5 Minutes With … Graham Hill
Graham Hill is president of Platt Hill Nursery, a family-owned garden center with two locations in Chicagoland.
Can you share a little about your background?
I have a unique background and journey to the green industry. After college, I joined the Marine Corps and served for 10 years in special operations and communications. After meeting my wife in Afghanistan (where every love story starts) and a challenging deployment in 2017, we decided that the military was not for us long term. Platt, my father, was interested in starting to retire, so I decided to come back to join the family company.
What’s the most rewarding part about your job?
Watching the growth of our team and the individuals who comprise it. When I joined the company in 2018, our team operated in a very centralized top-down approach, which was limiting our ability to attract younger talent. After five years and some painful learning, our team is extraordinarily decentralized, empowered and fast moving. This makes us much faster to respond to our customers’ changing needs and keep growing our talent pool.
As a family business, what measures do you take to separate the family part from the business part?
This is a super challenging question. As a family, the family relationships always have priority over business. When I returned to the company, we deliberately separated the responsibilities so that my brother Clark has his focus areas and I have mine. Fortuitously, Clark is very much a specialist in horticulture, where I am a generalist. Clark loves growing things and loves retail, which enables me to focus on the business practices. This does not mean the relationship gets strained and taxed, but we are very deliberate about cultivating the relationship consistently. I would not be able to run Platt Hill Nursery without Clark.
What has surprised you about running your business?
I have an MBA from Georgetown. What MBA programs never teach you is how hard basic business practices are to implement. I consistently relearn these lessons as our company grows and evolves.
If your career had gone a different direction, what do you think you would have done?
I would have probably moved into manufacturing or logistics.
Favorite plant to grow? Why?
The Hardy Hibiscus. They are so awesome. The size, shape and reliability of the plant makes it easy to grow while adding instant impact.
Photo courtesy of Graham Hill.
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