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By Ezequiel Tovar | In turbulent times, strategic capital allocation is crucial for firm survival.

By David Keith | Legacy programs reinforce a firm’s commitment to nurturing talent, fostering innovation, and preserving a dynamic, forward-thinking design culture.

By Mark Zweig | There are a number of strategies one can employ to make lots of money in this business.

By Will Swearingen | How does your firm’s financial performance stack up against the rest of the AEC industry?

By Chad Coldiron | AEC firms must offer variety, identify employee interests, and create a positive work environment to retain top talent.

By Liisa Andreassen | Design principal and CEO at Hanbury, a firm that is a global resource for its clients that specializes in higher education, civic, and commercial environments.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of Cushing Terrell, a multidisciplinary firm that empowers creative designers to discover imaginative, responsible first-of-their-kind environments.

By Amanda Hartman, Hannah Rico & Jules Ackerson | Huge organizational milestones can be reached when you step away from your day-to-day operations to evaluate your firm’s past and plan for the future.

By Tom Godin | A look back at 2021 – and ahead to 2022 – through the lyrics of Billy Joel.

By Stephanie Warino | External members on boards of directors increase innovation and spur growth.

By Tim Schroeder | By focusing on teams, you could deepen employee engagement, enhance communication, and improved your firm’s agility.

By Tim Schroeder | Grow your team’s empathy by embracing a culture of feedback, realigning your perspective to view feedback as an opportunity, and becoming coachable.

By Mark Zweig | A lack of speed is a big problem for too many A/E firms. You all really need to pick up the pace!

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Lawrence Group (St. Louis, MO), an integrated design, development, and construction firm using the power of people with great ideas to bring clients’ dreams to life.

President and senior principal of ICON Architecture (Boston, MA), a women-owned, SOMBDA certified firm that’s staffed over 50 percent by women.

CEO of Huckabee (Hot Firm #7 and Best Firm Architecture #3 for 2018), a 300-person architecture firm based in Fort Worth, Texas. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “For us, diversifying is a bad thing,” Huckabee says....

Founder and president of Gunda Corporation (#32 Hot Firm for 2017), a 60-person engineering consulting firm based in Houston. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “I’m not a big fan of utilization rates,” Gunda says. “I believe...

I’m about to make some generalizations that could get me in trouble with people I care about. If this includes you, please forgive me! Engineers have problems. You heard me. Engineers have PROBLEMS! I have...

As a firm grows, new people have to come on board. But if those people threaten to damage your culture and sink the ship, you can always toss them back out to sea. We tell...

Your firm might want to try rolling business plans with one-, three-, and 20-year projections. It’s a lot of work, but it beats starting over again and again. It is generally good business to create...

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...

We’re in the throes of our annual business planning process here at ZWA. You know the routine— get everyone together, have an office party and a holiday dinner at a nice restaurant and spend a...

I just got back from the annual principals’ retreat of a real successful firm, which was held at The Woodlands outside of Houston. One of the goals for the retreat, established by the firm’s board...

This is the time of year that many A/E/P and environmental consulting firms hold an annual management retreat. The larger a firm is, the more likely it is to have a retreat. Typically at these...

Environmental consulting firms are starting to come to grips with what A/E and consulting engineering firms have faced for years— a mature marketplace. No longer is the demand for environmental services growing at a 10-20%...