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By Sarah Kinard | Market shifts are inevitable, but firms that recognize them early can turn disruption into opportunity.

By Mark Zweig | When family enters the org chart, leaders must manage perception, opportunity, and accountability with far more discipline.

By Mark Zweig | Market cycles are inevitable, and firms that act before revenue drops will outperform those that wait and react.

By Mark Zweig | The fastest way to suffocate a productive AEC firm isn’t bad projects or markets, it’s too many pointless meetings.

By Kraig Kern | When the engine stalls, take the pause to reset, refocus, and get ready for what comes next.

By Jennifer Nelson | With informed planning and strategic flexibility, AEC firms can continue to thrive and deliver, even in turbulent times.

By Brad Thurman | Building true, long-lasting professional relationships with your clients takes a lot of work – but will pay off for you in the end.

By Mercedez Thompson | How a book club sparked connection and a genuine sense of belonging in a hybrid workplace.

By Matt Johnson | Client managers face new challenges post-pandemic, requiring increased client contact, realistic budgeting, and managing expectations for success.

By Leslie Jenkins | Instead of trying to impress potential clients, focus on emotional intelligence, really listening, and creating relationships built on common goals and trust.

By Shannon Koop | A well-developed business plan gives insight into growth potential, possible disruption, and resource constraints.

By Mark Zweig | This is the time of year many of us, and many of our clients, will take a family vacation, so do what you can to step away and enjoy it.

By Jared Maxwell & Cady Sinks | Despite slowing infection rates, AEC firms and their insurers may still endure the effects of the pandemic for many months to come.

By Keyan Zandy | There are a lot of heroes in our companies, but some are less noticeable. Their successes are quieter and less dramatic, but no less valuable.

Keep tabs on your insurers in a difficult economy by reviewing evaluations by popular ratings agencies.

President of EPS Group (Mesa, AZ), a full-service consulting firm that is dedicated to exceeding expectations.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | At the start of the pandemic, the majority of the AEC industry was thrust into an extreme scenario of work-life integration.

By Mark Zweig | These six traits are most likely to lead to success and are absolute “musts” for whomever is the CEO of the firm.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | In this year of upheaval and change, the most important component of any successful firm remains the same.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | With some ingenuity and proper planning, the AEC industry can adapt and thrive in any climate.

President and CEO of Integrated CM Solutions (San Antonio, TX), a program/construction management firm that’s had more than $800 million worth of projects since 2015.

By Jamie Claire Kiser | Discarding an entire year’s worth of results may be an even greater barrier to future success than our current circumstances.

Innovators should consider following these best practices to ensure that what they believe to be their trademarks and copyrights actually are their legal property.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | The situation is changing quickly, but versatility and fast decision-making have become necessary.

We all know meetings are a necessary evil, but do we have to let them wreck our productivity? Did you know that a typical American professional attends more than 60 meetings per month? That is...

I have been traveling my entire professional career, and as much as I hate to admit it, that is 38 years now. I’m sure I could have flown to Mars or something with as much...

One of my theories about why A/E firms do so poorly with at-risk construction projects is we are just not equipped for the people we deal with in that “other” world. There are some bad...

Assignments, attitudes, and acknowledgment – if you take care of the Big Three, your marketing people will do great things. I have been an A/E industry marketer since the early 1980s. In those 30-plus years,...

They wreck the recruiting process, and a lot of them want a great offer to use as leverage for a raise where they already work. Remember how recruiters used to sneak up and wow candidates...

We got a fax the other day from a firm that wanted to cancel four seminar registrations it had sent in just a couple weeks before. Evidently, the firm had hit on hard times, had...

The checklist is long, but with meticulous attention to detail, a firm can avoid unpleasant surprises after closing the deal. Merger and acquisition activity among A/E firms continues to heat up. When planning to buy,...

My husband and I had dinner one evening last week at one of our favorite local restaurants, an upscale place with a gracious staff and fantastic fare. Or, at least, we went to the restaurant...

It needs to be relevant, user-friendly and affordable but is well-worth the investment. Recruiting is not so simple an enterprise anymore. Like it or not, recruiting has become increasingly sophisticated over the years – in...

By Mark C. Zweig So many people today in this business are just getting tired of the grind. The last three years haven’t been fun— with more competition, reduced profitability, delayed or cancelled projects, stalled...

Bud Tomlinson was finally starting to feel pretty good about things again. Business was turning around. But the last eight months or so had been a real wake-up call... Back in July his firm, Tomlinson...

With so much negative information coming in— project cancellations, Warren Buffet stating in an interview that “the economy has fallen off a cliff,” and amazing stock market declines— along with layoffs and, for those who...

I have often felt that architecture, engineering, planning, and environmental firms pay lip service to the notion that they should keep their best clients happy— and KEEP their best clients clients. It always seems like...

Like it or not, most firms in this business of any size have to borrow money. Whether the firm needs the money to provide operating capital while waiting to collect accounts receivable, to finance business...

September 11, 2001— I was talking on the phone when I looked through the glass interior wall of my office out into the rest of our space and noticed people standing around a TV monitor....

I just heard a story the other day about one of our clients from another clients (both large A/E firms). Evidently, the first firm had been called by a big client for help on a...

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...

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...

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...

Road Warriors Square Off— One Monday a couple of weeks ago, I got up at 3:45 a.m. to catch a 6:00 flight from Boston’s Logan Airport, the start of a long week to come. After...

It’s the time of year when you can’t reach anyone on the telephone, when important decisions seem to be postponed, and when, as one CFO who participates in our ZWEIG 100 index remarked recently, firm-wide...