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By Mark Zweig | If you want people to work harder, hire the ambitious, lead by example, and reward real performance.

By Mark Zweig | Are you going to do anything different with HR or just follow the same tired practices of all the other firms you have worked for or compete with?

By Mark Zweig | When you work in a crowded field full of many companies that do essentially the same thing, you can either be one of many or you can choose to stand out.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of NTM Engineering (Dillsburg, PA), a civil engineering firm that specializes in water resources design, bridge design, and engineering instruction.

By Amber Milot | Creating a recruiting culture and focusing on retention are business savvy strategies to help your organization continue to thrive in today’s job market.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of Haley Ward (Bangor, ME), a 100 percent employee-owned technical consulting firm, offering a range of engineering, environmental, and surveying services.

By Mark Zweig | A lack of speed is a big problem for too many A/E firms. You all really need to pick up the pace!

By Mark Zweig | There are 10 things practically every firm in this business should do but won’t. If you try these things, your firm will be more successful.

President and senior principal of ICON Architecture (Boston, MA), a women-owned, SOMBDA certified firm that’s staffed over 50 percent by women.

By giving employees the opportunity to own company stock, you can develop a culture in which employees have a greater stake in the company and more opportunities to reap the rewards of capital ownership. 

Co-founder and principal at CWE (Fullerton, CA), a  civil engineering, water resources, and environmental engineering firm whose experts pledge to create a better tomorrow, today.

Founders of HILGARTWILSON (Phoenix, AZ), an exemplary multidisciplinary firm that was formed in the middle of the Great Recession.

CEO of Caldwell Associates, a firm that’s not afraid to fail, and that’s strong enough to pick up and keep going.

President and founder of Calibre Engineering, a national civil engineering firm based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

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

President and CEO of Hitchcock Design Group (Best Firm Architecture #7 for 2018), a 35-person landscape architecture firm headquartered in Naperville, Illinois.

Founder and CEO of Wright Engineers (Best Firm #1 Structural for 2018), a Vegas-headquartered firm where perfection is the goal but excellence is tolerated.

CEO & president of Bennett & Pless (Best Firm #11 Structural for 2018), a 50-person firm based in Atlanta, GA. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “ROI for investment in our business is far higher than any...

By Kyle Ahern | This year’s group of Best and Hot Firms provides a treasure trove of information across thousands of data points, from employees up to the C-suite.

President and CEO of SEPI Engineering & Construction, Inc. (Hot Firm #74 for 2017), a 350-person firm based in Raleigh, North Carolina. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “People need to feel like their work life is...

CEO of Apex Companies, LLC (Hot Firm #41 for 2017), a 700-person environmental engineering firm based in Rockville, Maryland. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “There is nothing that drives value creation for an organization more than...

It is a widely-accepted idea that one of the defining characteristics of a successful enterprise working in a mature market is differentiation from all the other firms that provide similar products or services. Yet, in...

President and CEO of HRP Associates, Inc. (Hot Firm #76 for 2016), a 120-person engineering consulting firm based in Farmington, Connecticut. “Big, bold, rapid changes are exciting and sometimes needed, but well planned, steady change...

President of Wakefield Beasley & Associates (Hot Firm #14 for 2016), a 165-person architectural design firm based in Alpharetta, Georgia. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “We are a fast-paced, high-performance company, and underperformers are detrimental to...

President and CEO of Stonebrooke Engineering (Best Firm Civil #41 for 2017), based in Burnsville, Minnesota. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “We have found that ‘growing’ our employees has been much more successful than bringing in...

President of Environmental Partners Group, Inc. (Hot Firm #22 for 2017), a 55-person firm based in Quincy, Massachusetts. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Their problems need to be your problems,” says Gabriel, referring to the client-firm...

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...

Chairman and CEO of Maser Consulting P.A. (#12 Best Firm Multidiscipline and #16 Hot Firm for 2016), a 650-person firm with 22 offices across eight states. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “The most important formula for...

End-of-year bonuses and evaluations are obsolete. Try monthly or quarterly perks for your staff. It's clear to me that A/E firms are all in a huge rut when it comes to how they pay their...

Quantitative and qualitative data provide industry leaders with valuable information for making decisions. One of the distinctions of companies that do well over the long-haul, versus those who enjoy only a limited period of growth...

By Mark C. Zweig We have come a long way in the A/E/P business over the last 30 years. Not only is it OK to market to clients, we even have computers on every desk...

As management consultants to the A/E/P and environmental industry for many years, we get up close and personal with literally hundreds of firms each and every year. Many of these are very successful companies that...

At the end of every year, Larz Picklefranz, managing partner of architecture and interiors firm Picklefranz, Lordosa, Fauna, and Schlossenberger, got the blues. Maybe it was just that the holidays reminded him of his long...

July 13th marked the thirteenth anniversary of the founding of ZweigWhite. We’ve done O.K. We’ve gone from the balloon-wallpapered playroom in my asbestos-shingled house in downtown Natick to a $200 a month office above a...

It seems to me that a lot of people in leadership roles in A/E/P and environmental consulting firms are just waiting around. Whether the discussion around the table is related to dealing with a non-performer,...

It’s always interesting to me when I encounter people who don’t think you can get rich (that’s right, I said “rich”) in this business. But before we get started, please let me clarify. “Rich” to...

If you are like a lot of our clients, 1994 was a really great year. For many firms, all indicators were up— including sales, backlog, revenues, and profitability. Our ZWEIG 100 index (based on 100...

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...

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...