Davey Tree Flipbooks

165 164 Growth Rings intensity each year. Most notably, in 2018 wildfires erased the city of Paradise, California from the map as nearly 14,000 homes and hundreds of businesses were consumed by the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in over a century. Like eastern hurricanes, Davey's response to the wildfire recoveries spanned all the company's service lines and included hundreds of employees. By 2018, the U.S. R/C service line saw organic growth of $15 million for the year. at year, in August, U.S. consumer confidence reached an 18-year high, indicating a willingness by consumers to spend freely. Covey pointed to the leadership of Jim Stief, executive vice president, U.S. Residential operations, not only for focusing on client experience and client loyalty as key to the service line's success but also in establishing a market manager role within R/C services and elevating the right personnel to serve in that position in various U.S. markets. e market manager role within R/C services dates to 2010 when Jim McGuire, Hartney Greymont president, was appointed to serve in that role when Davey acquired the New England residential tree care firm that same year. Additional eleva- tions to market manager followed in 2012 when Kevin Cassells was promoted to regional market manager of Alberta, Canada, and in 2014 when Geoff Cowan was named market manager for the Chicago-based operations. at position grew even more with the promotion to market manager of Jeff Crites in 2015, Gordon Matthews in 2016, Brian O'Niel in 2017, Brian Baker and Jason Evans in 2019, Kevin Marks in 2020, and Kris Bruestle, Andrew Cunniff, Scott Heim, Ed Kollar, Craig Ritter and Chuck Shouse in 2021. "Jim and I collectively saw the value of adding that market manager level and providing more attention to territories because it limited the scope of the number of territories a regional manager had to oversee in the prior model," Covey said. "Before you had a regional R/C manager who oversaw up to three or four states and 25 territories, and maybe they got to each territory once a year and were on the road all the time. It was a demanding job that might not have given enough attention to where it was needed. e market manager role pares that down to a smaller number of territories in a smaller geographic area and allows a skilled market manager to be involved more and also to combine resources of territories to leverage larger projects and to better serve our clients." Covey also attributed R/C services' success to the advancement of Davey's corpo- rate marketing department, as led by Scott Hyland, director of marketing. e marketing team's sophisticated approach to measuring return-on-investment helped the company determine which advertising efforts proved most successful in which markets. Strong data collection and analysis processes enabled the company to avoid spending money on unfruitful marketing efforts, Covey said. ese and other factors contributed to early achievement of the strategic plan goals ahead of its retirement in 2020, when Davey leadership officially retired the Vision 20/20 Strategic Plan. Vision 2030 e company launched Vision 2030 that same year. Like its predecessor, the new iteration of the strategic plan helps the company forecast and plan goals for the next 10-year period. In drafting the new plan, Davey's strategic leadership team aimed to make the document simpler, more memorable and with a clearer focus. "When we looked at Vision 2030 transitioning … we wanted to make sure we were most focused on accomplishing key activities around employees, clients and share- holders," said Sandra Reid, vice president, corporate communications and strategic planning administration. ose three core Davey stakeholder groups had been the foundation of the previous strategic plan as well, but Covey said re-centering the plan around them was the top priority in drafting Vision 2030 so that it could build upon the prior plan's success. "If we aren't making our client experience better, or we aren't making our share- holder experience better, or our employee engagement experience better, that is the essence of the plan and where our focus should always be," he said. "ose are the areas we wanted to make sure we're building our action steps around." Specifically, Vision 2030 aims to foster engaged employees, loyal clients and committed shareholders. e plan's three strategy areas are designed to create oppor- tunities for employees to grow and succeed, provide proven solutions as a trusted partner to clients and earn shareholder trust. e new plan also updated Davey's vision and mission statements with more concise and memorable definitions. e updated vision statement reads: "We create and deliver sustainable solutions." And the updated mission statement is: "We exceed client expectations." e plan's stated objective is "to make Davey a great place to work while delivering client and shareholder value." And it's three strategies are: enrich and deepen Davey's culture; create an environment for employees to grow and succeed; make it easier to do business with us. Meanwhile, Davey's six core values were redefined: • Safety: We protect and care for each other. • Integrity: We are honest and truthful in all we do. • Expertise: We use science and knowledge to master our craft. • Leadership: We take purposeful action toward our collective success. • Stewardship: We make the world around us better. • Perseverance: We create solutions to overcome challenges. e updated mission, vision and values are intended to help the broader employee audience at Davey connect to the company's strategic goals and find motivation in their daily work, Covey said. "ese values are meant to help guide employees when asking the question, 'What do I need to do every day to make this company successful and make me proud to work here?'" Covey said. "at's what's going to motivate employees to stay at Davey and work hard. Are we taking care of our clients? Are you engaged with your fellow employees? Are you taking care of them? Are you educating yourself and furthering your career? Are you contributing back to society and your communities in a mean- ingful way? Our updated mission, vision and values should help Davey employees answer all those questions in ways that make them proud to work for Davey because we're taking care of our employees, giving back to our communities and generally striving to be socially responsible." One strategic plan initiative Covey pointed to as meeting all those aspirations is the Davey Green Leaders Program. Launched in 2018, Davey Green Leaders encourages employees to volunteer within their communities and leverage industry expertise. e company tracks those volunteer hours monthly and annually to get a broad sense of the impact Davey employees have on their community and within the green industry. In 2020 alone, Davey employees committed 8,900 volunteer hours to more than 1,100 organizations. A Davey Commercial Landscape Services employee operates a battery-powered mower for a commercial client in Florida in 2019. RJ Rooney and Dan Gillen, with Davey retiree Dan McGrath, plant a maple tree at Emma Willard School as part of an Arbor Day event in 2019 in Troy, New York. Arbor Day events around North America provide an opportunity for Davey employees and retirees to give back to their communities and serve as Davey Green Leaders. Chapter 11 e cover of the 2019 September/October issue of e Davey Bulletin celebrates 40 years of employee ownership at Davey.

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