The Zweig Letter

While there have been some “experts” who’ve made names for themselves by bashing IT and saying it is, at best, a necessary evil, I completely disagree with them. There are so many ways IT can...

Thankfully, just about every A/E or environmental firm does a business plan these days. I no longer have to relentlessly beat my drum here in The Zweig Letter on all the reasons to do so!...

Not many architects I’ve known, and even fewer engineers and scientists, appreciate the importance of company culture. How can I say this? Because they are still trying to manage their companies by creating rules and...

I recently witnessed a transformation. An old-line A/E firm that had been on the decline for about four years decided they’d finally had enough. Their top management reallocated their energy and efforts to one thing—...

January 19, 2006. Dallas, Texas. Jon Weiner had just turned 52. Things were finally going his way. His firm, Weiner & Associates, an engineering, planning, and environmental consulting company, had grown to more than 200...

The year is barely underway, and I am already hearing complaints from A/E/P and environmental firm owners: It’s time to be more profitable! This will sound like a bold claim. But the truth is, I’ve...

Yesterday was one of those perfect days. It was so nice that I almost felt guilty about it. I really should have been at my office getting ready for the next semester or working on...

When it comes to keeping clients truly satisfied and coming back year after year for every service your firm provides, most A/E/P and environmental firms have a long way to go. Creating a genuine experience...

When you talk with those folks who have really “made it” in this business, i.e., successful principals in successful A/E and environmental firms, they will usually tell you that being able to write was critical...

As the new year gets ready to start, most companies in the A/E/P and environmental consulting business are gearing up to hire. Sure— most of the needs are for experienced staffers— but, since there are...

You’ll hear it at any gathering of A/E/P and environmental consulting firm owners— hiring is at the top of the list of challenges they’re facing as we head into 2006. That said, there’s still too...

The longer I’ve worked with A/E/P and environmental firms, the more clear it has become to me: Most firms are working on the wrong side of the equation when it comes to boosting effective multipliers...

As most long-time readers of The Zweig Letter know, I can’t stand it when someone quotes the latest pop management book or article. The authors are always a little too smug in the universal applicability...

Now that A/E/P and environmental consulting firms have been doing business plans regularly for the past 10 or 15 years, it may be time to beef them up a bit. The old platitudes, goals, and...

It’s been said before that “cash is king.” It’s also been said that you can be profitable and still go out of business if you run out of cash. That said, our industry— that of...

Driving my two-tone blue ‘59 Edsel Ranger down 71B near my house the other day, I saw a great bumper sticker. It read, “Why try to predict the future when you can create it?” That’s...

I was talking with a woman recently who started her own design firm a couple years ago. Her passion for her work and her business was fantastic. She thought about it/planned/worked every waking hour. She...

It’s been said before that success comes from 2% inspiration and 98% perspiration. That’s one reason why I never worried about who saw our strategic business plan. Knowing WHAT to do is the easy part....

I just got another of the many announcements that come through the ZweigWhite e-mail system today— one of our clients just bought/merged with/sold to another firm. We see so much of this that I barely...

Anyone who knows me or who has read my writings on management for architects and engineers over the years knows that I absolutely HATE buzzwords. They automatically raise the suspicions of the smart design, management,...

We went to see my Mom and Dad in Kirkwood, Missouri, last weekend, for my Mom’s 85th birthday. While I was there, we had a lively discussion with my 85-year-old father, my 55- and 52-year-old...

Architects, engineers, and planners are always talking about what they will do to keep their clients happy. In marketing meetings, repeat business statistics of 80% or better are bandied about with pride, and chests are...

Every year, after we announce the winners of The Zweig Letter Hot Firm List, we get contacted by other firms wondering why they are not on the list. It’s always one of two reasons: Either...

In observing firm leaders of A/E and other firms over the years, one quality stands out in the best of them. These leaders do something that endears them to all in their employ— they deflect...