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By Chad Colidron | As firms grow, alignment, accountability, and execution become the difference between getting bigger and getting stronger.

By Jeremy Clarke | Most governance problems are not execution failures but clarity failures around who owns decisions and who is accountable.

By Daryl Simons Jr. | If your retention strategy relies on appreciation events instead of competitive pay, you are already losing talent.

Zweig Group, the leading provider of management consulting, research, and education for the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, has released its 2026 Salary Report of AEC Firms and updated its Compensation Data Platform, delivering...

By Robert Jones | The DOT’s new rule ends automatic DBE presumptions, requiring individualized proof of disadvantage and immediate recertification for all firms.

By Jennifer Nelson | New tax law creates major planning opportunities – R&D, bonus depreciation, and corporate rates shift, with key deadlines looming.

By Greg Sepeda | By taking lessons from the dugout, we can better handle change – turning challenges into opportunities, and transitions into a winning season.

By Ying Liu | The essential structural and tactical elements that underpin successful strategy execution in AEC.

By Lauren Martin | Design firms need to be vigilant about clauses and language that have the potential to significantly expand their risk while undermining their insurance protection.

By Alec Russell | M&A activity in the AEC industry surged in 2024, driven by private equity, regulatory investments, and strategic acquisitions.

By Sara Parkman | Compensation trends reveal critical strategies to boost employee retention and satisfaction.

By Jason Wilson | Problem-solving unforeseen challenges in order to boost productivity and regain work-life balance when working from home.

By Stuart McLendon | Facing a talent shortage exacerbated by baby boomers’ exodus from the workforce, AEC firms must innovate to succeed.

By Jon Leach | In a world in which employee engagement is steadily decreasing, it’s increasingly important for firm leaders to understand the psychology behind their office spaces.

By Alexis Eades | Put your interns to work and gain long-term positive benefits for yourself, your firm, and the young people who may one day be your employees.

By Liisa Andreassen | Principal at Derck & Edson (Lititz, PA), a planning and design firm that shapes the natural and built environment in innovative and functional ways.

By Liisa Andreassen | President at Baisch Engineering (Kaukauna, WI), a consulting engineering firm that provides full-service integration engineering to industrial clients worldwide.

By Brian Nordmann | An actionable cybersecurity strategy can be established without significant financial investment, and with measurable results and rewards.

By Liisa Andreassen | CEO of LaBella Associates (Rochester, NY), a firm with diverse service offerings that can address any aspect of the built or natural environment.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of Haley Ward (Bangor, ME), a 100 percent employee-owned technical consulting firm, offering a range of engineering, environmental, and surveying services.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | While we’re entering 2021 with a renewed sense of purpose and greater clarity, there are still a lot of unanswered questions.

By John Bray | Bringing work to your firm right now could be the difference between coming out of the pandemic stronger on the other side or getting left behind.

The ways our businesses and facilities function in relation to employees and customers are bound to adjust due to COVID-19.

If we want to be in position to effectively respond and even get ahead of the curve, we all need to know what’s likely to come next.

By Will Swearingen | In recent months, long-time issues like communication have been trumped by new challenges: loneliness, problems with technology, work-life balance, and distractions.

By putting energy into the power of habit, deep work, productivity tools, and daily scheduling, you will see immediate and lasting productivity gains.

In times like these, it is more important than ever to monitor your costs and develop an action plan to ensure your firm can weather the storm. There are so many fixed costs associated with...

President and CEO of Barton & Loguidice, a full-service consulting firm headquartered in Syracuse, New York.

President of DY Consultants, a nationally-recognized aviation consulting firm based in New York City.

President of JBCI, a small, but venerable, repair and restoration firm based in Philadelphia.

President and CEO of LACO (Best Firm Multi-discipline #46 for 2018), a California firm with a famously branded shirt.

President of Bernardon (Hot Firm #39 for 2018), an 80-person architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture firm based in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

 There are multiple considerations to be made when valuing a privately-held company and the assessment of the many moving parts. The valuation of privately-held firms, including those in the AEC industry, will usually involve discounting...

Mergers and acquisitions, among other events, can wreak havoc on firms. Keep in mind that when faced with upheaval, different people adjust in different ways. I checked Wikipedia at the start of this article, and...

Even with the long lead times, the proposal process can be stressful. Marketers have to own the process and enforce the schedule. Some people describe the proposal process as a marathon while others consider it...

By understanding the various risks associated with P3s and taking appropriate steps to manage them, A/E firms can put themselves in advantageous positions. As our nation turns to the urgent need to repair, replace, and...

Chairman and CEO of Maser Consulting P.A. (#12 Best Firm Multidiscipline and #16 Hot Firm for 2016), a 650-person firm with 22 offices across eight states. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “The most important formula for...

If your firm does not have a well-crafted system for handing out employee bonuses, you run the risk of creating the haves and the have nots. 2016 was a good year in the domestic A/E...

Do you have a vision for the future of your firm? It’s a must, so climb out from behind the day-to-day, engage your team, and chart your course. Any quick online search will bring up...

If the recent case of NBA superstar Kevin Durant can teach us anything, it’s that the recruitment of rare talent takes an equally rare effort. The NBA free agency period that recently unfolded was quite...

Flaws in current system can be overcome through strategic adjustments. Being a project manager in the typical A/E/P or environmental firm is rarely easy. Think about it: In most firms in this business, it is...

The valuation of privately held firms, including those in the A/E/P and environmental consulting industry, will usually involve discounting to arrive at a concluded value of the subject interest. Readers who have been through the...

By Tracey Jeffers Principal, Valuation Consulting ZweigWhite I recently worked on a valuation engagement for a project management firm involving minority shareholder value in a litigation. Besides the relevant financial data, one of the first...

By Hobson Hogan EBITDA can be measured in different ways, and confusion over it sometimes leads us to wonder if we are speaking the same language. I often hear people make statements like “I heard...

By Christine Brack, PMP A few weeks ago, I was talking to a client about his firm’s project management practices, its managers, and systems, and… eventually we began discussing the challenges and frustrations he was...

The A/E/P and environmental consulting business is really pretty simple from a financial management standpoint. It shouldn’t be hard to track the numbers you need to run a firm, yet so many companies seem to...

This is the time of year many firms do their budgeting. Unfortunately, many of them make the budgeting process far more difficult than it has to be. Small firms may not know where to start...