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By Michael Sanderson | Mid-sized A/E firms can hold a powerful advantage by pairing greater resources with closer relationships and faster execution.

By Julia Moroney | Emotional intelligence becomes organizational intelligence when leaders use human signals to diagnose problems, guide change, and improve execution.

By Mark Zweig | The biggest threats to a firm are often predictable, preventable risks that leadership simply failed to plan for.

By Kraig Kern | The firms getting the most from AI are not buying better tools, but building better systems for organizing institutional knowledge.

By Jeff Adams | The first 100 days after an AEC sale can determine whether client trust, employee confidence, and deal value are preserved.

By Mailena Urso | Award-winning AEC marketing connects creativity, strategy, and measurable results to move the firm’s most important priorities forward. 

By Matt Cooper | The gap between struggling and high-performing AEC firms often comes down to seven operational levers leaders can control.

By Jeff Adams | M&A value is created after closing through cultural alignment, careful listening, and a deliberate approach to integration.

By Leslie Neath | Marketing should give strategy a voice by connecting today’s strengths with the markets and services shaping tomorrow.

The leading source of business management insights, research, and strategies tailored specifically for leaders of AEC firms.

By Mailena Urso | Award-winning AEC marketing connects creativity, strategy, and measurable results to move the firm’s most important priorities forward.

By Chad Coldiron | Strong firms know what they must own internally and where outside expertise can accelerate progress.

By Tom Godin | The most expensive mistake a growing firm can make is waiting for a crisis to recognize the need for financial leadership.

By Emily Boyd | A strong internship program can help AEC firms build culture, strengthen recruiting, and turn early-career talent into long-term employees.

Will Swearingen & Jeff Adams | Preparing your firm early can strengthen value, build buyer confidence, and make an eventual merger or acquisition far less disruptive.

By Rachel Gresham | Organizational structure often determines who gains visibility, sponsorship, and leadership opportunities – and who doesn’t.

By Brian Diehl | Leadership transitions succeed when firms communicate clearly, transfer knowledge intentionally, and protect trust through periods of change.

By Kristin Kautz & Troy Parkinson | AI is already reshaping AEC, and firms need leaders who can guide adoption with intention, training, and trust.

By Joseph Crabtree | Efficiency creates time, but how AEC firms reinvest that time determines whether quality, culture, and performance actually improve.

By Jeff Adams | The real work in AEC M&A begins after closing, where integration turns a transaction into sustainable growth and value.

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

By Kraig Kern | AEC firms excel at solving known problems, but creativity is what reveals the opportunities and risks no one sees.

By Greg Sepeda | Many AEC leadership groups operate like golf teams – strong individuals, but little coordination – leaving collective results far short of potential.

By Srividhya Viswanathan | By prioritizing leadership, trust, and accountability, organizations can build teams that not only achieve their goals but thrive together.

By Chad Clinehens | Becoming a principal isn’t a reward for past success – it’s the start of owning responsibility for future value.

By Chad Clinehens | Honoring the firms building the future of AEC through culture, creativity, innovation, and smart growth.

By Sara Parkman | Zweig Group’s 2025 Rising Stars share what inspires purpose, loyalty, and change in the AEC workplace.

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

This episode of the Zweig Letter Podcast dives into the journey of founding the John R. McAdams Company in 1979 by John R. McAdams himself. He discusses the company's initial funding, the deliberate planning, and...

By Mark Zweig | Non-responsiveness in professional settings can stem from various reasons but addressing it directly can improve communication.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of Vierbicher (Reedsburg, WI), a community planning and engineering firm that is a proven partner for thriving Wisconsin communities.

By Mercedez Thompson | Win themes should tell a compelling story about why your firm should win a client’s work, but without the right strategy they can inadvertently lose you the deal.

By Lindsay Young | Your personal brand wins you work, builds strong relationships, and keeps clients coming back to your team.

By Donnie Gladfelter | In the AEC industry today, the most innovative organizations will not be those with the greatest capacity to learn but those with the greatest capacity to unlearn.

By Travis White | You must attach the right structure, systems, and incentives in order to shift employee mindset.

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

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

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 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 Liisa Andreassen | CEO of Waggoner (Jackson, MS), a civil engineering firm of planners, designers, and engineers with a passion for helping communities realize their potential.

By Liisa Andreassen | CEO of MKSK, a collective of planners, urban designers, and landscape architects who are passionate about the interaction between people and place.

By Justin Smith | Committing to this will make your firm safer, more resistant to adversity, and change cashflow and profit for the better.

By Mark Zweig | A few of the reasons a great, successful firm can falter and experience a fall from grace.

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 Justin Smith | Calling the ideal plays will only work for you if your team understands the role that they each play in executing.

By Stephanie Warino | Improve your win rate by listening to what your clients say they want, instead of pushing the services you want to sell the most.

By Liisa Andreassen | Managing principal of RDLR Architects (Houston, TX), a community-driven architectural firm that is recognized throughout Texas.

By Matt Hoying | Getting new employees in the door is just the start – onboarding and training compel them to stay.

By Julia DeFrances | It’s natural to want to go back to normal – but remember that employees are your firm’s most important asset, and their needs are critical to your continued success.

By Eddie Wade | Burnout is blazing through workplaces at a rapid pace and negatively impacting productivity, morale, and retention.

By Liisa Andreassen | CEO of Parkhill (Lubbock, TX), a multidisciplinary firm that is building community by creating inventive, relevant built environments together.

By Jamie Claire Kiser | The decisions firms make today will determine the talent available for the next professional generation.

By Chase Miller | Managing through a virtual work environment certainly has its challenges, but it’s more important than ever to persevere and lead.

By Mark Zweig | There are many ways to show courage, and Jerry Allen showed real courage in his willingness to confront every single obstacle in his life.

By Brian Rice | These three core strategic planning areas have unique opportunities for value depending largely on the culture of your organization.

By Frank Johnson | Be deliberate in identifying those who have the potential to grow into leadership roles, and help them develop the skill sets they need to be successful as future managers.

CEO and president of SEH (St. Paul, MN), a firm that’s simplifying the world’s complex challenges by designing better places, engineering clean water, and renewing infrastructure.

By Mark Zweig | These are some of the common elements that are often present in the most successful leadership transitions.

For many leaders, business development resides outside their core competencies and comfort zone, to their firm’s detriment.

By Mark Zweig | What your firm becomes should be the result of a plan, of deliberate efforts. You can and should “design” your design firm.

By Mark Zweig | When people are demotivated they become negative and cynical, and can pollute the attitudes of their co-workers. And if they’re really demotivated, they may quit.

“There are many ways to ‘cook the books’ so they show certain results. Here are some typical problems that we see showing up in the financial statements of A/E firms.”

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

We’re not too late in achieving gender balance and equity in engineering, but to make it happen, a lot of work needs to be done.

Find your ‘why’ and ‘how,’ make a plan, and – with the help of a few strong mergers – achieve astronomical growth.

“If any of these situations sounds familiar – and you have tried to correct the situation by directly confronting it – it may be time to let that person go.”

(West Palm Beach, FL – January 2, 2019) National design firm WGI is pleased to announce it acquired Texas-based BIG RED DOG, INC. (BRD), a firm with a reputation in the industry for intelligent disruption,...

Leading through accountability takes a willingness to do a better job at recognizing challenges and accepting feedback toward positive change. Have you ever worked with someone who can’t perform their basic job functions? Have you...

The process must be deliberate and multifaceted, but don’t forget the human touch. Be yourself and enjoy finding clients that reflect your values. Recently, I had a conversation with a very busy, newly promoted division...

President and CEO of Ghafari (Hot Firm #54 for 2017), a 550-person multi-discipline firm based in Dearborn, Michigan. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “I would describe myself as a people person and am elated to see...

By Edward Friedrichs | The things we need to do to be great leaders are right in front of us, but we must also be deliberately consistent.

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...

They are everywhere, but they don’t have to win. Identify their behavior and rectify it, or risk losing your staff. Regrettably, we have all been there, regardless of the profession. Whether it’s real estate, marketing,...

It might be a blunt mantra but it has a broad application across all facets of life and work, including the AEC industry. We all have leaders and figures in our lives who leave an...

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...

Talent and skill are essential, but keep a close eye on cultural fit if you want to avoid the mistake of bringing the wrong person on board. I was recently talking with a client who...

President and CEO of McAdams (Best Firm Civil #17 and Hot Firm #29 for 2017), a 180-person civil engineering firm based in Durham, North Carolina. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “There are many challenges with growth,...

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...

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....

EAPC Architects & Engineers (Grand Forks, ND), the 130+ person architecture and engineering firm, took home third place in Zweig Group’s Marketing Excellence Awards in the website category. The website was launched in celebration of...

Getting people to do what you want them to do. This is what leadership is really all about. And it is never easy. Especially today in the A/E industry, where finding a job is not...

People always laugh over here at Zweig Group when I launch into a tirade about a guy who worked for us long ago. This fellow was a consultant – an engineer with an MBA –...

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...

Michigan firm takes the extra steps to create a family atmosphere, and that translates into employee retention, quality work, and client satisfaction. By TowerPinkster Best Firm #1 Architecture for 2016 Our firm culture is at...

A good communication plan is vital when things don’t go your way, so put a little thought into who’s going to do the talking when people start asking questions. Not a day goes by that...

If you are you stuck in neutral, break out of the rut by asking questions, altering your approach, and accepting the possibility that there may be a problem. Some of us have a hard time...

Westwood Professional Services (Eden Prairie, MN), a 350-person professional services firm, is the second place winner in the Special Event category of Zweig Group’s 2015 Marketing Excellence Awards for its Brand Refresh Launch event. Westwood...

Today’s competitive market – and the fact that the best employees aren't necessarily looking for a job – means your digital footprint must be big enough to reach everyone. Creating a game plan for recruiting...

Five things that differentiate entrepreneurs from the rest of the people in the world. I was watching a show on Netflix the other night with my eight-year-old daughter. It was all about humans with superhuman...

Distinguishing between marketing and sales offers a true perspective of investment. We have a problem in this industry. Many of us have a simple-minded perspective of “marketing.” For many firms, the marketing department is a...

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...

Being treated as a second class employee, independent of rank, is very demoralizing, Mark Zweig writes. The other day I stopped to talk with ZweigWhite’s CPA, who was meeting with our in-house accountant – a...

Press Release: November 17, 2010 M&A activity is expected to accelerate in 2011 as many struggling firms look for an exit strategy and firms that are doing well look for bargains and distressed sales. “2011...

With the consolidation wave just starting to gain momentum in the A/E/P and environmental industry, it seemed appropriate to get into a subject that many firms in our business seem to have an ongoing problem...

Somewhere in the journalistic masterpiece known as USA Today during the week of July 17 is a small blurb about business ethics. It was one of their polls that they regularly take. Forgive me for...

John Dilbertson left the Dilbertson & Terry board meeting shaking his head. How many times did they have to reconsider the issue of principal compensation, particularly base pay? It seemed like it never ended. One...

I was doing my usual deep thinking in the shower this morning, and I started wondering what I would do if I were on a flight that terrorists were hijacking. My first thoughts were about...

My 80 year-old parents just came up from Kirkwood, Missouri, for a short visit. As is always the case, my dad and I eventually got around to talking about business. I don’t know anyone who...

Although most of our readers are unaware, 65% of our revenues here at Zweig White & Associates come from providing consulting services. We’re much more like our readers (and clients) than many folks think. That’s...

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...