Fall color change in Michigan means contemplating trees. All too quickly, they go from lush green to electric colors to barren. Our Michigan Lottery client’s brand logo for 49 years has been a tree. Our CLIF Bar client supports reforestation efforts — both through the sweat equity of CLIF employees’ planting efforts and their support of American Forests’ projects — as part of the company’s mission to plant one million trees by 2025. And one of our newest clients, 313 Presents/DTE Energy Music Theatre, is heavily defined by the pine trees that fill and surround its property.

Another thing about trees are its branches, leading out from the trunk in seemingly haphazard directions. Yet, each has purpose — and direction. They support the tree, transport nutrients and absorb the sunlight that’s vital to growth. So, we can look at the branches this way: they’re part of the tree’s life journey.

We challenge readers to think about their business as if it’s traveling up the branch of a tree and ponder: what branch is next in the journey? Where might it lead and what direction will it take the business? For coders who think about this as a digital decision tree, that’s great, too.

Just don’t forget to look up from the screen and out the window over the next few weeks. It’ll be glorious … and then it will be gone.