Last year, KK&P worked with Brooklyn Grange to recruit a new CEO to take the helm from Founding CEO Ben Flanner. Sam Murray was selected for the position, coming from several decades of experience leading CPG and food businesses. KK&P’s founder Karen Karp checked in with Sam to ask about the past year leading this icon of urban agriculture.

Why were you initially interested in the role at Brooklyn Grange?

I’ve spent the last 15 years in sustainability, and I’ve seen the limitations of companies being able to bring sustainable products to marketplace, due to the amount of capital that’s necessary and the cost of changing consumer behavior. I saw that Brooklyn Grange was doing way more with fewer resources and having a much larger impact on sustainability, and that’s the smartest approach for changing public perception. The size of the marketplace, the opportunity, the white space in some markets showed that by leveraging change, reorienting the business slightly while still shining a bright light on the things we do…we could grow this business far beyond where it currently is. Those were the things that attracted me.

How has that compared to the reality of the job?

For the most part, this has aligned with reality. I saw that the two key revenue parts of the business— events and design-build—were under-marketed and under-leveraged, with little being done to expand the marketplace. I was unsure of how farming fit. It’s part of our core, but the question is, how do we farm economically without it dragging on the growth sides of the business and what impact does the business have? So now we’re really trying to understand it. Let’s break the farm business apart to understand which parts of the farm generate margin, which parts don’t, what is integral to the community, and how the economics of the business support that important outreach.

What do you do for new people joining Brooklyn Grange? What are you looking for in new staff members?

I want people who can remain unflappable in a challenge, because managers are here to resolve problems, and if you can’t do that, you shouldn’t be in a management position. I want people who can work collaboratively, absorb a challenge, collaboratively create a solution, and be willing to trial that solution. If they must fail, fail fast and be willing to discuss the reasons for their failure. I don’t want someone’s ego to get in the way of their ability to talk about and distill a problem, with multiple viewpoints, without rancor or ego, and then be willing to try it quickly and make a mistake.

How did KK&P prepare you for the interview process and for the role itself?

KK&P did a great job and I felt very prepared. You were extremely thorough and transparent about the opportunities and challenges faced by Brooklyn Grange.That feedback helped me make an informed decision and hit the ground running. Another benefit was the coaching support—that helped distill my early challenges, ensure I was focused on the right problems, and had a knowledgeable third party offering guidance and insight.

Finally, since you’re at your one-year anniversary, what are you most excited about looking to the next year?

I spent the first six-to-eight months getting an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the business, to put in place some improvements in terms of people and key roles, strategy and tactics, and marketing and branding. What I’m looking forward to in the next year is seeing their impact and uncovering opportunities to fast-track growth. The other thing is I’m really excited about is seeing how we can grow our events business and refocus on features that are a benefit to the consumer [and] working with some spaces in Manhattan so we can have events in two boroughs.

We’re also launching new branding. When we looked at the original brand statement, it was rooted in Brooklyn of 2010—not a long time ago, but a very different place from today. So how does Brooklyn Grange and the brand evolve? I’m excited about promoting this new brand and creating a design statement that reflects the passion, expertise and sophistication of our team and the clients’ needs.