My first time attending the GROW! 2025 Annual Conference made me think about the forest…
I once read a book in which the authors explained business maturation cycles in the context of the ecology of a forest. Similar to a forest, businesses grow and become mature, and without rejuvenation, they become less productive due to the canopy suppressing the understory. We used the philosophy years ago when designing the current state of Bland Landscaping Company. As I myself and the company I lead approach fifty years old, I am learning to appreciate the fact that this philosophy applies to as many things in life and business as it does in the natural world.
When a tree falls, a resurgence of growth takes place, allowing the understory to thrive, similar to when someone retires or leaves for another opportunity. The forest will find homeostasis and fill the void, the same way healthy organizations do. One tree’s decline gives way to another tree’s opportunity to thrive and reach toward the photosynthetic sunlight of the upper canopy. A healthy forest has aspiring seedlings and understory trees that are eager to fill the canopy, and a healthy business must have a talent pool that spans from top to bottom in order to maintain a healthy canopy in the long term.
Employing the same correlation, I take very seriously the work we do as an active platform that is making acquisitions. We play an important role in allowing founders to achieve liquidity so that they may enjoy the fruits of their labor as they think about retirement. We also provide strategic growth-minded owners with a unique opportunity to reinvest, join our organization, and provide long term opportunities for themselves and their team members in their region. These activities strengthen the forest ecology of our business by creating a larger, more robust stand of trees with more diversity and greater resilience. With each acquisition, we develop a deeper talent pool filled with more seedlings and understory trees that are hungry for sunlight, and the cycle continues with a larger forest. As the forest grows in size, Father Time creates more voids that result in more opportunities for growth minded people, and on and on…
But, at the same time, I remain conscious of the fact that the canopy of the thriving forests must not shade out the sunlight for the young entrepreneurs who are intent on making a forest canopy of their own. This is what I found most inspiring about GROW! 25 and I left very certain that as an industry, our forest is vibrant and there is no decline in young seedlings and understory trees!
Marty Grunder and his team at The Grow Group have created something special that brings together a broad collection of companies from startups to industry legends. I got a pic with Austyn Roth, a 22 year old entrepreneur in FL. I sat with Eric Hill, a 23 year old entrepreneur from AR. I dined with Timothy Wise, a young entrepreneur from NC as well as Joseph Watruba from GA, who I knew from LinkedIn. Huge thanks to David Koehn for getting me out, Will Crews for joining us, Hidden Creek Landscaping for generously hosting more than 1,000 visitors, and Scott Jamieson for inspiring me to create a culture of caring and making safety a behavioral habit!
—Kurt Bland
President
Bland Landscaping Co.
