGP International/Burrell Landscape Group, located in Atlanta, Georgia. Mayfield worked in the Atlanta Mayor’s office for several years before starting an events planning and small business development consulting company in 1990. Eight years later, he added landscape contract management to his service portfolio and started a landscape management company.

His government experience, he says, taught him several things, not the least of which is the fact that municipalities, states, and even the federal government need a dual-standard bidding program, one that is based on a quality standard as well as price. He carried that thought around during the early stages of his consulting career and then saw a new business opportunity in the late 1990s.

“There was a growing trend toward outsourcing,” Mayfield recalls. “I thought if I could identify contractors for a job, do the paperwork and legwork for them, and then let them run with the project, I could help them, help the government, and help myself. It was an opportunity to take a ‘quality’ message to government bodies and match them to contractors who would deliver a quality product at a fair price.”

In 1998, he added managing landscape maintenance contracts to his business portfolio and started his own landscape management company, Burrell Landscape Group. To date, most of LGP’s landscape management contract projects have been located in the Southeast, but the business is growing, both in terms of revenue and reach. Burrell was formed to provide landscape maintenance services for small government and commercial projects in Atlanta. The eight-person company also targets the residential market.

Unconventional approach

A member of PLANET for five years, Mayfield admits that his company is rather unique among other association members. Instead of starting a satellite facility or traveling several hundred miles, he would rather retain a local contractor to do a job. In return, his company does all the paperwork, including the negotiating, obtaining appropriate permits and so forth, and then overseeing the project from afar.

“Being a PLANET member gives me the opportunity to meet several different contractors from all parts of the country, and these individuals are the best of the best,” says Mayfield. “They have overcome obstacles that may have put other companies out of business, and they are consummate professionals who understand the relationship between a quality project and price. Doing work for the government is not glamorous, and it is not for everyone. But if you are reliable and do a good job, the numbers are there to reward your effort. Part of my job and my message, again, is to encourage government officials to take quality into consideration when they ask for project bids.”

Mayfield emphasizes that time is on his side. The green industry will never go away as long as there are trees and turf that need to be maintained. Furthermore, his message is being heard by people who have actually experienced the relationship between value and price.

There is that word again, relationship. This entrepreneur, however, prefers to use it in a more social context, to apply it to individuals as they connect to learn more about each other, their value systems, and the services they provide. The approach brings dividends in government, in the private sector, and in just about any setting. In fact, as Mayfield’s contract landscape management business grows and he develops more relationships, look for the company to get more involved with the commercial market and to offer services that go beyond maintaining trees and turf.

In the meantime, the CEO is busy enough running two companies and serving on several PLANET committees. He is also Business Council cochair for the Association of Black Mayors. Like other PLANET members and volunteers, he has found a way to work smarter and not harder.

02/06
Rod Dickens, PLANET Contributing Writer