Woodland Equipment has quickly become the go-to place for commercial outdoor equipment and service for many companies across West Michigan. Every time I have been there, my expectations have been high. And they have always been exceeded.

What is it about a company that can create that kind of experience and expectation for a customer? For Woodland Equipment, it starts with the owner.

I recently had the opportunity to interview the owner and founder, Brian Winkler, who in 2011 started the business in his garage. Woodland is now in a state-of-the-art facility on Lake Michigan Drive, just outside of Standale—and business continues to grow. This year Winkler will open a brand-new service center and soon will break ground on a new warehouse. There also are plans to open two more locations within the next several years to facilitate a “take-over of the entire Michigan market.”

In addition to the growth, employee satisfaction is high. Of the 15 full-time employees taken on since the beginning, only a handful of hires have not stayed long term. This type of retention, especially in this industry, seems uncommon.

I started the interview wanting to learn more about how the business grew so quickly and why there is such great retention. But by the end, I had learned a much more important lesson.

Prior to starting Woodland, Winkler worked in sales for about 10 years where he learned a lot about leadership. The most motivating lesson that he learned during that time was what it meant to treat people as individuals. He saw a large conglomerate that lost its ability to see people as people and not as a number. It created a desire in him to create a workplace where the employees were seen as individuals and treated with the integrity and compassion that they are due.

Winkler did not say that in so many words—he was humble about his employee-first outlook on the business. But I gathered it from all of the evidence that was plainly there in the workplace, and from how the conversation always came full circle back to the “employee experience.”
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When I asked Winkler what it takes to succeed in business, his answers were refreshing. He initially started with his “big three.” You must be focused, consistent, and have high standards. However, as we delved deeper into the source of Woodland’s success and growth, I found another recipe, upstream of the “big three.” Woodland’s success is found in its company culture and in how he treats and leads his employees. But culture is downstream from worldview, in this case, Winkler’s worldview.

I learned from him that success does not lie in a certain business practice, method or system; it does not lie in cutting corners or using cheaper parts; it lies in virtue and putting that virtue into practice.