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By Morgan Stinson | AI disruption is real, but people still bring the judgment and connection technology cannot replicate.

By Mark Zweig | These are the most important qualities that decide who gets to move up as firm leaders, managers, and future owners.

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

Learning to learn, praising the process, and reflecting on your progress all point your mind toward the common goal of persistent development.

“People who show any signs of a lack of character must be confronted and dealt with immediately.”

“A lot of managers in AEC firms – design and technical people who have become managers – need to learn a few supervisory basics.”

“Just as it is easier (and cheaper) to keep an existing client than to get a new one, so goes it for your employees. Keeping good people is essential to your firm.”

President and CEO of CME (Hot Firm #36 for 2018), an engineering firm headquartered in Connecticut that refuses to be affordable and mediocre. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “If we cannot grow fast enough to provide...

Regardless of what else the future holds for B2B marketing, one thing is certain: Content marketing is here to stay. Marketing communications. Social media. Graphic design. Media relations. Proposals. Internal communications. Event engagement. Brand management....

Research shows that a good onboarding program is the best way to keep the people you hire, and save a chunk of change on recruitment and training. The process of accepting a job seems much...

Friendships are not only good for the soul, their good for business, so make as many of them as you can if you want your firm to prosper. Personal engagement with clients determines so much...

There are probably many reasons why people have trouble completing tasks; here are some ways to solve the problem. It seems to me, a common problem we all encounter these days – either with ourselves...

Even proponents of ‘never say never’ will likely agree that these gaffes should never be committed. Though one of my favorite sayings is “never say never,” the fact is, if you work in an A/E...

Mark Zweig contrasts five examples of individuals best avoided. It has been said before that you “can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep.” It is such a true statement! Successful people...

Stereotypes exist for a reason. Sometimes there’s a lot of truth in them. Good examples of this can be found in how bosses are portrayed in pop culture. The problem is if any of these...

Every single A/E or environmental firm in this country needs more people who can sell work. These people feed the rest of the firm, allow the owners to sleep at night, and are generally the...

Human resources people are big on job descriptions. I was never that fond of them because it seems that they can always be used against you somehow. Here are some examples: “I meet the requirements...

I have never been big on “business is a game” analogies. The people I have met over the years who’ve used this analogy never seemed to exemplify the kind of values that I think you...

Talk to some architects and engineers and their real feelings will come out: They believe there’s something bad, something sick, something wrong, something immoral about business. Their attitude is that design or technical work is...

One of my associates and I recently went to Idaho to visit a new consulting client— Power Engineers, Inc. (Hailey, ID). Without question, one of the high points of our trip was meeting their CEO...

No doubt about it, all of us who are managers in an A/E/P or environmental firm have to face some tough situations from time to time. They aren’t usually “fun” decisions, or situations that give...

Deciding how to reward principals is a perennial problem. Spread out the rewards equally, and one principal is bound to feel cheated while another principal gets more than he deserves. Vary the compensation of principals,...

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...

Although I dislike corny slogans and management propaganda, one of our fast-growing clients asked me recently if we had some sort of “employee credo” they could provide to new employees. This firm’s owners were concerned...

The ability of an A/E or environmental consulting firm to quickly hire qualified people for any opening affects virtually every aspect of its management. I call it “supply-side human resources management.” If you think about...