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  “Say yes as much as you can when you’re young so that you can balance things a little better when you’re older.” Sondra Rotty Sondra Rotty is the newly elected president and COO of...

By Chris Catton | Recruiting is the AEC industry’s biggest challenge, yet most firms still operate without a real recruiting plan.

By Janki DePalma | When we measure collaboration instead of individual wins, teams shift from rivalry to shared success.

Zweig Group consultants and leaders regularly speak, teach, and participate in major industry events across the AEC community.

By Stephen Parker & Mei-Ling Krabbe | The most successful organizations will treat adaptability, personalization, and inclusivity as organizing principles for workplace design.

By Ricardo Jesus Maga Rojas | To succeed against recruiting and retention challenges, firms must prioritize growth, flexibility, and belonging to empower emerging leaders.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of TPD, Inc. (Pottstown, PA), a consulting engineering firm specializing in transportation engineering and related environmental and construction services.

By Chuck Miller | Selling requires building credibility, showing up consistently, and proving that you’re in it for the long haul.

By Marcía Alvarado | From the court to the C-suite, female athletes bring discipline, drive, and dynamic leadership to the AEC industry.

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

By Elizabeth Preston | Managers can unintentionally hinder their team’s writing by not providing clear standards, dedicated time, and constructive feedback.

By Sara Parkman | Zweig Group’s 2024 Marketing Excellence Award winners share the strategies behind their winning campaigns and the impact on their firms’ success.

By David Doxtad & Andy Brandel | As your firm grows, this person ensures you will maintain your core competencies, values, and environment with your newly added team members.

By Shelby Smith | Although change can begin with one person, monumental, industry-altering change must be a cohesive, collaborative team effort.

By Samantha Boeck | This type of culture drives people to compete at their best, challenges everyone on the team, and pushes boundaries to elevate the entire game.

By Stjepan Mikulić | This approach ensures the foundation of change is built on a solid understanding of human behavior, enabling more sustainable firm-wide implementation.

By Annie Rezac | Organizations can drive positive change and contribute to a culture that values diversity as a strategic asset by setting clear goals and consistently sharing progress.

By Florencia Kratsman | Businesses must embrace sustainable interior design, prioritizing eco-friendly materials, longevity, and heritage to mitigate environmental impact and meet consumer demands.

By Liisa Andreassen | Principal at MCE (Minneapolis, MN), one of the largest mechanical and electrical consulting engineering firms in the United States.

By Lindsay Young | Business development should be a collaborative effort in AEC firms, with all employees, even technical experts, playing a role in identifying opportunities.

By Ezequiel Tovar | Neglecting succession planning jeopardizes the future of your company’s internal transition.

By Ying Liu | Insight into the unique challenges and opportunities often faced by CSOs in the AEC industry.

Zweig Group advisors reflect on key insights from this year’s entrepreneurial event.

By Chad Clinehens | This year’s ElevateAEC Conference is an opportunity for you to drive personal and professional growth.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Schaefer (Cincinnati, OH), a firm that provides all aspects of structural engineering across a broad range of projects and industries.

By Jeff Sober | If you want to keep people at your firm long-term, it’s time to rethink traditional approaches to preventing turnover.

By Keyan Zandy | It’s critical to take the time to develop your trust-building skills. You, your teams, and the projects you are all working on together will only benefit.

By Ernesto Aguilar | Achieving rapid expansion through both organic and inorganic growth while maintaining a strong, employee-centric culture.

By Liisa Andreassen | They are the CEO and president of RDG, a firm made up of architects, artists, engineers, landscape architects, and planners with a passion for design.

By Ashley Heinnickel | A rebrand is an opportunity to elevate your firm’s identity and build excitement about where you’re going.

By Liisa Andreassen | Chief people officer at HEAPY (Dayton, OH), a nationally recognized leader in sustainable and resilient engineering design.

By Rick Cloutier & Kart Vaith | By formalizing a few key integration strategies, you could effectively leverage the synergy of each new acquisition leading to sales, operations, and delivery benefits.

By Kraig Kern | Your firm’s collective strengths can and should be applied to make your new employees’ onboarding a standout experience.

By Justin Smith | Training opportunities that use the best of both worlds – science and experience – will bring your firm to the next level.

By Matt Hoying | Young (or less experienced) engineers and designers may lack construction experience. Fast track their learning with these approaches.

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.

By Jenny Phan | Get your technical professionals comfortable with sharing their stories and they’ll promote your firm, their good work, and their team.

By Keyan Zandy | Many firms have been slow to engage in conversations with their employees about mental health. It’s time to make a change.

By Julie Benezet | Mentors do not fight for candidates’ advancement opportunities. That is the job of champions.

By Wendy Culver | ERGs to get your people involved to make changes from the heart of your organization, rather than being imposed from the top down.

President and CEO of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. (Northbrook, IL), a global firm that’s committed to helping clients solve, repair, and avoid problems in the built world.

Evolving these relationships is a critical and too-often-overlooked key to successful project delivery and retaining satisfied clients.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | Celebrate the present, and focus on extreme flexibility and radical empathy going forward.

It’s our responsibility as AEC professionals, as well as citizens, to champion solutions to problems that affect our global and local communities.

Changing your mindset and discarding your assumptions allows you to start a dialogue to improve performance, relationships, and model the type of leadership that you want to see in others.

If you are within the leadership group of your company, there are times when you may need to purge your leadership team to move forward.

CEO of Sambatek (Minneapolis, MN), a professional services firm with an authentic culture that promotes openness, transparency, and trust.

Charting a sustainable future requires a willingness to critically evaluate your firm and prepare for the year ahead.

In any business, there are good risks and bad risks. Find out which ones are right for you.

CEO of Chipman Design Architecture, a third-generation, family-owned firm based in Chicago, Illinois.

Ask yourself how you can remove constraints and let ideas flow, so they can be shared, shaped, and applied.

Do you want to survive the next year, the next recession, and the ongoing reset of the workplace, the marketplace, and the recruiting space?

President and CEO of Eclipse Engineering (Best Firm Structural #12 for 2018), a Montana firm that likes to have a little “phun.”

We might not pitch and catch over nine innings for a living, but we can learn a lot from what happens out on the diamond.

We need a comprehensive approach to encourage heterogeneity in our firms. It starts, but certainly does not end, with simple awareness. Zweig Group’s new mission to Elevate the Industry was unveiled at the 2018 Hot...

COO of Aguirre & Fields, LP (Best Firm Multi-discipline #27 for 2018), a 120-person engineering firm based in Houston. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “If you haven’t started planning for ownership transition, you’re behind and you...

By Phil Keil | The development of high moral and ethical standards is the most important thing you can do as a leader, and it will transform your team for the good.

Marketing text has to be what the project owner needs to see. If you can standardize to accommodate an array of proposal types, great. If not, develop new recipes. Standardizing marketing text seems like a...

The highest performing teams across all organizations have identifiable characteristics – great role clarity, tough love, and solid performance standards. Just like the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles, great teams do not happen...

President of Fleis & VandenBrink Engineering, Inc. (Hot Firm #30 for 2017), a 200-person civil engineering firm based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Marketing is very important,” Galdes says. “We actually increased...

They go hand in hand, and both need regular maintenance if they are to be positive. Take a look at your firm and make adjustments if necessary. A company with a great culture can, and...

Success in recruiting is relational, not transactional, so keep those contacts warm and be prepared to wait for that all-star to join your team. Last year I had the privilege of watching the courting of...

Good old American ingenuity is what we need to save the planet, not a cumbersome set of rules and regulations. A great deal has been written, and there has been significant handwringing, about America backing...

President of WestLAND Group, Inc. (Best Firm #41 Multi-discipline and Hot Firm #45 for 2017), a full-service civil engineering and land surveying firm based in Ontario, California. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “It’s important to identify...

So you’re thinking about acquiring an A/E firm? You’ve got a lot of questions to ask yourself, and you need to have honest answers. In a recent article, I wrote about how important it was...

You don’t want to lose sight of your current business, but fostering ideas and innovation with your staff is increasingly essential. Achieving the seemingly impossible could be one way to sum up several epic sporting...

President and CEO of ISG (Hot Firm #58 for 2016) a 200-person architecture, engineering, and environmental planning firm based in Mankato, Minnesota. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent With the recent acquisition of Green Bay-based Raasch Associates,...

From ex-girlfriends to meerkats, internet overload can put a serious dent in your productivity, even while it makes you feel good. I am a champion multitasker. I pride myself on my ability to write an...

Dutch port city emerging from Amsterdam's shadow with eye-popping architecture, willingness to innovate, and a proposed Windwheel that just might change the world. By Richard Massey Managing Editor Of the world’s national brands, perhaps none...

With a focus on renewable energy and environmental conservation, and a need to improve a vast and aging infrastructure, opportunity abounds. Things are going pretty well for nearly all these days. Those downturn doldrums are...

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...

In a recent article, I wrote about how important it was to prepare your firm for sale even if you are not thinking about an external ownership transition. You can read that article here. This...

Top ranking AEC firms have positive organizational cultures, provide employees with the tools they need to be successful, and foster open communication. How do you get your firm to a place where every one of...

By Jeff Clark Many firm owners are afraid to market their firms, for fear that once the word is out that they are for sale, their perceived value will go down and their staff will...