How often do you find yourself wishing for more time in the day?
Mark Pyrah, president of Peak Landscape, based in Hillsboro, Oregon, argues that the true problem landscape company owners are facing is decision volume.
“You’re making hundreds of small calls a day that don’t need you, and that’s not leadership; it’s being a bottleneck with a title,” Pyrah says.
Pyrah will cover how systems and AI can clear these low-value decisions so you can focus on the work that really matters during his session, “Beyond SOPs: How Automation and AI Are Redefining Scale in the Landscape Industry” on Monday, Nov. 9, at 10 a.m. at ELEVATE.
“I run a commercial landscape and tree care company, not a tech startup,” Pyrah says. “Everything I’ll show you got built inside a real business with real crews, real clients, and real payroll to make. If your growth still depends on how many hours you personally can grind, this session is for you. We’re doing more revenue with the same headcount, and automation is how.”
Have You Become a Bottleneck?
Pyrah notes that the better you are at making decisions, the more these get routed to you. Leaders too often take pride in being the person who can solve anything and enjoy the feeling of being needed. However, this practice can quickly strangle the business.
“We call it dedication and get more overwhelmed,” Pyrah says.
A good test to see which systems aren’t really a solution is to take a week off and see what breaks. In some cases, a ‘system’ is just you written down as a job description.
“Watch for the same questions landing on your desk every week, decisions waiting on you when you’re out, and your best people asking permission instead of taking action,” Pyrah says.
Integrating Systems and AI
Pyrah argues that not every issue needs additional processes. Sometimes all that’s needed a smart system that can do the thinking in the background and highlights what needs a human’s attention.
“Stop asking, ‘What’s our process for this?’ and start asking, ‘Why does a human have to touch this at all?’” Pyrah says.
An example at Pyrah’s company is their field inspection tool, which ensures it captures everything the same way every time so questions don’t come back to the office. They’re also using AI to draft proposals, analyze financials by division, and flag accounts at risk before they cancel.
“The tools aren’t the point,” Pyrah says. “Every one took a decision off someone’s plate and gave the time back.”
Pyrah says they started systematically implementing AI over a year ago, but the key was to stop treating AI as a novelty and start seeing it as a way to protect his team’s time and judgment.
If you’re not sure where to start implementing AI in your own business, start with one decision you’re tired of making.
“Just one,” Pyrah says. “Not a platform, not a transformation. One repetitive decision that drains you every week. Automate that, learn from it, then do the next one. People get overwhelmed imagining they have to rebuild the whole company at once. You don’t. You build trust with the tools one small win at a time.”
For those wary that automation will kill accountability, Pyrah says this fear is backward.
“When everything lives in someone’s head, you can’t hold anyone accountable; there’s no shared record of what was supposed to happen,” Pyrah says. “When it lives in a system, the scoreboard is right there. We still measure success at the individual level. Automation just gives us a clearer, faster picture of who’s hitting the mark and who needs help.”
Ready to learn the framework for shifting from being your company’s best decision-maker to being the architect of its decisions? Register for ELEVATE, and we’ll see you in Tampa, Florida!
