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By Greg Sepeda | The best leaders resist false choices and build the capacity to operate within tension while maintaining clarity, discipline, and forward momentum.

By Chad Clinehens & Steve Hake | One year of partnership has created stronger solutions, deeper collaboration, and greater momentum for the future of AEC.

By Mark Zweig | Work/life balance sounds appealing, but real careers and real lives are built through integration.

By Tristan Harper | Construction contracts are not professional services contracts, and confusing the two creates uninsured risk for AEC firms.

By John McGill | AI may speed up rendering and iteration in AEC, but human judgment still determines accuracy, compliance, and meaningful design innovation.

By Milly Sordo | Goal meetings are a way to set individualized goals with your employees steeped in energy, intention, and – most importantly – support.

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

By Will Swearingen | A new era of AEC growth is emerging, driven by value creation and strategic expansion.

By Steve McAdams | Firms that scale successfully evolve their leadership approach, formalize operations, and stay grounded in culture.

By Chad Clinehens | Record-breaking performance, bold innovation, and a new generation of leaders are redefining what’s possible in AEC.

By Mark Zweig | Winning big design projects requires strategy, preparation, credibility, and connecting authentically with decision-makers to secure long-term success.

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 Janki DePalma | Ghosting job candidates damages trust, reputation, and your firm’s future recruitment success.

By Nick Heim | Innovation in AEC succeeds when people, processes, and technology work together with purpose and alignment.

By Liam Watson | These four virtues will help you survive and thrive in all parts of daily life, both personally and professionally.

By Javier Suarez | Companies should focus first and foremost on “doing” and then worry about “saying” what they are doing.

By Duncan Robertson | When we intentionally build connections focused on authenticity, we create healthy, long-lasting relationships that drive a return-on-investment.

By Janki DePalma | Small actions today can reduce stress, improve efficiency, and make life easier for your future self.

By Sarah R. Adams-Slominski | Step back and check in on how your employees are doing, learn what they care about, and discover what helps them stay engaged in their work.

By Javier Suarez | Instead of trying to fix “the big problem,” we should handpick issues that we could have a decent chance of addressing successfully.

By Jane Lawler Smith | Marketing professionals are the unsung heroes of the AEC industry, driving synchronization, strategy, and success in securing projects.

By Emily Gaines | The words and numbers used to describe design concept, building component, and client goal form a dataset that guides decisions and improves project success.

By Leisbel Lam | Harnessing the power of a growth mindset and the S-curve of learning to transform human capital in the AEC industry.

By Kristin Kautz | AI adoption empowers firms to unleash their human potential to solve problems that matter.

By Irina Rice | The evolving use of AI in AEC projects raises complex legal questions about authorship, copyright, and ethical responsibility.

By Elizabeth Preston | Grammar rules are useful tools, but writers should prioritize clarity and reader engagement over strict adherence to them.

By Ezequiel Tovar | Engaging with employees at all levels fosters respect, uncovers issues, and strengthens company culture.

By Emily Gaines | As data proliferates at an exponential rate, firms are increasingly recognizing the importance of leveraging data to enhance decision-making and creative processes.

By Sarah R. Adams-Slominski | Team leaders can more effectively manage employees of all ages through strategic communication practices.

By Jane Lawler Smith | Creating non-traditional peer groups allows AEC marketers to gain fresh perspectives and enhance creativity.

By Anastasia Welch | Transforming team dynamics and strategies for improved leadership skills, operations, and project implementation, leading to business success.

By Hannah Dapore | Intentional strategies to uphold a strong company culture regardless of geographical boundaries.

Zweig Group is the leading AEC Industry advisory service provider. We blend industry and sector knowledge with experience across the M&A lifecycle to help you capture value for shareholders. Reach our Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory team...

By Chad Clinehens | These events offer firm leaders an opportunity to connect, learn, and celebrate  – this year with a focus on ROI.

Zweig Group is the leading AEC Industry advisory service provider. We blend industry and sector knowledge with experience across the M&A lifecycle to help you capture value for shareholders. Reach our Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory team...

By Dawn Landry | By leaning into our self-awareness to understand diverse personalities, we can transform challenges into opportunities for growth and success.

Zweig Group is the leading AEC Industry advisory service provider. We blend industry and sector knowledge with experience across the M&A lifecycle to help you capture value for shareholders. Reach our Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory team...

By Morgan Stinson | Failure at some level is inevitable – but how we respond to and manage that failure is what can set us apart.

By Tom Godin | How the military’s mission command principles can improve leadership and management in AEC firms.

By Matt Verderamo | Three simple but impactful strategies to shift your mindset from needing more to getting rest.

By Greg Sepeda | Mastering the art of managing upward is crucial for career growth, involving understanding, aligning with, and proactively supporting superiors.

By Rolf Armstrong | This exercise empowers employees and provides clear direction, allowing leadership to let go and focus on success during periods of growth.

Zweig Group announces its client The HFW Companies has finalized yet another new strategic growth partnership in 2024, this time with Dallas, Texas-based civil engineering firm KFM.

By Will Swearingen | By being proactive and creating spaces to learn and grow, firms can benefit from this evolving workplace landscape.

By Mark Zweig | Mergers may be rare in our industry, but they could be the perfect vehicle for two or more firms that want to combine forces and grow.

By Mark Zweig | These four components all work in concert to make buying the business more affordable and easier to fund.

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 Ezequiel Tovar | Firm owners must have a clear vision, build a solid culture, and celebrate achievements big and small to be good stewards.

By Danielle Eisenstock | Learning takes time and effort – but the end results can be as rewarding as making your favorite meal.

By Janki DePalma | Having the ability to admit your own mistakes can be refreshingly liberating and lead to real growth and connection.

By Ivy Mendoza & Justin Patterson | By effectively communicating the complexities of engineering, graphic designers and marketers add value to a AEC firms.

Jerrod Hogan, CEO of OWN, Inc., discusses how his unique journey to leadership, influenced by his upbringing and a life-altering event, led him to transform his firm into an employee-owned company. This change fostered growth, client satisfaction, and...

By Ryan Belyea | Utilizing AI as a partner will increase our ability to design effectively, be creative, and capitalize on the possibilities of this technology now and in the future.

By Travis White | The benefits that come with being a growth-focused firm far outweigh the risks.

By Lindsay Young | We need to be more intentional about prioritizing communication, appreciation, and understanding to enhance customer service.

By Janki DePalma | It’s hard to shake off the feeling of being lazy, but it’s critical that we redefine our work-rest balance to enhance well-being and productivity.

By Raoul Rañoa | There are various techniques and tools you can use distill complex data into digestible and actionable insights.

Zweig Group is proud to announce it has won six Hermes Creative Awards for its Civil + Structural Engineer magazine and for a video collection that was created for the 2022 ElevateAEC Conference & Awards Gala.

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 Gordon Greene | If you trust your staff and have hired people with integrity, you will never need to tell someone you want them 90 percent utilized.

Zweig Group – the leading research, publishing, and advisory services resource for firms in the AEC industry – served as an intermediary for The HFW Companies.

By Jodie Quinter | We have an opportunity to reset our company cultures in a way that recognizes adaptability, while prioritizing the ways in which our people want to work and live.

By Lauren Martin | It’s important for design firms to understand the potential peril to all parties involved should there be a third-party beneficiary clause in any contract.

Zweig Group is the leading AEC Industry, advisory service provider. We blend industry and sector knowledge with experience across the M&A lifecycle to help you capture value for shareholders. Reach our Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory team here.   Domestic...

By Janki DePalma | We need to examine the connection between confidence, competence, and our sense of self in the corporate world.

By Alexis Eades | As AEC professionals, we have a responsibility to provide safe, accessible, and equitable environments for everyone to live and function in every day.

By Jane Lawler Smith | By applying various levels of rewriting, redesign, and repackaging, you can successfully bring adaptive reuse concepts into your AEC marketing realm.

By Melanie Harris | Instead of making predictions about the future of work, take part in actively shaping it.

By Keyan Zandy | The best way to foster a lean culture is by engaging with people, celebrating what they do well, and empowering them to be a part of the change you seek.

By Stefanos Word | Investments of time and effort need to be made with younger engineers to effectively transfer technical and communication skills and establish robust future leaders.

By Lauren Rhodes Martin | Besides placing an undue and inappropriate burden on architects and engineers, warranties are expressly excluded in their professional liability insurance policies.

By Janki DePalma | Pay attention to who apologizes and when, and work to create an environment of psychological safety within your firm.

By Liisa Andreassen | Project director at OBMI (Miami, FL), a leading global master planning, architecture, and design firm that has been creating timeless spaces for 85 years.

By Todd Perry | Early successes, failures, and significant challenges, and how a young firm navigated through them.

By Ross Stuart | What does the future of remote work look like in the AEC industry and how do managers adapt?

Ken Siebert, CMTA, is the recipient of the 2022 Jerry Allen Courage in Leadership Award, which recognizes outstanding accomplishments through leadership in the AEC industry.

By Liisa Andreassen | Partner at Orcutt | Winslow (Phoenix, AZ), a design firm that aspires to positively disrupt architecture through innovation, experimentation, and invention.

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

By Tim Spence | With a clear purpose, empowered professionals, and a drive for ongoing development, design firms can motivate all of their employees to row together.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of GAI Consultants, an employee-owned planning, engineering, and environmental consulting firm that provides local expertise to worldwide clients.

By Lindsay Young | Best practices for AEC firms will continue to evolve, but firms that take steps to innovate will be the ones that succeed.

By Nea May Poole | Universities do their students a disservice if they leave their programs without a fundamental understanding of what the career they have chosen entails.

Zweig Group is proud to announce it has won six Hermes Creative Awards for its publications, conference, and website redesign. Hermes Creative Awards is an international competition for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing, and...

By Jerry Holder | Three lessons learned from stories of leaders’ successes and failures – and their ramifications.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Hafer (Evansville, IN), a firm that has created environments that impact people’s lives with fun, thoughtful. and inspirational design since 1978.

Zweig Group has announced the 2022 ElevateHER™ cohort, a special task force comprised of individuals with a commitment to promote diversity as a means to combat recruiting and retention challenges in the architectural, engineering, and...

By Jared Maxwell | By adopting a zero-trust approach, AEC firms can strengthen their data security and their protection against occupational fraud and external cyber-related threats.

By Eduardo Smith | With more work than we can handle and the current recruiting challenges we face, we need to be sure that our organizations have the foundations for sustained growth.

By Gustavo Rodriguez | A collaborative design process where a diversity of voices are present and have ownership allows room for new ideas and points of view to emerge.

By Liisa Andreassen | Managing principal at GGLO (Seattle, WA), a firm that believes it’s both the opportunity and responsibility of design to inspire the best aspects of community.

By Rob Hughes | Having a clear understanding of some key insurance concepts can help your firm navigate heightened requirements and hard insurance market conditions more effectively.

By Phil Keil | Think of strategy as a revolutionary process requiring continual iteration and agility.

By John Bray | How will the new infrastructure bill impact M&A activity in the AEC industry?

By Stephanie Warino | The principles of Organizational Project Management can guide a firm through the steps of scaling an organization.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Line Scale Form (Birmingham, AL), a firm with a goal of providing clients with designs that are exceptional and practical – visually, fiscally, and functionally.

By Lillian Minix | The pandemic has changed the way we network, opening doors to many more opportunities than we could have imagined.

By Tim Spence | There is a third option that empowers leaders at all levels, provides a foundation for growth, and offers a sound path forward.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of CallisonRTKL, a global firm that has created some of the world’s most successful environments for developers, retailers, investors, institutions, and public entities.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Lynn Engineering, a windstorm, structural, and civil engineering firm specializing in residential, commercial, and infrastructure development projects on the Texas Gulf Coast.

By Will Swearingen | Problems can arise when two leaders have distinctly different philosophies about how to run a business.

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

By Julie Benezet | Time limits tighten focus, propel you over challenging hurdles, and maximize your chances of success.

By Talin Espinoza | A conversation about how improving gender representation in the workplace benefits everyone and how the AEC industry has evolved regarding women professionals.

By Jane Lawler Smith | Make sure your marketing uses fresh ingredients, is thoughtfully assembled, and temptingly delivered.

By Phil Keil | Decentralization of structure within our firms allows for a more agile, adaptable, and unified organization.

Through recessions and tough times, innovations explode as people are forced to slow down and think. Many are already working on the next big thing for their business. Are you?

Getting creative with your video marketing efforts requires a continual adaptation of your strategy, but doing so will allow you to make the most of this valuable marketing tool.

By Chad Coldiron | Practice becoming a better communicator, and you’ll build better rapport and credibility with clients, colleagues, and just about everyone else.

In an increasingly global marketplace, equity, diversity, inclusion, and engagement strategies will be integral to the success of your organization for the foreseeable future.

By Will Swearingen | Don’t let the concept of treasury stock cloud your transition strategy.

By Jamie Claire Kiser & Christina Zweig Niehues | ElevateHer has been a call to action to work together, and the reaction to this inclusive approach has been powerful.

To get the most return on your marketing investment dollars, leaders need to help build dynamic, collaborative relationships between principals and marketing teams.

By Mark Zweig | If we truly want to elevate our people and help them achieve all they can achieve, we must help them be better communicators.

The next time you have a critical project or important concept to communicate, forget the jargon and consider telling a story.

By Jamie Claire Kiser | Addressing questions about the impact of COVID-19 through the lens of the Great Recession.

President of Shield Environmental Associates (Lexington, KY), a full-service engineering and environmental consulting firm that seeks solutions of distinct value.

By Jamie Claire Kiser | Lessons learned from conversations with industry leaders about separation anxiety, empowerment, and calm confidence.

Exceptional brand leadership is a must for a firm to be exceptional in today’s challenging business environment.

By Phil Keil | Understanding this is essential in your ability to grow your firm and successfully execute your strategy.

Careful review of certifications with your legal counsel and insurance advisor will enable you to better address the needs of your clients and lenders.

“The companies that really make an effort to understand and embrace basic marketing knowledge will continue to grow and prosper regardless of the markets they serve.”

A well-designed sabbatical program can combat burnout and disengagement, ensuring your organization’s long-term success.

Implementing a formal, systematic safety program will benefit you, your employees, your clients, and your greater community.

As Zweig Group’s director of ownership transition, Will Swearingen understands the emotional stakes at play when a firm founder decides it’s time to pass the torch.

In this digital era of PURLs, OKRs, and java scripts, a dimensional mailer and handwritten note are still the best way to grab attention.

By Will Swearingen | As owners enter the final years of their careers and ponder ownership transition, they have to make some concessions.

President and CEO of DBR (Houston, TX), a 150-person Texas firm that values communication and superior service above all.

A successful sustainability plan should formalize your approach for continuous improvement and help you build on what you are already doing in three key areas.

Sadly, fewer and fewer of us are interested in developing writing, speaking, or other communication skills as a significant professional goal.

There’s a push for architects and engineers to consider the safety of construction and maintenance workers when designing new structures.

Should the US Women’s National Team have let up on Thailand during the World Cup? Of course not, and let that be a lesson to you.

The World Health Organization just redefined burnout and classified it as an “Occupational Phenomenon.” So, what’s next?

It might sound a bit odd, but there’s plenty of things the C-suite can learn from stand-up comedians.

By Phil Keil | Have a purpose and commit to mastery and excellence and you will find happiness both personally and professionally.

The future AEC workspace will be flexible but more connected than ever, so invest in data bandwidth and mobility.

The word growth is often associated with the bald pursuit of profits, but it’s really about the health of your firm and your staff.

If you’re a firm owner or design professional, don’t leave contractors guessing. Using plain language, make your intent clear to avoid disputes, change orders, and claims.

Whether it’s growth, ownership transition, diversity and inclusion, or technology, firms shouldn’t shy away from change if they want to be successful.

By Will Swearingen | If you develop a reputation for being less than forthcoming, you could derail a critical ownership transition – and even destroy your firm.

Implementing a tailor-made set of processes for your tailor-made firm will increase your chances of success, regardless of the space in which you compete.

When it comes to delegation, you have to pick the right person for the right job, and set them up to succeed.

It might seem far fetched, but it’s true. AEC firms can learn a thing or two from the fast-food industry.

“Anyone who owns a business today will be better off if they accept certain ‘truths’ about their business, and business in general.” Anyone who owns a business today will be better off if they accept...

Help your organization commit to framing diversity and inclusion in a positive light. Examine your own biases and try to be accountable. When I was in middle school, I was relentlessly bullied by a girl...

Founder of The Rock Brook Consulting Group, PA (Best Firm Multi-discipline #58 for 2018), a 48-person firm based in Monroe Township, NJ. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “We are always looking to improve our benefits,” DeMarco...

Pre-project analysis is critical if you want strong business development through profitable projects and happy clients. And yes, it’s a process. The Gateway Engineers, Inc. is a full-service civil engineering firm with a diverse group...

Today’s AEC industry is experiencing significant growth, demanding that our leaders evolve and communicate far beyond the check-the-box approach. Have you ever asked yourself, “What the heck is real leadership?” This is the question that...

Giving your clients a say in the layout of their new healthcare space will improve that client’s processes, enhancing overall flow. Why is LEAN-based space planning so important in healthcare facilities? It’s a simple answer:...

Lack of information leads to assumptions and guessing. Good and complete information at the appropriate time leads to informed decision-making. Over my 30-year career, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a wide range of...

Let’s face it. While there certainly has been an increase over the years in the number of architects, engineers, and other design professionals who have had formal business education, the solid majority of firm owners...

Be careful. While a design firm can retain its copyrights by contract, the firm can just as easily give those rights away – by written contract. Design professionals are, traditionally, reluctant to give up ownership...

The well-being of your staff cannot be sacrificed for other priorities such as production, profitability, and convenience. As the director of health and safety for an AEC firm, I often find myself asking, “What is...

Zweig Group offers plenty of opportunities for education and training, but among the crown jewels are The Principals Academy and CEO Roundtable. If you work in the AEC industry, it almost goes without saying that...

Shared values among staff are certainly important, but if a good fit is all you’re looking for, your firm could go stale. Editor’s note: This post first appeared on the Perkins + Will blog at...

Ditch the sleazy misconceptions. When you’re talking about how much enjoyment and pride you take in your work, and making connections, you’re selling. What sets you apart? That question is asked of all of us...

Autonomous vehicles are on the way, and when they arrive, parking decks will increasingly become obsolete, and will need to be repurposed. Cars that can drive themselves, using radar, LIDAR, and other imaging devices will...

Successful business planning isn’t about having a crystal ball. It’s about a culture that discusses goals, actions, and results on an open and regular basis. The end of one year and the beginning of a...

We all like and need profits, but there’s more to doing business than the bottom line, and the A/E industry should take heed. I’ve previously written about a group I’ve become active with here in...

In this episode of the podcast, Randy Wilburn sits down with an M&A consultant with Zweig Group. Zweig Group is the industry leader in helping your firm grow or transition ownership through mergers and acquisitions....

It’s not about what emotions we experience, but how we harness and direct our emotions that will impact our success or failure. In the AEC industry, each constituent group has a stereotypical emotional profile. Engineers...

 The concept of a work family is nice. The problem is, you’re stuck with family, good or bad. With a team, you can pick and choose. On many occasions, we’ve heard office culture described as...

All of us have a story to tell, so don’t shy away from it in your professional life. It could be the key ingredient for your firm’s success. Everyone loves a good story. That’s why...

Can strategic thinking be learned? Sure, if you know where to start and are mindful of the mileposts along the way. Halfway through a two-day strategic planning retreat, a senior leadership team member nervously pulled...

Subscribe to The Zweig Letter for free to receive business management advice from industry experts to your inbox every week! Live with rejection, learn from rejection, and conquer your fear of rejection. Once all that’s out of the...

Here is the full transcript of a great conversation that we had with Mark Zweig. He gave us a history lesson on AECWorkforce and the importance of an effective job board for the Design and...

President of ESG (Hot Firm #36 for 2017), a 120-person architecture and design firm based in Minneapolis. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “We have a small SWAT team that focuses on networking and about 75 percent...

In an environment where innovation is the driving force, you need a space that allows for inspiration, ideation, and implementation. We are quickly entering a new era. And it comes with new problems. A small...

One of the best things we can do as leaders is create more leaders, but to be effective, the effort must be deliberate. It’s a rare organization that succeeds without a solid succession plan identifying...

When your marketing people are not empowered to make big decisions, their great concepts often get parked in committees, where they die. Marketing is where the creativity is, right? Not always. Too many marketing departments...

For multi-office firms, it’s important to monitor overhead allocations so one region doesn’t consume more than its fair share of resources. Here’s the issue: Department managers, regional managers, and office managers all question the general...

The workplace is at its best when teams are as close as tribes, but the only way to get there is to retain your talent. Retention is a growing concern, fueled by lower unemployment rates...

You want your firm to be more valuable at the end of the project than it was at the beginning. Start to GRIPE. Many of our clients turn to us for assistance in providing project...

Open book management is a big card to play, but it puts everyone on your team at the table, and that’s where you want them to be. One of the trendier ideas in management consulting...

In this episode of The Zweig Letter podcast, Randy Wilburn talks to Mark Zweig, founder and chairman of Zweig Group, about what he learned about mergers and acquisitions in 2016. (“What I have learned about...

Much has been made of how to design workplaces that attract and inspire millennials. But there might be a better demographic filter for your workplace. Millennials. Gen Y. Echo Boomers. Regardless of the name, this...

Science, technology, engineering, and math are great, and adding art to the mix can elevate all of them. It’s an age-old debate: Right brain or left? Science or art? Or today’s version: STEM or the...

An internal market for the company’s stock, and a company culture of ‘just get it done’ are two key drivers of the firm’s success. By Dale D. Conger CobbFendley (Hot Firm #21 for 2016) was...

Alternative collection methods at this time of year, even if it’s something radical, might come in handy if you need to ‘stock the cash coffers.’ As the last quarter of 2016 draws to a close,...

A command of soft skills is essential to delivering a project that’s on time, on budget, and with no surprises. If you’re in the business of infrastructure and you manage projects, staff, or both, you...

Third-generation leader of multidiscipline firm embraces debate, seeks consensus, and likes anything with bacon. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent It started with his great uncle. Then his father. And now him. Firm president John Hiltz is...

If you want to drive traffic to your website and your brand, it helps – a lot – to be an expert in your given field. It’s true. The origin of your web traffic is...

This year’s event, as in previous years, featured a full slate of breakout sessions with dynamic speakers. Here’s what they had to say about the 2016 conference. “As our industry heats up, good people are...

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...

Global infrastructure and environmental services firm is poised to introduce patent-pending workflow process to $1B market in remediation of abandoned Navajo uranium mines. By Richard Massey Managing Editor A billion-dollar market in the remediation of...

Figure out what your firm is and what its values are, and remain disciplined if you want to flourish in a competitive market. The competitive environment continues to change at light speed, and that in...

McMahon Associates celebrates its accomplishments as it moves into a new era with continued focus on staff, shareholders, and clients. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent Exciting things are happening this year at McMahon Associates, Inc. (#21...

A passionate and prolific engineer, a skilled expert in disputes, and beloved by those he worked with and for, Michael Burgess will be missed. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent San Diego-based Xpera Group (#77 Hot Firm...

If your content is consistently valuable, potential clients might give up their personal information to have it, and chose your firm over others when it’s time to close the deal. Are you lost in marketing...

If a firm is to achieve something spectacular, its leaders have to have big hearts, and they have to galvanize the entire staff. One of the most rewarding things we do as consultants is guide...

It’s easy to spout acronyms, tell inside jokes, and use empty jargon, but oftentimes, people are just pretending to know what you mean. Have you ever been in one of those meetings where a topic...

My extensive observations on the AEC business tell me that the only training most of us do is catch-as-catch-can, luck-based training. There's no structure or thought or meaningful budget applied to it in most companies...

Successful ownership transition is difficult to achieve, and for it to happen, the first tier has to embrace the transformation brought on by the second tier. Over the last two years, Zweig Group has supported...

You have to keep your firm moving if you hope to stay ahead of the competition, and if you want your firm to age gracefully. If you’ve ever spent any time at the beach, you...

Understanding the nuances of a Happily Employed Job Candidate can boost your ability to hire the best people. I recently received an email from a client who was in the middle of arranging an interview...

Most leaders are afraid of failure. If they set lofty goals the firm does not achieve they’re afraid they’ll look like failures. There’s something to be said for laying
out a truly ambitious – some might...

We’re each leaving a trail behind us – our reputations and our effect on the world – as industry leaders, we should focus on making those as pleasant as possible. If you have a leadership...

Harris & Associates (Concord, CA), a 200-person engineering and construction management firm, is the fourth place winner in the Internal Marketing category of Zweig Group’s 2015 Marketing Excellence Awards for its ownership campaign and the...

Westwood Professional Services (Eden Prairie, MN), a 350-person professional services firm, is the third place winner in the Online Marketing category of Zweig Group’s 2015 Marketing Excellence Awards for its new website. Before commencing with...

Architectural colleague shares new scale for assessing employees’ impact on the firm, community, world in areas of attitude, capability, performance. I’ve always been skeptical of the “performance review” style of evaluating. I believe in a...

Jamie Claire Kiser has been hired by Zweig Group as the new director of merger & acquisition services, a rapidly growing area of Zweig Group’s business. She is experienced in financial analysis, evaluating transactions, and...

Show paints difference between risk-takers and everyone else. Mark Zweig shares some additional food for thought. Watching “Shark Tank” episodes back-to-back last night was a great case study in the differences between entrepreneurs and most...

Marketing is the area of your business intended for giving to others. I was on-site with a client recently and we were discussing a business development strategy for their new planning group. One of the...

Design firms may have a niche to fill in this area. After all, you can do it better than a dispassionate program manager. Architects and engineers have long complained about their relationships with program managers....

These comprehensive campaigns are more than a marketing exercise. Do you roll your eyes when you hear of a firm going through a rebranding? Be honest. Certainly the concept of branding has been slow to...

This article first appeared in The Zweig Letter (ISSN 1068-1310) Issue # 989 Originally published 1/7/2013 Employ these three tactics in your selection process and you’re likely to begin seeing significant improvements in talent acquisition...

By W. Hobson Hogan Principal, Investment Banking ZweigWhite Owners often ask me when is the best time to sell their firms. It’s a common question. The answer that they are seeking typically hinges on valuation...

By Mark Zweig CEO, ZweigWhite We’ve had a rough three years. And although there have been some bright spots and encouraging moments, it could get a whole lot worse. I read one gloom and doom...

Press Release: August 8, 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (August 8, 2011) – A ZweigWhite survey reveals that while many architecture, engineering, planning and environmental firms still see value in participating and attending trade shows, other faster...

Press Release: July 12, 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (July 12, 2011) – Confused about integrated project delivery (IPD) and building information modeling (BIM)? As little three letter acronyms and similar concepts, it is easy to use...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 19, 2011 Press Contact: Christina Zweig (479) 582-5700 direct (800) 466-6275 corporate (479) 445-7564 mobile ZweigWhite, LLC P.O. Box 1528 Fayetteville, AR 72702-1528 christinaz@zweigwhite.com www.zweigwhite.com FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (May 19, 2011) –Two...

Press Release: May 5, 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (May 5, 2011) –ZweigWhite gave a new meaning to the “learning anytime, anywhere” motto behind its eLearning program, with the recent sale of an 18-eCourse license to Kabandize...

By Debbie Frederiksen We all strive for it and talk about it in our marketing materials, but are we truly innovative or is it just fresh lipstick on the same old pig? It didn’t take...

Press Release: March 8, 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (March 8, 2011) — Architecture enhances people’s lives, and the emerging recognition of this effect is earning the profession newfound respect, says Clark Manus, the new president of...

Press Release: February 22, 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, AR (February 22, 2011) — Architects, engineers, project owners and others wishing to work collaboratively under a delivery method known as Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) may have a found...

By Ed Friedrichs I admit, I’m of a generation that grew up and spent the early part of my career without a computer, to say nothing of the Internet, e-mail or Facebook. Every time I...

Press Release: February 2 , 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, AR — Firms in the architecture, engineering, planning and environmental consulting sphere are joining the national chorus of opposition to a provision that would significantly boost tax-reporting requirements,...

Purpose. Now, that can be a difficult concept to nail down. All three panelists at a The Zweig Letter 2010 Hot Firm Conference session in late October had different views about what purpose means and...

The A/E/P and environmental consulting business is about to experience an unprecedented period of consolidation. With so many firms struggling, there will be plenty for sale. And those companies that have profitable operations and strong...

Sometimes I think people in our business forget that the culture of the organization guides the behavior of its members. Sure— you can always have a bad apple who exhibits some crazy or bad behavior....

There’s a popular book out right now in the education field entitled The Global Achievement Gap written by a fellow named Tony Wagner, the co-director of the Change Leadership Group at Harvard University. I picked...

As the economy gets worse, and panic sets in amongst the management of too many A/E/P and environmental firms, mistakes will be made that are difficult to recover from. I’m referring to decisions such as...

Much has been written on how to be a more effective seller— lots aimed at design professionals and much more written for other industries/professions. The problem with most of this stuff is the credibility of...

I just got back from ZweigWhite’s 2007 A/E Marketing Now Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was our biggest and best-attended marketing conference ever! My task was to open the show with a short talk...

On the whole, A/E/P and environmental firms seem to take themselves and their marketing too seriously. Sure— many of you DO have life-and-death responsibilities attached to much of what you do. You are serious people...

Let’s face it, the motivation of any A/E or environmental firm’s leaders is, in many ways, more important than the motivation of the staff. Because if the leaders aren’t fired up, how can anyone else...

In some previous articles we’ve talked about principals who are too involved and wreak havoc on budgets and schedules due to their last minute involvement on projects. But there’s another problem, and it may be...

Curt Robinson closed his middle desk drawer with a resounding thud. “This is the last time I’ll be sitting here,” he thought to himself as he threw last year’s calendar into the cardboard box of...

As hard as it may seem to believe, 1999 is already wrapping up. We’re into the last quarter of the year now. Over the next couple of months, many A/E/P and environmental firms will be...

Leadership is one of those subjects that, if you really want to be good at it, tends to lead to a more philosophical approach toward work and life. It’s conventional wisdom in our business that...

While I have been and continue to be bullish on the A/E/P and environmental consulting business, I must say that we see some wacky things out there when it comes to how firms manage and...

“Process marketing” is a term you’ll see a lot of in The Zweig Letter. Heck, we even have a supplemental, stand-alone Process Marketing Advisor devoted entirely to the subject! The reason is that process marketing...

Although I sometimes wish I were more clever or entertaining than I am, writing about what makes A/E/P or environmental firms more successful is what you pay me to do. Occasionally I think I sound...

Opportunity is all around us. A lot of how successful you are depends on how you see things. The fact is, most A/E/P or environmental firms could do a better job cashing in on assets...

Although conventional wisdom says that an A/E/P or environmental firm’s greatest asset is its staff, that may not always be so. I don’t want to diminish or underestimate the importance of the workers to a...

One reason the A/E/P and environmental consulting industry is predominated by small, not-so-successful firms is that it has too many weak leaders. A firm can end up with a weak leader for many reasons. The...

Quickie Conference Review— This year’s PSMA National Convention held at the Red Lion LaPosada Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, was the association’s best ever. It also marked the 20th anniversary of PSMA, which stands for Professional...

Management junkies— There is a whole cadre of “management junkies” out there working in A/E/P and environmental consulting firms. These are smart people. But as a friend-of-a-friend of mine, Tony Pirrone (an octogenarian Cadillac salesman)...

What holds us back as individuals and companies? That question is critical to any A/E/P and environmental firm that wants to be more successful— and being successful is what it’s all about. There’s a tremendous...

I am continually reminded of the bizarre sense of risk some principals in A/E/P and environmental firms have. I am talking about the obsession so many principals seem to have about extracting as much as...

It is widely accepted that any well-managed A/E/P or environmental consulting firm should monitor and report on the profitability of the projects it undertakes. Pick up practically any management newsletter, or look in the practice...

We give out a lot of advice to our clients. Some of it’s free, but we get paid for most of it. In our business, just like yours, clients are usually happy when you first...

As someone with a business orientation and education who started competing at a young age, competition is something I’ve always been interested in. I take pride in being a pretty competitive guy— one who likes...

Twenty contacts per month! To know why we have a problem selling services in the A/E/P and environmental consulting business, look no further than the goals we lay out for our marketing and business development...

A solid majority of firms who use direct mail are less than thrilled with the results. In fact, according to our newly published Marketing Survey For A/E/P and Environmental Consulting Firms, 12.5% consider this the...

As Art Linkletter observed: “Kids say the darnedest things.” The other day, my daughter Christina, who is in the first grade, said to me, “Dad, why don’t you do a commercial where you tell everyone...

We constantly get asked by principals in A/E and environmental consulting firms about what or where the next “hot markets” will be. It seems that these people have read about market life cycles in the...

With more than 40,000 architecture, engineering and environmental consulting firms in the U.S., most of which have less than 20 people, no one is going to tell me that design professionals aren’t entrepreneurial. If they...

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...

Ask anyone who has risen to the top of a consulting engineering, A/E, or environmental consulting firm where are the greatest weaknesses in their staff, and they will almost always say it’s in their “soft”...

TQM (Total Quality Management) for A/E/P firms is nothing more than a fad. I’d be willing to bet right here and now that in two or three years, you won’t hear anything about it. TQM...