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In The News...
Lifestyle Executive Profiles, "PFMI CEO Puts Family First", December, 2008
New York Times, "They May Be Mundane, but Low-Tech Businesses are Booming", April 28, 2005
BSCAI Services magazine, "2005 BSCAI President, Greg Littlefield"
Montgomery Advertiser, by Brett Clanton, "More Than Clean"
Services Magazine, by Greg Littlefield, "Building Services Inside and Out", July 2003
Lifestyle Executive Profiles, "PFMI CEO Puts Family First" December, 2008
There are many company CEOs who are rarely home and who spend little time with their families. In fact, some may think that this is a normal prerequisite for such a position.
If you talk to Greg Littlefield, president and CEO of Professional Facilities Management Inc. (PFMI), based in Montgomery, AL, you will find a completely different scenario.
"It has never been difficult to balance my business with my family life," he says "My wife and I made a point to keep our family very close I have always been able to spend time where it is most needed, and family has always been the most important."
In 1989, Littlefield purchased an existing janitorial service company that had only three part-time employees. "I bought the company because I saw it as the best way for me to enter the market," he recalls.
From that humble beginning, PFMI has grown into a multi-million-dollar corporation that conducts business from the West Coast to the East Coast, including the Midwest and Southeastern states.
While PFMI has grown into a large corporation, it still conducts business on a local level. There are very few layers of management, so business decisions can be made promptly.
"Since the beginning, we have always placed a strong emphasis on catering to the needs of our customers," Littlefield explains. "I have been willing to take calculated risks and never feared trying something new. We've always tried to be different, to stand out from the competition. I continue to look for niches, find uncovered needs and provide accordingly to the customer".
With more than 2,000 service personnel under its management system, Littlefield's background in sales has molded PFMI's philosophy to one that emphasizes that each and every action must give priority to caring for the client's needs. The company aggressively searches for new and innovative ways of being more efficient in how it cleans, repairs and manages its business, and is always experimenting with new and more efficient equipment and technology.
When asked if he would change anything over the past 19 years, he says, "I wouldn't do anything differently. There were certainly times when it was very hard, but I truly love the business we are in. However, I might have chosen to skip the first five years!"
He laughs and says he has had to sacrifice his golf game in order to make PFMI the success it is today.
"We have now grown into what we consider to be a total facilities service provider," explains Littlefield, who was also the 2005 BSCAI president. "We are able to offer housekeeping, landscaping, HVAC and mechanical, temporary labor, minor maintenance, etc. We self-perform most services, even the more technical, but have developed relationships with other regional and national providers to handle services such as pest and waste removal. This enables us to focus on our core strength of customer service".
Still, Littlefield and his wife have always placed family above all else. "No matter how crazy and busy things may get, we make a point to spend time with each other. As a result, we are a very close and connected family. Even now, with three of my children working for PFMI and one a freshman in college, we spend a lot of time together and stay in touch on an almost daily basis."
There are also several senior family members who are involved in the company. Littlefield's mother-in-law, Jeanette Judah, has been with the company since day one. And, his own mother and father, Jack and Jewell Littlefield, who are both officially retired, help in the everyday functioning of the office. Cousin Chad Littlefield serves as a district manager, and Scott Littlefield, another cousin, serves as vice president of Managed Services.
When asked what words of advice he can provide to other building service contractors looking to buy or start their own business, he offers these words of wisdom, "Make a point to find strong mentors who can offer invaluable advice. Also, know what your weaknesses are. Capitalize on your strong points and hire people who are better at certain tasks than you are. They will contribute to the strength of your team and may teach you a few things along the way".
Wise words indeed
Lisa Kopochinski, Services Editor
New York Times, "They may be Mundane, but Low-Tech Businesses are Booming" April 28, 2005
"Greg Littlefield...abandoning his job in office equipment sales and management in 1990, set up a cleaning company in Montgomery, Alabama. But his reason for choosing that career is still valid today: it will never lack customers…! He figured that to thrive in an industry where two out of three firms lose their contracts within few years, his company had to become what he called a total facilities provider. So he began developing a package of services, including housekeeping, landscaping, labor, minor maintenance and security services.
That meant eventually expanding to 900 employees, a far cry from the single-employee businesses that are proliferating now. But Mr. Little field said he stayed true to his initial goal of maintaining control and flexibility...providing extensive staff training and adopting company policies that were family-friendly."
Elizabeth Olson, New York Times
BSCAI Services magazine, "2005 BSCAI President, Greg Littlefield"
"We have now grown into what we consider to be a total facilities service provider. We are able to offer housekeeping, landscaping, HVAC and mechanical, temporary labor, minor maintenance and security. We also have a special services division, which offers restoration and carpet cleaning among other things. We self-perform most jobs, but have developed relationships with other regional and national providers to handle the more technical services. This enables us to focus on our core strength of customer service."
Montgomery Advertiser, by Brett Clanton, "More Than Clean"
"As we started growing, we saw the trend toward out-sourcing more services," said Greg Littlefield, president and chief executive of PFMI. ...PFMI plans to grow by acquiring smaller companies and bundling more services onto existing contracts, said Littlefield.
Services Magazine, by Greg Littlefield, "Building Services Inside and Out", July 2003
"Most importantly, we have stayed focused on doing what we know-providing maintenance and related services to commercial properties and not promising services we can't deliver. The properties we service are owner-occupied industrial and manufacturing facilities, as well as some educational market properties and property management firms. While not all customers need all our services, we have found that by "bundling" their services, we can put a single manager on-site to manage the account-and the services-more efficiently while decreasing the overall cost to customers."
