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...
George Alexandra was fed up. He was tired of always having to take a back seat to his partner, Mick Flashyman. “Just because Flashyman started the company (Godlike Architects, Inc.) didn’t mean it wouldn’t be...
Durwood Ryan, CEO of Ryan, Brookhouse, and Springdale, was frustrated. He knew that Jeannie Turtlepup, his structural engineering department head, needed a raise. But he wasn’t getting any support for it from Poppy Buck, the...
In some previous articles we’ve talked about principals who are too involved and wreak havoc on budgets and schedules due to their last minute involvement on projects. But there’s another problem, and it may be...
It’s the kind of question that plagues principals: Why, if their firm has spent more than $300,000 on an all-new web-based software program that is designed to integrate every single front office function, are they...
Everyone wants to talk about project management as one of the keys to profitability. But based on some of what I have seen and heard lately, the problem may not be so much about how...
Terry Mitchell, senior vice president and transportation division head for MonsterFirm, Inc., knew one thing: If the firm was going to make any real money, it was going to take a new level of top...
Leroy Whiteside, president and CEO of Those Fabulous Architects, Inc., a 200-person firm based in Charleston, South Carolina, is a great guy. He is, in many ways, the archetypal design firm principal. He works 60...
Right now, everyone seems to be interested in profits. 2001 shook owners and employees alike. And even though most firms had a decent year (but “decent” is not the same as “great”), most made about...
John Dilbertson left the Dilbertson & Terry board meeting shaking his head. How many times did they have to reconsider the issue of principal compensation, particularly base pay? It seemed like it never ended. One...
