Zweig News

The older I get the more convinced I am that being a successful leader in a design firm is every bit as much an art as it is a science. You just can’t teach someone...

We just ended our most successful Zweig Letter Hot Firm conference ever. It was successful from three points of view— attendance numbers, attendance quality, and speaker quality. I won’t bore you with the numbers but...

A couple weeks ago I was down at my alma mater for a College of Business Advisory Board meeting. While I was there, I was asked to sit on a panel on business ethics. I...

It seems to me that the mega management consultants have gotten their comeuppance recently. Read your local business pages or The Wall Street Journal. Many of these firms are hurting as evidenced by revenue reductions,...

From time to time, we’ll hear from a reader who wants us to give more management advice specifically aimed at small firms. These people seem to think their small firm is different from a larger...

If there’s one issue that I see a lot of good A/E/P and environmental firms grappling with right now, it’s how to balance the need for high-performing individuals vs. having a cohesive team that works...

I am sitting here this morning, in our Natick office, staring at my computer. I need to write a talk for our upcoming Zweig Letter Hot Firm 2002 Conference and Celebration in Boston. I am...

If you ask me, one of the biggest factors contributing to poor financial performance, bad morale, and confusion about direction and purpose in A/E/P and environmental firms today is inaction from the company’s management. I’m...

Cultural alignment, i.e., getting everyone in the firm— especially those at the top—on the same page, is something everyone in our business can tell you is critical. Without it, decisions don’t get made, opportunities come...

Antoine Nicholas Smith had just started feeling a little better. He’d survived some tough times recently and come out smelling like a rose. After 9/11, his firm, Jones and Stern, tanked. They were losing money,...

Ask a CEO or managing partner of the typical A/E/P or environmental firm what keeps him or her up at night and you know what you’ll hear? It probably won’t be “selling work” or “getting...

Mike Fruitwood, seven months into the job of COO of his firm, shook his head. “How are we ever going to build this company if we can’t get our act together on scheduling?” he wondered...

Last week I was on the phone ordering a part for an old British motorcycle. It vibrates so much that every time I ride it something either breaks off or falls off. In any event,...

While it certainly wasn’t the case 20 or even 10 years ago, today most design and environmental firms have a business plan. Most of them are labeled “strategic plans,” though I’ll confess that I usually...

Though it happens on occasion, rarely do I work with the top management of a design or environmental firm who will come right out and say, “We don’t want to grow.” Most at least pay...

I’m seeing a lot of firms following a program of short-term profit-maximization right now. It’s easy to understand. Industry profits are down as the results from our 2002 Financial Performance Survey of A/E/P & Environmental...

I don’t want to be negative nor schizophrenic. Sure, there was panic after 9/11, but the fact is our industry (overall) has been remarkably healthy since then. The data still looks good in many sectors....

I paid a visit recently to one of the CEOs whose firm is at the top of The Zweig Letter Hot Firm List. His firm is big, and they basically do everything for everyone (you...

Karen Smartstuff was really excited about the chance to work at TFA (Those Fantastic Architects). It was her second job out of school, and she was thrilled to land there. Especially after her first full-time...

Jose Piranha listened to his two partners, Stephanie Straighthair and Jason Loseria, discuss how to dole out the firm’s profits in the coming year. They were sitting at their favorite table at Hugo’s, the little...

Sometimes it’s amazing how little things change, huh? The challenges of implementing change, the myth of the dual career path, the hassles of poorly performing principals, the confusion resulting from messy office environments, why firms...

Victor Goodcoat knew he had a problem. Sure— he may have been a principal at Honest Engineers for the last ten years but things weren’t like they used to be. Clients weren’t calling and he...

In the nineties, executive coaching became a popular management fad, particularly outside of the A/E/P and environmental industry. So while budget cutbacks in Fortune 500 and high-tech companies have eliminated a lot of these expenditures,...

Robert stompeas felt good. he felt really good. There was a heck of a lot of satisfaction that came from having a great year when so many other firms were having a lousy one. Nautso-Lethargi...