The Zweig Letter

At one of my “Managing a Growing Firm” seminars a few weeks ago, I had an attendee tell me how another attendee was handling his ownership transition program. When I asked him who was offering...

I said something to my 78 year-old father the other day about going someplace or another to conduct a “management retreat.” His response was, “Why not a management charge?” He went on to say that...

You want to know something that drives me crazy— right up the wall? It’s all of the darn committees that A/E/P and environmental firms keep creating for one reason after another. Most of the time...

If you consider the truly successful people you know who own and manage A/E/P or environmental firms, I think you’ll find that they think differently from everybody else. They are irreverent. They defy logic. They...

Believe it or not, as good as things are in the A/E/P and environmental industry, there are still some firms out there that need to be turned around. These firms just can’t make a profit....

Now’s the time of the year a lot of folks in the A/E/P business start to take a look at their business plan. Traditionally, there’s some discussion of what’s going on outside the firm that...

Most intelligent, ambitious people working in A/E/P and environmental consulting firms aspire to be a leader some day. Whether it’s the CEO, managing partner, director of operations, or office manager job they covet varies from...

Any business, particularly A/E/P and environmental consulting firms, better be concerned about how to keep current clients happy and satisfied. The reason is simple— getting new clients is expensive, and if you have to constantly...

“Training.” It sounds like a good thing, right? Everybody likes training. It’s supposed to make people better at their jobs, and that’s good for them. The business news media tells us that Generation X-ers will...

At the car wash this past weekend I saw a 1969 Barracuda with a 440-cubic engine. It was hot pink (a factory color) with what Chrysler used to refer to as a “six-pack” (that’s three,...

Every A/E/P or environmental firm finds it necessary to hire outside consultants at some point. Whether it’s simply to get tax advice or to plot out a new course for a growing firm, it’s inevitable....

“Process marketing” is a term you’ll see a lot of in The Zweig Letter. Heck, we even have a supplemental, stand-alone Process Marketing Advisor devoted entirely to the subject! The reason is that process marketing...

Here are some quick thoughts on a few issues: Pay or don’t buy. There have been a number of articles in the business press recently dealing with ethics issues. One that I read involved a...

I would be surprised if more than one of our readers hasn’t said to themselves recently, “We really ought to be thinking about what we’ll do if things slow down.” Well get ready folks, it’s...

The longer I have been involved with management of A/E/P and environmental firms the more convinced I am that the whole key to success lies in thinking long term. The sooner one comes to this...

Every single firm we deal with at Zweig White & Associates, Inc. could benefit from working on their hiring process. Everyone in the A/E/P and environmental business agrees that it’s hard to hire. Well here...

Summer’s here. Our local swimming hole— “Farm Pond”— in the town I live in (Sherborn, Mass., pop. 4,300) is also a social gathering spot. Late in the afternoon and on weekends you’ll see all of...

Traveling all the time is no party, as anyone who does it can tell you. But it’s a fact of life for many of the top people working in the A/E/P and environmental (as well...

As A/E/P or environmental consulting firms, we love to tell our clients that we can meet the schedule, stay within the budget, and provide high quality. Then under our breath, we mutter: “Pick any two,...

In my travels around the country working with A/E/P and environmental firms large and small I have come to the awareness of just how important it is to have a positive employee culture. It may...

I like the fact that The Zweig Letter has an editorial point of view. So many newsletters for this industry and others are just compilations of other, previously published articles. Or, they are so white...

It’s always interesting to me when I encounter people who don’t think you can get rich (that’s right, I said “rich”) in this business. But before we get started, please let me clarify. “Rich” to...

Raymond Stodge, managing principal of “Stodge Engineers and Architects,” was depressed. How would he get the firm’s executive committee to start taking action on the issues that had plagued the firm for years? And now...

Believe it or not, some people don’t like the term “human resources management.” They think it diminishes individuals in some way, and by referring to “human resources” we might as well be talking about “natural...