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...
Let’s face it. People will come AND go. And they don’t always leave (voluntarily or otherwise) at the best time. Sometimes it really hurts! A critical client relationship may be injured or lost by a...
I hear the question all the time: “How can we make good project managers out of our people?” The answer— like it or not— is, “You may not be able to make good project managers...
It’s commonly said that a design or environmental firm is only as good as its staff. That’s why I always felt recruiting was so critical and one of the MOST important functions of any firm...
Over the years of working with A/E and environmental firms, I have run into those who will try to tell you that some managers are “too intense.” It’s as if these people are saying there...
As a consultant for 30 years now, I have done a lot of turnarounds. Even though they can be terrible and painful, when they go well, a successful turnaround can be incredibly gratifying. There is...
You know, when it comes down to it, there are really only a few different money-making models for A/E/P and environmental firms that seem to work over time. By “work,” I mean provide enough growth...
As someone who teaches entrepreneurship in The Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, one of my responsibilities is to mentor students who enter business plan competitions. In these competitions, students...
With the consolidation wave just starting to gain momentum in the A/E/P and environmental industry, it seemed appropriate to get into a subject that many firms in our business seem to have an ongoing problem...
If you aren’t worried about your banking relationship right now, you are deluding yourself. Besides the fact that we have already had firms in our business— large firms— put out of business by their banks,...
One of the keys to success in business— all types of business, not just the A/E/P and environmental business— is practicing common courtesies (or perhaps they should be called not-so-common courtesies?). Architects, engineers, and scientists...
