29 DecAre You Listening to What Your Customers Really Want?

I came across this article by Mark Cuban last week. It does a great job of reinforcing that if you want to be an industry leader and improve your sales and profits, you need to provide innovative solutions instead of just incremental improvements. This where I think many Ornamental Horticulture suppliers miss an important point. We forget our ultimate customer is the consumer who makes decisions to buy plants on how they fill their perceived emotional needs, as ornamental plants are not a necessity in people’s lives.

19 NovInspiring Change

Last week I wrote about the tremendous opportunity that todays economic situation provides for the green industry. While reviewing some trade articles, I came a across the article below by Danny Summers a longtime industry veteran and friend. Danny’s article talks about inspiring change to create opportunities for the future. He echos the same thoughts, that we must make positive changes in the way our businesses communicate and inspire consumers if we are to take advantage of our future growth potential. I think you will enjoy reading Danny’s article.

11 NovOpportunity is Knocking

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
Albert Einstein

Many companies have struggled in the turbulence of the passing recession because they assumed our industry would be as recession proof as it had in the past. That approach bred overconfidence, which probably led to a postponement of needed corrections, which only made the struggles worse. Many companies have been forced to leave the industry as a result of these financial struggles.