The Purpose-Driven Organization
By Mark C. Zweig Many folks in our business want to act like they have a “purpose-driven organization.” What is that, you may ask? To me it is very simply a company that exists for...
By Mark C. Zweig Many folks in our business want to act like they have a “purpose-driven organization.” What is that, you may ask? To me it is very simply a company that exists for...
Press Release: January 27, 2011 ZweigWhite is now accepting entries for The Zweig Letter 2011 Hot Firm List, the industry’s search for the fastest-growing architecture, engineering, planning, environmental and multidisciplinary consulting firms in the U.S....
Press Release: January 20, 2011 The 2011 The Zweig Letter Marketing Excellence Awards will recognize the most innovative and effective marketing strategies in the architecture, engineering, planning, construction and environmental consulting industry. The competition will...
Press Release: January 10, 2011 As design firms were forced to shed workers and cut costs during the recession, technology often came to rescue, a report in the Jan. 10 issue of The Zweig Letter...
Press Release: January 7, 2011 If the A/E/P and environmental consulting industry has learned one thing in 2010, it’s that recovery doesn’t happen overnight. Last year there was an expectation that 2010 might provide the...
DUBLIN, Jan 07, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/e27350/management_from_a) has announced the addition of the "Management From A to Zweig, Revised Edition - A Collection of Articles from 1992-2010" book to their offering....
From the Chairman:Ed Friedrichs As the end of this rather protracted recession plays out (we all hope), I’ve been questioning lots of clients— both the architecture/ engineering firms to whom I consult and the companies...
Press Release: January 3, 2011 Experts are saying that constantly tracking client needs and wants and delivering relevant products is the secret for success in 2011 and beyond. Mike Phillips, a client feedback expert for...
Press Release: December 30, 2010 The down economy presents many real estate options for the small business owner; but the tight A/E/P and banking climate might prove too difficult for many businesses to grasp the...
Press Release: December 22, 2010 New Management How-To Book Helps Every Business Manager. Management From A to Zweig, Revised Edition, is the one book to own if you are serious about your firm’s success. Want...
A “gloom and doom” economic outlook is still seen by many in the A/E and environmental business, even after the recent pronouncement that the recession officially ended in June 2009. This offers opportunities— as well...
Until 2004 Ravi Maniktala ruled supreme at ME Group (Omaha, NE), a 60-person mechanical and electrical engineering, building simulation, and lighting design firm. At that time, however, Maniktala, still the firm’s president today, decided to...
This year, All4 Inc., an environmental engineering firm in Kimberton, Pennsylvania, had clients go bankrupt and others stop work already in progress. Multidiscipline firm Smith, Seckman & Reid, Inc., in Nashville, Tennessee, had layoffs but...
Purpose. Now, that can be a difficult concept to nail down. All three panelists at a The Zweig Letter 2010 Hot Firm Conference session in late October had different views about what purpose means and...
When business starts hurting, employee morale suffers immediately. Employees who are laid off can become disgruntled, and the ones remaining start wondering if they’re next out the door, which often degenerates into an awful work...
One of the primary challenges following a merger or acquisition in the architecture and engineering industry is the integration of financial systems. It’s an extremely complex process, says Bernard Freiheit, director of financial development and...
Press Release: November 17, 2010 M&A activity is expected to accelerate in 2011 as many struggling firms look for an exit strategy and firms that are doing well look for bargains and distressed sales. “2011...
The proverbial title gets right to the point but do all staff members understand their role? Who, exactly, are the bees? Rebecca Martinez, associate principal and director of marketing at Cuningham Group (Marina del Rey,...
John Drinkard thinks Mark Zweig, ZweigWhite CEO, had CJMW Architecture in mind when he recently made the case for organizing firms by market sectors. CJMW, a Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based 97-person architecture, engineering, interior design, and...
The Architecture Billings Index, the American Institute of Architects' monthly gauge of design activity, moved up for the third straight month in August from 47.9 to 48.2, but still reflects an overall decline by falling...
Business is starting to get better and hiring activity is restarting for many A/E/P and environmental firms that have shrunk over the last few years. That’s good news for the economy and for some of...
I have worked on a lot of presentations over the last 30 years— and helped sell everything from seismic retrofitting for the Golden Gate Bridge to a three-day design charette. Along the way, I have...
You can talk about training all day long but when it comes to management training, there is no substitute for having your managers train by example. Let’s look at some common problem areas in A/E/P...
As many firms in our industry are still reeling from a tough market for what they do, it is becoming almost blasphemous to suggest that they get back to a growth philosophy. It’s not that...