It’s kind of funny. I was out visiting a firm the other day— a rapidly growing, multi-office, multi-service firm— that is apparently beating the pants off of its larger, more established competitors. I’ve seen it...
I can’t tell you how many business planning meetings I have sat in on in large firms where someone comes up with the novel idea of checking all project deliverables before they go out. It’s...
Paul Weir, president and CEO of Weir-Sofein Architects and Engineers in Albany, New York, had a problem. He and his primary business partner, Wolfgang Sofein, usually saw eye-to-eye. There was a long history of mutual...
While I can’t be bound by convention and from this point forward be forced into matching my weekly missive with the focus of other articles in The Zweig Letter, this week’s issue got me thinking...
Human resources people are big on job descriptions. I was never that fond of them because it seems that they can always be used against you somehow. Here are some examples: “I meet the requirements...
Air travel is at an all-time high for me. It’s always frustrating... so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to share some of my recent thoughts and observations: E-tickets. It always amazes me when I see...
The fact of the matter is that design and environmental firms are not easy organizations to lead. Their cultures are fragmented. The people who work in them are all too smart, their egos too big,...
As anyone who’s read any business books in the last decade can tell you, Jim Collins’ “Good to Great” is a classic that will be talked about for years to come. In the book, Collins...
Last week, we held our first-ever conference on mergers and acquisitions, the 2003 AEC Mergers & Acquisitions Summit, at the Omni Parker House in Boston. It was a successful event with a wide range of...
It’s always distasteful to compare your employees to your children. I hear firm owners do it all of the time, and I see the non-owners cringing when they do! That said, I have noticed a...
After a brief stop in Las Vegas for a quick family wedding, I just returned from The Zweig Letter Hot Firm 2003 Conference and Celebration in San Francisco. And let me tell you that while...
Turning around an A/E or environmental company that is not doing as well as it should be doing takes an artful leader (or bunch of leaders). If you take a closer look at these transformations,...
Let’s face it, the motivation of any A/E or environmental firm’s leaders is, in many ways, more important than the motivation of the staff. Because if the leaders aren’t fired up, how can anyone else...
I was at a management seminar recently where I am convinced that fully 15 or 20% of the attendees were there only because their firms told them to go. And my guess is that a...
Here I am...on a plane...once again. I’ve already read the Inc. Magazine I found in the magazine rack near the bathroom, the New England Motorcyclist’s Post that came in yesterday’s mail, and have started in...
It is so valuable… being THE place to work. What I mean by THE place is the firm that everyone wants to work at. It is the cool place, the desirable place to be, the...
This is really getting to be the busy time of the year for the ZweigWhite consultants who help firms with business planning. And it’s good to see that many firms are refining their processes so...
Years ago, I maintained that I would never go to a party for an employee who’s leaving the firm. Sure, there could be exceptions. Someone’s spouse gets transferred, the employee retires, or the employee is...
There’s nothing like a little quality time to do nothing but think. Just sitting in a chair or lying back in your hammock… pushing the mower… driving on a long solo drive. I relish those...
Davis Grey was the new man at the top of Frinklemore-Datuna Associates. He had been hired by Charlie Datuna a couple years ago with an understanding that at some point, Davis would be in Charlie’s...
When you look at architects, management consultants, bridge engineers, computer programmers, artists, or any other “professional” in the classic sense, there is always someone or some people who stand out as the thought leaders. They...
Many firms are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that they don’t know how much to spend on marketing. On the one hand, it’s harder than ever to get work, there’s downward fee pressure resulting...
When you do what I do you see a lot of smart people. Architects, engineers, planners, scientists … who own and run firms. Many of these smart people started their companies; others were strong enough...
Conventional wisdom and a course in marketing will tell you that any business— especially a professional service business— must have close relationships with clients IF the firm wants to keep those clients and get as...
