Adapting to smaller AEC markets requires leveraging networks, building staff-client trust, and scaling operations for sustained success.
In today’s world, with firms offering remote, hybrid, and in-office options, executive transitioning into a new role has never been easier. If you want to take advantage of living in Kansas and telecommuting to Chicago, it is possible for most professionals. The costs of living can certainly be advantageous just as much as not having to get out of your pajamas and your fuzzy slippers!
However, executives in the AEC industry need to have the connection with people in the office and in the field more than ever since the COVID pandemic. Technology, like video meetings and even AI, empowers professionals with the tools they need to be effective in this new working landscape.
What if you leave a job in New York City to take a job in North Carolina, moving from a huge market to a much smaller one? Well, I’m here to tell you it can be done. Here are some tips to get back to the basics as you navigate this new landscape:
- On-boarding. When your organization changes your role, there should be a sense of positivity starting with the organization, which trickles down to the staff. Even if there is a new and unfamiliar person filling the void of leadership in that market, your organization may want to start by creating the buzz that gives hope and relief to small market staff and make sure their concerns and objectives can be met by creating a much better work environment.
- Review your surroundings within the office environment. It is important to listen to the existing staff and learn about the good, the bad, and the ugly, so you can do your own SWOT analysis. An executive who makes up their mind early and immediately puts their stamp on things is not considering the two things that make any office successful to begin with: clients and staff.
- Use your existing network to leverage your new environment. When you change your working environment, you should be using your existing network to promote your move, your new office, and your surroundings. That will motivate not just the existing contacts, but will help your internal and external network build consensus and buzz about your new role.
- Enhance your external connections and network. Researching how your new space currently promotes the firm and how they obtain leads and opportunities is critical. In a small market, there may be opportunities for growth in new areas that may not have always been promoted. Using a SWOT analysis, you can find where existing connections should be solidified (by call and email) and where new connections need to be made to grow in your desired services and markets.
- Establish buy-in with staff. Discussing with staff what you’re doing to promote them, and their projects is key, but also what they can do to promote themselves both personally and professionally. Discuss solutions to address the concerns they have and how it will best benefit them and the organization short-term and long-term.
- Create scale with your clients. With an improved plan to service clients and the projects you work on, show added value by stressing resolution and attentiveness to their needs, which could open doors to other products or services your organization can sell.
In a small market, the pace may be slow – but using the tools I’ve shared is the best way to acclimate and fit-in. Reputation, growth, honesty, integrity, and value are some of the key factors we use to measure success in any market where we may transplant ourselves. One may need to ask themselves:
- Does the smaller market offer a sustainable pace that we would want to put ourselves into?
- Can we fill-in and show added value within that market?
- Can we scale to suit the small market needs?
- Can both staff and client collaboration, which result in project success, be attainable in a small market setting?
If you can answer these questions in your organization and your organization can do vice versa, there will be a win-win situation for those who leave the big city and venture to a lesser-known market with high potential.
Todd Hay, PE, is vice president and office director at Pennoni’s Raleigh, North Carolina, location. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
