Search results

By Janki DePalma | When we measure collaboration instead of individual wins, teams shift from rivalry to shared success.

By Lindsay Young | Practicing interview presentations may feel like homework, but it’s what turns expertise into confidence and clarity.

By Janki DePalma | Recognition matters, but real growth happens when leaders value quiet progress, not just visible wins.

August 1 – LJA Engineering (Houston, TX), an employee-owned engineering firm, acquired G&R Surveying (Austin, TX), a land and civil construction surveying services firm. [More information]  August 1 – HFA (Bentonville, AR), an architecture and...

By Nam Douglass | Firms that critically consider how best to leverage this tool today are better positioned to win the projects of tomorrow.

By Will Swearingen | A well-thought-out, proactive plan is essential for ensuring the long-term success and sustainability of your firm.

By Greg Sepeda | Taking time to slow down, prioritize self-care, and recharge improves productivity, mental clarity, and overall well-being.

By Liisa Andreassen | CEO of AE2S (Grand Forks, ND), a civil/environmental engineering consulting firm specializing in drinking water, wastewater, and water resources.

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

By Kyle Ahern | Firms that adopt these competitive strategies will be better positioned to achieve sustained success.

By Earl Mott | Thoughts from both sides of this mutually beneficial relationship over the course of a career.

By Jason Wilson | Problem-solving unforeseen challenges in order to boost productivity and regain work-life balance when working from home.

By Sam Graves | Effective team management involves setting clear expectations, equipping and empowering members, and fostering engagement and evaluation.

By Lauren Aguilar, Ph.D. | How to make all employees feel safer at work and more willing to build authentic connections.

By Janki DePalma | Late bloomers gain wisdom, resilience, and unique insights, proving there’s no fixed timeline for achievement.

By Mark Zweig | Employees who decide to disengage and shift out completely do so at their own peril.

By Lindsay Young | It’s never too late for firm leaders to set strategic goals and start investing in their companies.

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

By Mark Zweig | Work should be an integral part of life, so why do so many people working in AEC firms clearly not feel that way?

By Mark Zweig | Parenting is a lot like leadership in a business in that your behavior affects everyone and your actions determine how harshly you will be judged.

By Janki DePalma | When you notice feelings of resentment, take a moment to explore what that warning sign is trying to tell you before it escalates into something more.

By Sara Parkman | Competitive employee benefits play a critical role in addressing recruiting and retention challenges in AEC.

By Mark Zweig | There are many factors that can create highly motivated people – some within your control as an employer and some not.

By Shirley Che | ElevateHER® is identifying sustainable workforce solutions to address our industry’s recruiting and retention challenges.

By Kyle Ahern | A look at some of the trends from this year’s Best Firms To Work For award program.

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 Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of Sunrise Engineering (Fillmore, UT), a full-service professional engineering and consulting firm that has been providing its services since 1978.

By Liisa Andreassen | Founder of Indigo River (Nyack, NY), a certified Women-Owned Business Enterprise committed to helping our society evolve together with our environment.

By Mark Zweig | Firm leaders have to stay optimistic, or their ability to fully function and meet their responsibilities will be compromised.

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...

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 Mark Zweig | Helping other people develop and be successful could be one of the most rewarding aspects of your career.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and chairman of the board at McFarland Johnson, a national consultancy providing program management, planning, environmental, engineering, and construction phase services.

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 Liisa Andreassen | President of Prairie Engineers, P.C. (Columbia, IL), a firm made up of engineers, surveyors, and scientists focused on solving problems for public and private clients.

By Brock Hoskins | Express gratitude to those people who are important to you, and find ways to make that a regular practice in your life and throughout your company.

By Jamie Claire Kiser | ElevateHER provides a platform for AEC professionals to effect the change they want to see in our industry.

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

Domestic Transactions: 10/3/2022 Civil engineering firm VHB (Watertown, MA) acquired landscape architecture firm HG Design Studio (Richmond, VA). Link to Details.   10/3/2022 Kimley-Horn (Raleigh, NC), a planning and design consulting firm, acquired full-service structural design and consulting firm Pangolin Structural (Phoenix, AZ). Link...

By Liisa Andreassen | Co-founder of Juniper Design+Build, where award-winning design and advanced construction ensures beautiful and environmentally responsible projects.

By Alexis Eades | You can work to improve retention by promoting a positive culture, giving employees autonomy and empowerment, and actively showing appreciation.

By Mike Nunley | We have a responsibility to take the lessons we learned from older generations and refine them to prepare a new generation for success.

By Liisa Andreassen | Partner at Method Architecture (Houston, TX), a full-service architecture firm that is uniquely ego-free in its commitment to a systematic, client-focused creative process.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of GRAEF (Milwaukee, WI), an international multi-discipline engineering, planning, and design firm that was founded in 1961.

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

By Mercedez Thompson | It’s worthwhile to continue conversations around what marketing is and is not and why it’s critical to your bottom line.

By Mark Zweig | Give yourself a chance to get a lot done and you may be surprised at your ability to keep all those plates spinning.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | The rapidly changing economic conditions we’re experiencing are putting salary pressure on AEC firms.

Zweig Group, a full-service AEC management advisory firm, announced its client W.E. O’Neil Construction Co. has acquired DCA Construction, a prominent general contracting firm based in Austin, Texas. The acquisition marks an exciting opportunity for W.E....

By Alexis Eades | The consequences of burnout can be detrimental, so give your mental health the care it deserves.

By Ted Grace | This is a cost-effective alternative for AEC leaders seeking to manage enterprise risk.

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

By Mark Zweig | What really makes people take responsibility for something and give it their all – to truly be accountable?

By Mark Zweig | If you’re not doing a good job with these, you’re losing an opportunity to further your culture and to provide meaningful motivation to your employees.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | We’re about to be short on leaders in AEC industry firms. It’s time to act now before it’s too late.

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 Transactions...

By Mark Zweig | This isn’t easy, but it will ultimately make you more successful – not just as a business leader, but in life itself!

By Chad Coldiron | Whatever your role is at work or in life, showing others respect is always a good way to build a great relationship.

By Jim Toby | The quality of your projects sets your firm apart from the competition, so urge your prospective clients to look beyond the costs.

By Gordon Greene | Get to know your people, find out what’s important to them, and understand that work-life balance looks different for everyone.

By Mark Zweig | Seeing the firm you started or used to run be successful when you’re gone is one of the greatest accomplishments you can hope for.

By WSB | In 1959, Kennedy became the first Black woman to receive an engineering degree from a school in Texas. Here, she reflects on her more than 55 years of experience since then.

By Liisa Andreassen | Partner at //3877, a boutique design firm that’s committed to providing innovative and creative designs that enhance and enrich the lives of its clients, partners, and communities.

Domestic Transactions McKim & Creed (Raleigh, NC) has acquired an award-winning engineering firm - GSA Consulting Engineers (Gonzales, LA). GSA provides planning, engineering and permitting services for water and wastewater facilities, hydraulic engineering, transportation and...

Mentors open pathways for others, and outreach is key to achieving firms’ diversity and inclusion goals.

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 Eduardo Smith | Your core values are the foundation of your culture, so it’s critically important that existing staff live the core values you expect others to emulate.

By Mercedez Thompson | Leaders must engage in burnout prevention strategies that alleviate overburdened employees, reduce the number of meetings, encourage PTO, and promote flexible hours.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | Women in the AEC industry leave at a faster rate than men, and COVID-19 has only accelerated this phenomenon.

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

By Kyle Ahern | A good, standardized parental leave policy is a major benefit that can set your firm apart.

By Stephanie Warino | Be selective with the actions you’re recognizing and the behaviors you’re amplifying, because we’re all driving the culture bus.

By Mark Zweig | If you’re trying to buy or thinking about buying another company in this business, here are a few things that may be helpful to you.

By Patrick Schultz | Achieve resilient, sustainable operations while navigating an unprecedented global pandemic and addressing complex disruptions.

By Tammi Nagucki | Reconsider some of this advice, and you may find some insight to guide you through our current world of disruption and stress.

Through collaboration, mentoring, and continued professional development, we can continue to grow and support each other, no matter what the pandemic throws at us.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | At the start of the pandemic, the majority of the AEC industry was thrust into an extreme scenario of work-life integration.

President and CEO Arora Engineers, Inc. (Chadds Ford, PA), a firm that meets the evolving needs of its clients through more intelligent, sustainable, infrastructure solutions.

By Jamie Claire Kiser | In this time of constant realignment, sustain success by appreciating your stars and making space for discussion.

Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. (GPI) (Babylon, NY) announced their merger with 35-person civil engineering firm, Keller & Kirkpatrick, Inc. (K&K) (Morris Plains, NJ), after a 23-year parent company-subsidiary relationship. Link to Details Assystem (Courbevoie, France) acquired WhiteQuest...

President and CEO of the North American operations of Mott MacDonald (Iselin, NJ), a $2 billion global management, engineering, and development firm.

Co-founder and managing partner of Shear Structural (Chamblee, GA), a 100 percent women-owned and women-managed structural engineering firm.

Many firms still cling to old-school attitudes and business practices that chase away top performing employees looking for a more future-friendly place to grow their careers.

We must inspire, include, empower, and educate all genders, races, and ages to look past biases and change the cultural norms that have shaped and still affect our industry.

Leading a successful organization takes the courage to try new ideas, weather many storms, and know how to say no.

CEO of ISG (Mankato, MN), a multi-disciplinary design and engineering firm that has growth in its DNA.

“If you approach feedback from the standpoint that you are trying to help your people – even if it is negative – most will appreciate you.”

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

Montrose Environmental Group (Irvine, CA) acquired Emerging Compounds Treatment Technologies (ECT2) (Portland, ME) from its parent company Haley & Aldrich (Burlington, MA). ECT2 is a leader in cutting-edge solutions that mitigate the impact of emerging...

CEO of Chipman Design Architecture, a third-generation, family-owned firm based in Chicago, Illinois.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | There’s plenty of support out there for women in the AEC industry, but the stats still have to catch up to the sentiment.

President of DY Consultants, a nationally-recognized aviation consulting firm based in New York City.

By Kyle Ahern | Data collected from Best Firms To Work For and Hot Firms continues to provide valuable insight into the AEC industry.

Using both sides of his brain, and with empathy, can-do man is engineering a great career in Seattle.

Your peoples’ top priority is development. If you want to keep them, you need to identify the ideal learning and development strategy for you and your firm.

CEO of TLC Engineering Solutions, an Orlando, Florida-based firm pushing its way into the future.

When working on a project, there are various human roadblocks that consistently clog the path to project execution.

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

The most successful business developers spend time with their clients, so show up and give them your full attention.

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

A good attitude and honest effort are central to California engineer’s mission to build a meaningful career.

Once you get to be 60, your perspective changes. If you look ahead, you know that you have, on average, another 12 years left to live (longer if you are a woman). And that’s an...

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...

After being a part of the AEC industry for more than 38 years now, I have witnessed a problem too many times – one that hurts both the company and the people working in it....

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.

After 14 years of teaching entrepreneurship at The Sam M. Walton College of Business at The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, I have learned there are two paths to entrepreneurial success. The first path –...

Depending on why they left – and what they did while they were gone – it might be a good idea to welcome them back into the fold. It’s not uncommon when sorting through a...

Can project owners be the judge of disputes? Of course they can, especially if the contract clause allows for judicial review. We’ve heard children ask parents to explain their decisions, only to get this response:...

Architects and engineers – well, anyone for that matter – who own their own business are bound to get unsolicited (or requested!) advice from time-to-time. While some of that advice may be good, a lot...

Company culture is about much more than the fun you have, the events you sponsor, time off, and cushy health benefits. Our personal core values are developed from an early age. For me, they were...

As a coach, your choices can impact the fate of your team members, so take pains to put the right people in the right places. I didn’t grow up in a very sports-centric family. We...

President of Ross & Baruzzini (Hot Firm #57 for 2017), a 270-person international design and consulting company based in St. Louis. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “We’ve offloaded some of our IT functions to the cloud...

Don’t expect your PMs to be great leaders just because they are competent professionals. They need training and practice to be effective. Like peanut butter and chocolate; peas and carrots; Bert and Ernie. Project management...

There are dreamers and planners, and then there are those who actually get something done. For every one of those who gets something done, there are 20 who can only talk about it. Why do...

CEO of HGA (a multiple Hot Firm award winner), a national, 750-person integrated architecture, engineering, and planning firm based in Minneapolis. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Our most successful proposals help the client visualize the journey...

Working with millennials was a hot topic at the recent Hot Firm and A/E Industry Awards Conference. Most researchers define the millennial generation as those born anywhere between 1982 and 2004 (although some sources end...

Many of us – as responsible spouses, parents, and business owners – always do what we think we are supposed to. Our whole lives are based on serving and taking care of other people. Unfortunately,...

Empty slogans and tired jargon don’t do the trick. To be a great leader you have to make a personal connection with members of your team. I’ve attended a lot of leadership courses over the...

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...

My Dad, Fred Zweig, died on August 16. He was born in 1920 – lived a long and, for the most part, happy life. He grew up poor in St. Louis. His mom was married...

Project needs and client needs are two different things. If you want to win more work, figure out the human side of the equation and you’ll be rewarded. AEC firms often approach proposals and interviews...

As the bumper sticker says, "Shit Happens." Unfortunately, it rarely occurs at the ideal time. Problems crop up that you didn't anticipate – health problems, a parent dies, a key employee quits, divorce, IRS audits...

Letting go is hard to do, so when the time comes for a changing of the guard, it helps if the second tier is groomed, confident, and empowered. Much of our recent work has been...

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...

For most of my career, I have defended the "new generation," i.e., those just getting out of school and starting their careers. The older people have always complained about the group coming in behind them,...

In work and in life, our past experiences, relationships, and the information we consume contribute to our outcomes. You know – in life, or in business – things pretty much happen as you expect them...

Take an honest look at your client relationship and ask yourself if it’s still mutually beneficial; if it’s not, it is time to do the hard thing. In addition to working at Zweig Group, I...

Industry prosperity can’t last forever, but preparation now can help you be ready if – and when – the cycle ends. The A/E industry is hot right now, People! The overall industry is as healthy...

It’s lonely at the top and hard to find someone who will listen and provide useful advice, Mark Zweig writes. It’s been said before that it’s lonely at the top. There’s a lot of truth...

Mark Zweig provides 10 tips how to treat potential new employees right. One of the things we do at ZweigWhite is a limited amount of executive search consulting. Most people don’t really understand that. They...

Coach your staff on the small things that make all the difference and follow these four tips from Mark Zweig. So much of one’s success in the architecture, engineering, planning or environmental business has nothing...

Feel trapped at work? Four suggestions from Mark Zweig to help you have a saner lifestyle. It’s interesting – and frustrating as well – to see how many A/E/P and environmental firm owners and managers...

Listen to your staff, have an appealing culture, hire selectively and keep your employees for the long-term. I’m hearing more and more about the market firming up and people being in demand. So, I think...

By Jeff Clark | Principal, Managing Director of Investment Banking, ZweigWhite Do you like CEOs who promote their business relentlessly? Do you think Steve Jobs did a good job with his public speaking over the...

Business is starting to get better and hiring activity is restarting for many A/E/P and environmental firms that have shrunk over the last few years. That’s good news for the economy and for some of...

One of the keys to success in business— all types of business, not just the A/E/P and environmental business— is practicing common courtesies (or perhaps they should be called not-so-common courtesies?). Architects, engineers, and scientists...

We all seem to spend a lot of money on training. That’s a loosely applied term. Many things fall into the “training pot” in a typical A/E/P or environmental firm. My anecdotal understanding is that...

Lawrence Tunican was really starting to wonder what was wrong. Was the company he started nearly 30 years ago— Tunican Engineering— that uncool of a place to work? He could not hire young people any...

It seems like yesterday that I was “the young guy.” And that’s the last thing I wanted to be. I always tried hard to look and seem older than I really was so people would...

Just about anything you read nowadays for our business mentions the top concern of firm owners everywhere is finding and keeping good people. Finding good people is never easy. Nor is it the topic of...

With this branch office special focus issue of The Zweig Letter, I thought I’d take the opportunity to answer some of the recurring questions I get on this topic. Tough questions and even tougher answers...

You’ll hear it at any gathering of A/E/P and environmental consulting firm owners— hiring is at the top of the list of challenges they’re facing as we head into 2006. That said, there’s still too...

Thank God for technology! If we didn’t have the technology that we have today, there’s no way most of us who travel could keep up with the demands of work and life. For example, I...

I was surprised to see in our latest 2004 Principals, Partners & Owners Survey of A/E/P & Environmental Consulting Firms that the balancing of work and personal life issue was barely on the radar screen...

We all know it. If we cannot train a second generation of leaders who will be able to take over the firm and run it successfully after we are gone, we probably won’t see any...

As the economy inches its way toward improvement, we are seeing A/E/P and environmental firms rekindling their interest in merger and acquisition activities. In fact, it’s almost a mini-boom of activity that’s occurring right now....

Last Saturday morning a friend of mine, Peter Sisk, called to see if he could stop by my house on his way out of town to visit his aging parents in Hartford. He had the...

Last week, I took my oldest daughter Christy (she’s a high school junior) and one of her friends on a day of college tours. We went to three schools and took the guided tour at...

It’s always distasteful to compare your employees to your children. I hear firm owners do it all of the time, and I see the non-owners cringing when they do! That said, I have noticed a...

I think a lot of smart, motivated, capable people working in A/E and environmental firms often get the idea that if they don’t start their own companies they have somehow sold themselves short. This is...

It seems to me that I am running into a greater number of pissed off people working in client organizations as of late. Maybe it’s the winter blues. Or maybe it’s war threat induced economic...

If there’s one issue that I see a lot of good A/E/P and environmental firms grappling with right now, it’s how to balance the need for high-performing individuals vs. having a cohesive team that works...

Is your firm a compassionate firm? Do you choose what’s humane over what’s best financially in certain situations? And what difference does that make, anyway? Business is business. And we all know that to be...

Now lie in it. I’ve been a believer in the adage that you make your own luck. But that’s not just good luck, it’s bad luck, too. Make bad decisions, do the wrong thing, and...

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...

Set to music from The Beverly Hillbillies: Let me tell a little story about a man named Jed, a poor engineer, barely kept his family fed. And then one day when designing to buy food,...

At the car wash this past weekend I saw a 1969 Barracuda with a 440-cubic engine. It was hot pink (a factory color) with what Chrysler used to refer to as a “six-pack” (that’s three,...

Traveling all the time is no party, as anyone who does it can tell you. But it’s a fact of life for many of the top people working in the A/E/P and environmental (as well...

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...

The recent acquisition of Woodward-Clyde Group (Denver, CO) by URS Corporation (San Francisco, CA) is just one big deal among many, many other smaller deals that are going on weekly in the A/E/P and environmental...

Here are 10 things about the A/E/P and environmental consulting business that they don’t teach you in college. The best clients get crapped on. I hate to say it, but sometimes we treat our best...

Most of us heard it from our parents at some point in our childhood: “You can grow up to be anything you want, but be the best at it you can be.” It’s a good...

Why do some firms grow, have happy employees, keep satisfied clients, and make their owners rich, while others start up, muddle along, and then either continue to muddle along or fizzle out completely? If you...

There is a lot of merger and acquisition activity today. It seems like just about everybody is looking to buy or merge with someone else. We’ve never seen a higher level of interest in acquisitions....

Fred White and I just returned from the 14th annual Inc. 500 Conference and Awards Ceremony, which was held this year at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. The event is held to recognize...

Everyone in the A/E/P and environmental consulting business wants to be more “successful,” but I don’t recall ever seeing “success” clearly defined. It’s one of those good-sounding words that architects, engineers, and environmental consultants use...

“Leadership development” for our industry too often translates into another boring all-day seminar on liability reduction, or a weekend retreat with a soft-spoken consultant who walks us through “team building” exercises. We say we want...

There really is something to the notion that you do your best work when you feel good about what you are doing. This is especially true when you are under stress. Any professional working in...

If you listen to the “experts,” you could easily be convinced that it’s darn near impossible to successfully acquire a firm. By “successful,” I’m not just referring to getting the deal done. I’m talking about...

Good professionals have a lot in common— no matter what their profession. Take my six year-old’s kindergarten teacher, Ms. Donohoe. Many of the professionals working in design and environmental consulting firms could learn a thing...

We’ve all heard it before from people we work with: “I’m going to...” or “We’re going to...” or “I would have, but....” or “Some day, we’ll...” These “do-nothing” people may work for you, with you...