Work Together, Make It Better
By K. Schipper
WALTHAM, Mass. – This fall is a time of transition at A Yard & A Half, and it has nothing to do with seasonal change.
After 25 years, company founder Eileen Michaels is headed for retirement at the end of 2013. Taking over A Yard & A Half’s ownership and leadership will be its employees, since it’s being converted to an employee-owned cooperative.
Click photo to enlargeCarolyn Edsell-Vetter, the company’s designer and horticulturist, is sharing the CEO title with Geovani Aguilar, formerly A Yard & A Half’s construction project manager. Michaels will spend her last months on the job acting as a mentor/coach to the new management team.
Edsell-Vetter says for now the goal of the new management will be to continue with the strengths that allowed Michaels to build the company to where it is today: one that’s strong on the business side, while utilizing to best advantage the diverse talents of its people.
SOLID FOUNDATIONS
Edsell-Vetter says the start of A Yard & A Half is pretty typical for many landscape and hardscape firms. Michaels was looking for a job working outside, and she launched the business by hiring an employee and going out to mow lawns.
Even the company’s name speaks to its modest beginning.
Click photo to enlarge“Back in the late ‘80s she used to go to the landscape yards, and somebody was always asking the capacity of her little blue pickup,” says Edsell-Vetter. “It was a-yard-and-a-half, and that’s the story behind the name.”
While Michaels might have been able to poke fun at her little truck, she does have one thing that many people in the industry don’t: an MBA (from Boston University) and business-management experience by working several years in the energy sector.
“She retained the business knowledge, which is one of the strengths of this company,” Edsell-Vetter says. “That’s allowed us to grow. And, she really values the team of people working for her. She finds good people and then figures out how to grow the company to their strengths.”
Edsell-Vetter is a good example of Michaels’ hiring philosophy. She first started working at A Yard & A Half over the summer of 2000. At the time, she was a graduate student studying for a divinity degree, although she’d had some experience doing conservation work after completing her undergraduate education.
