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By Kraig Kern | An observation on modern communication, efficiency, and the messages that quietly disappear.

By Nam Douglas | Tightening immigration pathways are reshaping AEC talent pipelines, forcing firms to rethink workforce strategy, risk planning, and long-term leadership development.

By Morgan Stinson | AEC firms win when purpose, not profit, drives client experience.

By Michael Sanderson | The future of professional services depends less on hours logged and more on trust, ownership, and meaningful results.

By Chad Surprenant | A one-profit-center approach encourages teamwork across offices and disciplines, minimizing silos and supporting sustainable, firm-wide growth.

By Mark Zweig | Don’t take a cavalier attitude toward potential disaster, but recognize that experimentation is essential for building a growing, successful company.

By Kathy Nanowski | A strong employee experience leads to a stronger client experience, ensuring sustainable success and differentiation in the market.

By Lauren Martin | Including certificates of merit in contracts protects AEC firms and strengthens legal defenses against unsubstantiated claims.

By Mark Zweig | Exploring common questions – and their answers – from firm leaders about the buying and selling process.

By Jon Leach | In a world in which employee engagement is steadily decreasing, it’s increasingly important for firm leaders to understand the psychology behind their office spaces.

By Mark Zweig | Stop being so preoccupied with problem solving and instead focus on the things you can do to make someone’s day a little bit better.

By Liisa Andreassen | Senior vice president of AFG Group, Inc., a woman-owned firm with 30 years of experience providing program, project, construction, and relocation management services.

By Mark Zweig | Four things you can do to build the kind of workplace over time that good people want to stay in.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Mancini Duffy, a national design firm based in NYC with a 100-year-old history and tech-forward approach specializing in architecture, planning, and interior design.

By Aya Shitanishi & Megan Chang | A good project meeting is like a dinner party: You’re the host and it’s your job to make sure your guests have a great experience.

By Matt Hoying | Implementing strategies to enhance collaboration can lead to better projects, better productivity, and better profits.

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

By Julie Benezet | People have adapted to new ways of working and living, and in the process discovered new ways of thinking.

By Adam Zach | Whether it’s by reading a book or going to a seminar, taking an active interest in your personal development could be the best thing for your career.

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

In this era of recycle/reuse/renew, instead of discarding boilerplate information, we should embrace it.

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...

Breaking into new markets isn’t easy, but it can be done if you have a long-term, coordinated plan of attack. Following 30 years as an Army Engineer officer, I went to work as a market...

Approximately 10,000 baby boomers will retire every day over the next decade. By 2030, millennials will comprise three-quarters of the U.S. workforce. A common blood sport at leadership team meetings these days begins with, “WHAT...

The new generation brings a lot to the table, much of it good, so lighten up, be honest, and enjoy yourself as you roll up your sleeves and work. By 2020, nearly half (46 percent)...

After 37 years of working in one industry, you eventually become aware of just about every bit of what passes for “conventional wisdom” in this business. Some of it may seem logical on the surface...

Are you a “can do” person or a “can’t do” person? I’m sure that virtually all of you readers of The Zweig Letter – 95 percent of which work in privately-held A/E or environmental consulting...

Anyone who knows me can tell you I’m about as “New Age” as the 1930 Model A Ford sitting in my garage awaiting its flathead V-8 transplant. That said, there really is something to the...

Here are a few tips on ensuring that potential employees accept your job offer, and have a back-up in case they don’t. It’s a big problem today. You go through a long search process, interviewing...

Leadership, accounting, rewards, and more contribute to an organizational culture of positivity and high morale. ​Great projects happen, and successful firms become even more so, when morale is high inside the firm. It’s one thing...

Niche positions sometimes require out-of-the-box thinking, increased diligence, and willingness to pivot in order to fill them. Finding the best and brightest people to work at your firm may require you to think outside the...

Glassdoor comments provide opportunity for reflection on leaders’ role in fostering positive employee attitudes. One of my clients was both frustrated and concerned about citations on his firm that he found on the glassdoor website...

And since they are, follow these eight tips to improve their effectiveness. What is a job posting? C’mon, think about it. It’s simply an advertisement. Aren’t you advertising an opening that you want to fill?...

Five thoughts from Mark Zweig about titles and how they are often dished out without much consideration. Title proliferation in the A/E/P business is alive and well. While intentions may be good – to keep...

By Ed Friedrichs What, you may ask, is this all about? A few days ago I began a blog dialogue (I feel like I’m finally entering the 21st century when I participate in a blog...

The bad economy of the last couple years, with the A/E/P professions being particularly hard-hit, has created a serious problem for many firms today— that being disillusioned workers. It is not easy to pin down...

The first time someone suggested that I needed to have an “ice cream social” to help motivate my employees, I wanted to strangle the guy. Are you kidding me? We have professional employees. Sure— morale...

I just sold a house this past weekend that I have had on the market for quite some time— much longer than it usually takes me to sell one. This was a beautiful little 1925...

Over the years, in the pages of The Zweig Letter, we’ve spent a lot of time trying to help companies grow. But the fact is many of those running and operating A/E/P and environmental firms...

On the one hand, it would be easy to get negative and discouraged about the current business climate. The war efforts are dragging on with no clear end in sight. The Middle East, in general,...

Turning around an A/E or environmental company that is not doing as well as it should be doing takes an artful leader (or bunch of leaders). If you take a closer look at these transformations,...

It’s popular to say that everyone in the firm needs to be able to sell the firm’s services. Heck, I’ve even said it myself at times. The problem is that not everyone can sell. It’s...

Leroy Whiteside, president and CEO of Those Fabulous Architects, Inc., a 200-person firm based in Charleston, South Carolina, is a great guy. He is, in many ways, the archetypal design firm principal. He works 60...

I have long advocated the use of questionnaires as a marketing technique for A/E and environmental firms when they want to establish themselves as experts serving a particular client group. There really is something to...

We hear it a lot these days: “We can’t compete with the five-man firm across town— they’ll do the job for half what we charge,” or, “How can a big firm like ZH43C do that...

Every A/E/P and environmental firm I’ve encountered that has survived over the long haul has periodically made a push to improve its profitability. All the growth in the world won’t do you any good if...

It is almost heresy in this day and age of “customer service” to say it, but in the A/E/P and environmental consulting business, the customer is not always right. In fact, many times the customer...

Everybody who’s anybody in the A/E/P and environmental business will tell you that teamwork is critical to the success of their firms. But aside from the occasional hiring of a smooth-talking organizational psychologist to give...

While 1994 was a truly great year for most architecture and engineering firms, and even for some environmental consulting firms, there were still firms in our industry that lost money. And it’s not unusual for...

In the past six months, I’ve had the pleasure of working for three firms with very low average collection periods (ACPs). Average collection period is the average number of days it takes a firm to...

Throughout my working career, I never asked for a raise. I never asked for a bigger bonus. I figured if my employers weren’t smart enough to pay me what I was worth, I’d go somewhere...

If I weren’t so optimistic, I could easily get discouraged. As an owner in a small, growing company, it seems that every time you make a buck, someone is there to take it away from...

Several recent experiences with consulting engineering firms lead me to believe that it’s time all of us looked at our compensation schemes and put some incentive back into the business— especially for principals. The desire...

After countless management consulting assignments involving turnarounds and strategic business planning for A/E and environmental consulting firms, it has only recently become clear to me why so many companies in this business don’t believe in...