Being able to turn challenges into lasting opportunities requires sacrifice, strategic risk, and strong teams.
Growth requires sacrifice, risk, and a well-thought-out plan. Whether it’s investing in yourself to gain more knowledge, a professional certification, or a better position in the firm, this type of personal growth requires sacrificing time, money, and energy. When looking at firm growth plans, many are considered “stretch” goals that take a team or leadership group outside of their comfort zone. Growth often doesn’t happen when we’re comfortable, rather it takes smart, risky steps to grow in a healthy and successful way.
You may be wondering, why take a risk if what you’re currently doing is working? There has never been a time with as much change, technology advancement, and shifting across the industry as there is right now. Just because something worked at your firm in 2018, doesn’t mean that seven years later the same project, process, or tactic is going to be equally as successful today. Now is the time to take risks that are going to facilitate healthy growth and establish a foundation for the firm to build off of for the next decade.
AI’s growing role.
According to BST Global’s AI + Data Report, 77% of AEC respondents believe AI will transform their business, but 33% reported that their AI strategy is not aligned with their overall business strategy. These statistics are a telling sign that AI has already arrived and AEC firms have recognized the importance, however many haven’t figured out how to utilize it to benefit their people.
Shankar Kalyana, a senior vice president at Stantec, one of the world’s largest AEC firms, stated, “If we can harness AI and data, there’s so much promise, but we must be mindful of how employees do the work. People and processes come first; technology is subservient. That is the real shift – use AI to empower humans, not replace them.”
AI is just one of many areas of risk that a firm can evaluate and create a plan for. Every growing and successful firm should create and revisit a strategic plan each year when planning for the next year, and also check on it periodically throughout the year to make sure they’re on track. A strategic plan is a great place to add risky initiatives, dream big, and take calculated risks when planning for the year ahead.
A geographic risk.
At Tamarack Grove Engineering, the firm created a strategic plan in 2023 that aimed to open a new office on the East Coast, knowing they were losing an engineer at the firm headquarters due to relocation. As both a retention tool for that key team member, and to capitalize on the potential opportunities for recruiting new clients and staff in a new geographic region, the firm’s leadership agreed this was a risky but necessary goal.
While you can come up with some of the most detailed plans, it’s nearly impossible to plan for every situation that may occur within a calendar year. Not even halfway through 2024, the firm was finalizing plans to relocate an engineer to New Jersey, while also closing on a deal with an engineer and office space in Bozeman, Montana. The Montana engineer new hire and office was not part of the original plan, but it was an opportunity that presented itself and a risk the firm was willing to take because of the potential growth that accompanied it. TGE also expanded locally, moving its headquarters to a space nearly triple the size to accommodate rapid growth and provide access for more people in the greater Boise region.
The right team is key.
One of the most important factors when evaluating risk in the industry is having the proper team established to handle it. While a firm may want to double its size in a given amount of time, that may not be realistic without proper processes, procedures, and people in place. When establishing the best team to tackle a risky initiative, it’s important to evaluate the expertise and diversity of skills. Great AEC firms that are growth-oriented often have technical, human resources, operations, financial, business development, and marketing professionals as part of the decision-making team to ensure all angles are being evaluated. Risk is not something that firm leaders typically search for when planning for an upcoming year, but can have significant positive implications if handled properly. Always ensure a high-functioning team is in place, with a well-thought-out plan, and risk can turn into a great growth tool.
Duncan Robertson, CPSM, is director of business development and marketing at Tamarack Grove Engineering. Contact him at duncan.robertson@tamarackgrove.com.