You’ve heard of CEOs, CFOs and even COOs but what about a CTO? Chief Technology Officer may sound like a position that’s only relevant for tech or social media companies, but more lawn care and landscape companies are adding this position to their organizations as they see the value it offers.
For Level Green Landscaping in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, they created the position around four years ago. Michael Mayberry, the company’s CTO, was an operations manager at the time and he had a background of developing apps in his free time.
Mayberry says half the reason Level Green hired him in the first place was because they saw value in what he was doing on the development side of things.
“The ownership definitely sees the benefit to this position and to bringing technology into what we do every day because it removes friction, whether it’s internal or external,” he says.
At The Greenery, Inc. based on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, their CTO position was created officially in 2019, but Janet Davoli, their current CTO, says she’d been performing many of the tasks before the title was made.
“The Greenery always wants to remain a green industry leader by providing a safe, quality product with great customer service,” says Davoli, LIC. “To achieve this and stay competitive, it is important to keep moving forward with technology and to keep the processes lean and maximize efficiencies. The CTO position came into being as we realized we needed to invest heavily in choosing the right technology and to implement it smoothly so we could achieve our goals. This is exactly what we did. We need someone fully dedicated to ensuring our technology matches our needs and provides more opportunities.”
What Does a CTO Do?
Just like how a CFO oversees all the financial activities of the company, the CTO is responsible for all the technology in your business.
In Mayberry’s case, he says this includes everything from handling day-to-day issues like a printer not working to connecting with other companies that are making technology developments in the industry. Thanks to his development background, Mayberry will create apps that help meet a need in the company. He says his main goal is to make sure Level Green is on the cutting edge of everything.
“I look at other industries that are far ahead of the landscaping industry because it’s no secret that the landscaping industry is extremely far behind other industries when it comes to adapting technology that exists already,” Mayberry says.
Davoli says her responsibilities include implementing their vision as it relates to technology so that their operations and accounting teams can run as efficiently and profitably as possible. She manages their IT infrastructure, the tech hardware issued to their employees and offices, and IT software that operates their business. She also helps with technology in the field such as robotic mowers.
“In recent years we have significantly moved our company forward by creating an ERP (Enterprise Resource Platform) meaning most of our software systems are integrated so the manual redundancies are reduced, and the process is more streamlined,” Davoli says. “We have also introduced robotic mowers ranging from small self-contained units for lawns to large remote-controlled models for lagoon and road embankments.”
Depending on the size of your company, a CTO can sometimes end up being your go-to IT person as well. Mayberry says in his case there is no line between the two roles. He says at times it detracts from his main focus and he is currently evaluating when they need to add another person to handle IT-related tasks.
“Once it starts taking up so much of that person’s time that they can’t focus on both things, that’s when you need to draw a hard line and divide this out,” Mayberry says.
How a CTO Helps a Business
Having a CTO allows you to have somebody on your team who is dedicated to implemetning technology and finding new ways to utilize technology within your company to reduce friction.
“Our main focus as a company when utilizing technology is to be able to allow our managers to manage more without adding extra people or without making their life more difficult,” Mayberry says. “We want to maintain a good work life balance, and we want to be able to provide tools that allow people to do that, so that we can manage more work per manager, which keeps our overhead costs down, which then allows us to take care of our people better and allows us to be more competitive with pricing.”
Whether creating automatic reports, or dashboards, or apps to communicate with clients seamlessly, Mayberry says anything that can be automated is huge because it frees up a person’s time to do something more important. Mayberry says his most important job is convincing people that change is good.
“The industry as a whole has gotten to where it is because they have perfected things back in the 80s,” Mayberry says. “That has certainly taken us up to around the 2000s but it is not going to take us to 2050 and beyond. We have got to change how we’re doing things and how we expect our customers to interact with us and to buy services from us.”
Davoli says by focusing on technology the company is better able to support operations, accounting and admin so they can do their jobs as efficiently as possible.
“Simply put, it is most important for a CTO to support the operations team as best as possible to meet their needs so they can be successful at what they do; as well as support the accounting and administrative side of the business,” Davoli says. “It is important that the employees are properly trained and comfortable operating their IT equipment, be it iPhones, iPads, Surface Pros, etc. as well as to have IT tools in their hands functioning properly. Technology can be quite frustrating when there is a hiccup with something not performing properly, so it is really important to keep things running as smoothly as possible.”
Good Traits for a CTO
If you are looking for a CTO here are some of the traits that Mayberry and Davoli say owners should look for. Obviously, they need to have an understanding of technology in general and have a passion for it.
“I don’t focus just on landscaping technology,” Mayberry says. “I am researching medical technologies, satellite technologies, weather technologies because you just never know what is going to be applicable. So, I think the most important thing is having a passion for technology.”
Another critical skill is being able to serve as a conduit between the ownership and management team and the outside technology companies they’re interacting with. A good CTO should be able to break technical concepts into layman’s terms but also understand the technology-related jargon.
“Technology can be a little scary for many folks as it typically involves change and addressing the fear of the unknown,” Davoli says. “It is very beneficial for a CTO to not only be a strong leader but an excellent communicator and well organized to direct the projects. Delivering a product in a timely manner is essential.”
Davoli says getting buy-in from operations is essential to cause change so this calls for a good working rapport with the operations team to learn their specific needs, address their concerns and keep everyone informed.
Mayberry adds that CTOs should not be an owner as owners think very differently about the business than somebody who is focused on technology. A CTO should be willing to take a risk and show the ROI that can occur by changing a certain process or software system.
Advice on Adding a CTO to Your Business
Mayberry says it’s important for even smaller companies to begin considering looking for a person who is technology-focused. He advises looking inside your current operations first to see if anyone has a passion for technology.
“I think a lot of owners look at a CTO role and they’ll pull up Indeed and look at salaries for CTOs, and say, ‘Well I can’t afford that,’” Mayberry says. “Maybe you don’t need that at first but what you do need is somebody who is thinking about technology first.”
Depending on the nature of your business will determine how the CTO role will be structured. The important thing is that they understand the landscaping industry very well. Davoli says she enjoys doing “special projects” that may not always be technology-driven but need a strong leader to bring the project to fruition.
“A good CTO should be flexible to provide support in a variety of roles as the needs arise,” she says.
Mayberry encourages others not to be afraid of technology and connect with other companies with a strong technology focus.
“Don’t wait until you actually really need somebody to start looking for that person,” Mayberry says. “It is going to be a challenge to find somebody within the price range that you want. It’s going to be a challenge to find somebody with the skillset that you want so start looking now. Start talking about it with other people.”
This article was published in the July/August issue of the magazine. To read more stories from The Landscape Professional magazine, click here to subscribe to the digital edition.
