{"id":4031,"date":"2023-08-03T12:44:18","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T18:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:10043\/?p=4031"},"modified":"2024-09-16T09:19:37","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T15:19:37","slug":"how-revitalizing-sad-landscaping-is-a-lot-like-business-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/how-revitalizing-sad-landscaping-is-a-lot-like-business-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"How revitalizing sad landscaping is a lot like business strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in\u00a0The Tennessean<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a plant-pocalypse in Middle Tennessee.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to remember with all the summer heat, but it all started a few days before Christmas when a flash freeze caused Nashville\u2019s temperature to drop from 52 to below 0 in a matter of hours.\u00a0 \u00a0It was an historic arctic blast that caused havoc in a city where grocery stores are emptied out at the first sign of a flurry.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for us, our pipes and pets were fine. But it wasn\u2019t until this spring when, like most Nashvillians, we realized our landscaping wasn\u2019t so lucky.<\/p>\n

Granted, with no green thumbs in our house, the shrubberies in our yard were never well-cared for. Aside from weeding every once in a while, it seemed like the greenery and flora we had planted 12 years ago pretty much took care of themselves.<\/p>\n

But with the sudden freeze that happened months ago, our poor plants were now suffering.\u00a0\u00a0 Our boxwoods were polka dotted green and brown, our magnolia tree seemed to be missing half its leaves, and even our normally out of control monkey grass didn\u2019t look very happy.<\/p>\n

And apparently, judging by the scarcity of available landscapers to come to the rescue, our plants were not alone.\u00a0 Driving around town, I noticed that almost everyone\u2019s yard was facing similar struggles.<\/p>\n

Ever the penny pincher (my wife’s term is cheapskate), I decided I could save my leafy brethren all on my own.\u00a0 With YouTube, Google, and ChatGPT as my landscaping crew, I learned that there were a few options to rescue our yard.<\/p>\n

Although I had zero experience in horticulture, the challenges that lay ahead of me felt very familiar.<\/p>\n

In business, our own versions of arctic blasts happen as well.\u00a0 Losing a big client, being hit with an unexpected expense, suffering through a recession, facing a global pandemic. Just like our plants experienced, life can be unpredictable.<\/p>\n

When faced with an existential threat, a company must analyze and choose between options, which are often limited by circumstance.\u00a0 When a disaster occurs, good managers like good botanists usually have a few approaches they can take:<\/p>\n