Start talking about marketing these days, and eventually the conversation will get around to positioning. We use that term— positioning— constantly ourselves here at ZweigWhite. In simple terms, it means making your firm the expert...
Friday afternoon finally rolled around. Joe Jetson gathered up everything he needed to work at home over the weekend and tossed it all into his briefcase. This was the worst week Joe could remember in...
Best I can tell, the events of September 11 pushed a fragile economy over the cliff. It’s hard to make a bull like me into a bear, but I am there now. Companies everywhere are...
September 11, 2001— I was talking on the phone when I looked through the glass interior wall of my office out into the rest of our space and noticed people standing around a TV monitor....
Irving “Tuck” Schlockmeir walked into the Schlockmeir Associates board meeting in a bad mood. Tuck was frequently in a bad mood, and if he wasn’t, the fear that he might go into one scared everyone...
Want to get some new jobs? Need them fast? If so, you aren’t alone. We have seen a number of our consulting clients and readers of The Zweig Letter face major reductions in their workload...
I just read two articles written by management consulting firms that serve the design industry. Each of them staked out ridiculous positions. The first dealt with firm valuation and talked in circles about the difference...
Doug Pocketprotectus sat in the high-backed leather chair in the executive conference room and desperately tried to stay awake. It was hard to do. The meeting was so boring, and he was sleep deprived as...
Denise Jones, CADD technician and seven-year employee at DEF Associates, was fed up with the complainers at her firm. What was wrong with these people? All they could do was gripe about one thing or...
July 13th marked the thirteenth anniversary of the founding of ZweigWhite. We’ve done O.K. We’ve gone from the balloon-wallpapered playroom in my asbestos-shingled house in downtown Natick to a $200 a month office above a...
“God, it smells good out here,” Bob Trunkwater thought to himself as he started out on his early evening walk around the neighborhood. Trunkwater had just recently made the decision to start his own company....
Designers, by all rights, should be fantastic managers. They understand how important motivation is to creativity. They are tuned in to context and are good at seeking input from others. They know how sensitive people...
Paul Schipperknocket’s alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. After a quick workout in his basement gym, he turned on the coffee maker he’d gotten ready the night before, and then woke up the rest of...
This week’s issue of The Zweig Letter is devoted to The Zweig Letter Hot Firm 2001 List. For me, this is what it’s all about— success. I love the Hot Firm focus and putting the...
One of the best benefits of working at ZweigWhite is the free food and drink we get. We give everyone whatever they want as long as you can store it in a cabinet or a...
I was out working in my yard this weekend, cutting brush and chopping up fallen branches with my 18-horsepower trailer-mounted chipper, when one of my friends and clients dropped by. He’s an architect and was...
Both of my daughters are into horses. I mean they are into horses and have been for the last five years. We have three of ‘em right now. They ride every day. Then we have...
Schweitzer, Rosenblatt, Tunick, and McBlarsky had just ended one heck of a run. The 250-person E/A firm had grown from 40 people to 250 over the past five years. And while it was undeniably exciting,...
Curt Robinson closed his middle desk drawer with a resounding thud. “This is the last time I’ll be sitting here,” he thought to himself as he threw last year’s calendar into the cardboard box of...
It just doesn’t take that much to be so much better at serving clients than the rest of the firms that do what you do. And it’s so important! Do a lousy job (or just...
There’s an interesting article elsewhere in this issue of The Zweig Letter about the workplace of the future. It sounds like a fantastic design that the architects, engineers, planners, and designers have cooked up to...
Ever have one of those days where something hits you out of nowhere and it just knocks the wind out of you? It’s so demotivating. You feel like you got kicked in the stomach. These...
It’s what we’re all looking for: young people that we can move up. And if we aren’t, we’re fools. Why would we hire someone, especially a younger person, who we don’t think has any potential...
If, like many firms, you have deferred maintenance on your marketing program because you’ve been too busy and it’s been too easy to get work, you might want to think about doing a marketing tune-up....
