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By Mark Zweig | AEC firms build real value when they invest in growth, leadership, systems, and transition before it is too late.

By Daryl Simons Jr. | Rethinking first impressions creates fairer decisions, stronger relationships, and lasting benefits for candidates and firms.

By Michael Makris | Several of improv’s most fundamental rules are very much related to leadership and professional growth.

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

By Scott D. Butcher | To succeed in disruption, AEC firms must refine client focus, target markets, and go/no-go processes.

By Kate Gray | Utilizing technology built around your best work can become an inspiration tool for marketing teams.

By Marcía Alvarado | From the court to the C-suite, female athletes bring discipline, drive, and dynamic leadership to the AEC industry.

By Ezequiel Tovar | These common leadership mistakes hinder the growth and success of your business.

By Daryl Simons Jr. & Jeremy Clarke | Rather than a liability, these candidates could offer an opportunity to uncover exceptional talent.

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 Kevin Brown | Five resume red flags to help AEC firm recruiters identify and set apart the best applicants from the rest.

By Kristin Kautz | AI assistants empower personalized and effective support that will save time and money, and enhance creativity and quality.

By Mercedez Thompson | Proposals have adapted to a new way of reading, emphasizing concise, compelling headings to convey complex solutions and deliver winning messages.

By Adrian De la Garza | CEO of UES, an industry leader with more than six decades of experience in geotechnical engineering, materials testing, environmental consulting, and more.

By Mark Zweig | Those who read your emails, letters, reports, social media posts, and resumes are all deciding how intelligent you are in large part from your writing.

By Kraig Kern | If you stay disciplined, empathize with your team, and commit to excellence you can meet your deadlines and ultimately win more projects.

By Wendi Shafran | Representation matters and cultivating a diverse pipeline of future leaders can establish a foundation for inclusive and equitable decision making.

By Mark Zweig | If you don’t want your people or yourself to be judged unfairly, there are a few common problems that must always be avoided.

By Will Swearingen | When looking to sell your firm, failing to prepare could result in you missing great opportunities when they’re right in front of you.

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

By Jane Lawler Smith | Over time, evolving client needs and approaches could erode your marketing foundation. Take the time to shore up your foundation before it crumbles entirely.

By Julia DeFrances | With the right tools and some best practices, anyone can create a persuasive and compelling proposal.

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

By Mark Zweig | Just like any professional sports team, your firm is made or broken based on how effective you are at recruiting talent.

By Lindsay Young | Recruiting and marketing play a role in growing your firm, and it’s more important now than ever to make sure they are working together.

By Liisa Andreassen | CEO and co-owner of Pape-Dawson Engineers (San Antonio, TX), the largest civil engineering firm headquartered and exclusively located in Texas.

By Mark Zweig | If you feel the need to diversify your business, here are some tactics to win clients in a new market when you don’t have prior experience.

By Jim Pappas | How scalable systems can be used to find the right people, bring a new product idea to life, and help it grow quickly and profitably.

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 Michael Syracuse | There are many ways to connect to others and contribute to a person’s professional and personal growth.

Zweig Group is proud to announce the addition of Veronica Porter, MBA, to the ElevateHER™ team as the new program coordinator. This is a new role added by Zweig Group to signify the growth of...

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.

By Jamie Claire Kiser | Takeaways from a truly exceptional virtual discussion experience.

Educating yourself about these biases as well as potential strategies for mitigation can help you avoid prejudice in your decision-making.

“For those of you running A/E firms – if I were you, I’d focus on recruiting in 2020.”

President and CEO of Falcon Engineering, a woman-owned engineering firm in Cary, North Carolina.

Growth and relationship management software turn marketing into the catalyst for growth: The four best practices for winning marketing teams.

President of Baldridge & Associates Structural Engineering, a full-service structural engineering and forensic consulting firm based in Honolulu, Hawaii.

When new partners buy out old ones, you have to outline specific duties before assigning leadership roles, among other considerations.

Taylor Dayton, EIT, is a project engineer at Aspect Consulting’s office in Wenatchee, Washington.

“If we know recruiting and retention are the biggest challenges and our employees are telling us that training and development are the solution, isn’t the investment in a training program at your firm worth it?”...

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...

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...

Under the Accepted-Work Doctrine, contractors and designers are relieved of liability to injured third parties after a completed project goes back to the owner. The Accepted-Work Doctrine – also known as the Acceptance Doctrine, the...

We all know it does, but it’s also hard to define, hard to achieve, and if we fail in our pursuit of it, the consequences can be severe. The word “quality” seems to be constantly...

In the AEC industry, both individuals and firms need to brand and present themselves as ‘core brands for core viewers.’ Christina Zweig Niehues and I are conducting a Building your Personal Brand workshop at the...

By Jamie Claire Kiser | A meandering mission statement won’t inspire your team. If you want your employees to rally around your brand, give them something they can believe in.

The collective achievement of any given AEC firm is oftentimes shared only with prospective clients during the proposal process, and that’s a lost opportunity. Every few years, I find myself working closely with our corporate...

Marketing text has to be what the project owner needs to see. If you can standardize to accommodate an array of proposal types, great. If not, develop new recipes. Standardizing marketing text seems like a...

The Spearin Doctrine: Public owners do not shed all design risk by contracting for design-build if there are specified criteria upon which the design-builder is to rely. On government projects you may sometimes hear a...

While clients want to be in the hands of an expert, they also want that expert to care deeply about the success of their project. A best practice in business development/project initiation that you can...

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...

Randy Wilburn sits down with Mark Zweig, founder and chairman of Zweig Group, to talk about what it takes to pull together a winning presentation. Mark has worked on many presentations over the last 38...

It can be harder than writing more, but oftentimes it’s necessary, so learn how to cut without gutting your message. When I started writing this column in 2004, the size limit was 800-850 words. Sometimes,...

Job Title: Website Development Manager Zweig Group has an exceptional opportunity for an engaging and professional Web Developer. This position requires a person who loves computers and doing web design and development. This person will...

BIG RED DOG acquires $1.4M structural engineering design firm, MSP Engineering Group Austin-based BIG RED DOG Engineering and Consulting recently announced the acquisition of MSP Engineering Group, PLLC. Named an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private firm...

BIG RED DOG acquires $1.4M structural engineering design firm, MSP Engineering Group Austin-based BIG RED DOG Engineering and Consulting recently announced the acquisition of MSP Engineering Group, PLLC. Named an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private firm...

When taking control of proposals, squat down, get dirty, and just like a baseball catcher out on the diamond, manage your team. Johnny Bench, one of the greatest baseball catchers of all time, said: “The...

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...

A successful marketing campaign is difficult to measure using hard metrics, so don’t get caught in the quicksand of trying to quantify nebulous numbers. It’s Monday, 9 a.m., and as you get comfortable in an...

AECWorkforce.com, a digital ecosystem where great firms can find great people. Transformative job site launches in November. For the past several months I’ve been working with a fantastic team. We’re figuring out just how many...

In this episode of the podcast, Randy Wilburn and Sanjay Jenkins discuss the rise of AI in the job application process, referencing the Wall Street Journal article “In Unilever’s Radical Hiring Experiment, Resumes Are Out,...

What can you use in a proposal? As it turns out, if you are careful with how you include the information, quite a bit. I was recently asked about including a person’s experience with a...

David Arends, president and CEO of CR architecture + design (Hot Firm #19 for 2016), a 175-person firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Entrepreneurship is not a standard genetic of architects, so...

Did you ever hire someone who didn’t work out? Someone who effectively “fired themselves” by either refusing to accept your coaching and input or recognize the signs that they were in trouble and change their...

If growth through M&A is part of your strategic plan, be prepared to embrace the integration process with an open mind. Last week we discussed strategic planning and how it is an integral part of...

Sell your firm to recruits, don’t overburden them with a marathon interview process, and cover yourself if a candidate pulls a fast one. I recently finished a webinar series called Becoming a Better Recruiter. It...

Do whatever it takes to get your foot in the door, and then keep your foot on the gas pedal if you want to compete in a big market. Had I known in 1995 what...

President and CEO of ISG (Hot Firm #58 for 2016) a 200-person architecture, engineering, and environmental planning firm based in Mankato, Minnesota. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent With the recent acquisition of Green Bay-based Raasch Associates,...

If you think there’s too much recruiting, then you probably don’t realize there is no ‘season,’ but an unending grind. There is no preseason or final game for recruiting. A/E firms that don’t understand the...

Recruiting top talent to small markets is an adventure, but with persistence, you can ride the horse all the way to the summit. As I was discussing the need for a lead architect with a...

Demanding a resume is a good way to scare off potential hires, but your chances improve if you pick up the phone and sell your firm. One of the biggest challenges facing the AEC industry...

Demanding a resume is a good way to scare off potential hires, but your chances improve if you pick up the phone and sell your firm. One of the biggest challenges facing the AEC industry...

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...

Here's another snip-it from the 2nd Edition of Successful Project Management by Ernest Burden. Many project managers are more comfortable with the technical side of the business. The marketing hat that firms are now asking...

Bad résumés, Skype, and doing favors Why flexibility is key when hiring your next top employee. By Randy Wilburn Recruiting Notes Image courtesy of Flanzingo https://www.flazingo.com/creativecommons One of the things that always stands out to...

Five ways to increase your digital footprint in branding and recruiting the best and brightest in 2015. As we approach the end of 2014, I’m amazed at how much has changed in such a short...

Five facts to consider during the recruiting process at your firm. Managing expectations in an executive search process can be a burdensome task. After all, you’re eager to quickly find that perfect new team member...

Is personality a window to culture when interviewing candidates? It’s amazing how often the word “culture” is used in the recruiting process. More often than not, a candidate’s fit with, or should I say into,...

Need help identifying targets for potential recruiting? The answer is in the headline. Sometimes in the recruiting world, you’ll hear the term “sourcing.” It sounds like something you would hear in the buying/procurement business, right?...

Technical professionals are affected by failure too. Mark Zweig offers four examples. Many people think engineers and architects don’t really care about whether or not the company they work for is profitable. “They just want...

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...

It needs to be relevant, user-friendly and affordable but is well-worth the investment. Recruiting is not so simple an enterprise anymore. Like it or not, recruiting has become increasingly sophisticated over the years – in...

Mark Zweig lists five questions you need to ask before tackling your next opportunity. Attention all readers in the A/E/P business – you have got to make some BIG changes to the way you’re marketing...

This article first appeared in The Zweig Letter (ISSN 1068-1310) Issue # 1001 Originally published 4/1/2013 Not all PMs are stars. Rattling their cage a bit may just help them rise. I was at our...

This article first appeared in The Zweig Letter (ISSN 1068-1310) Issue # 997 Originally published 3/4/2013 HR, recruiting and hiring teams also need to take a critical look at their operations, so make use of...

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...

As someone who teaches entrepreneurship in The Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, one of my responsibilities is to mentor students who enter business plan competitions. In these competitions, students...

I was talking with an old acquaintance recently— a principal in a very successful international planning and design firm— about how things were going for him and his firm. In spite of some rocky times...

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...

Rupert Stanchion was the founder and only CEO Stanchion Associates had ever had from its founding in 1980. Now nearly 60 years old, he was beginning to get the idea that some people thought it...

Mitchellene Terrence was the 42-year-old director of human resources for Wright, Skidmore, and Johnson, a top-line A/E/P firm in Los Angeles. She was proud to be there. Graduating with a BS degree in 1986 from...

A lot of design and environmental firm principals have been around a long time— they’re an average of 48 years old. That means that they have probably been doing this work for 20-25 years or...

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...

We’ve talked about it for decades, but the labor shortage in the A/E/P and environmental industries is finally here. Our clients are telling us that it’s hard to hire just about anyone. Every job takes...

Here are some quick thoughts on a few issues: Pay or don’t buy. There have been a number of articles in the business press recently dealing with ethics issues. One that I read involved a...

Every single firm we deal with at Zweig White & Associates, Inc. could benefit from working on their hiring process. Everyone in the A/E/P and environmental business agrees that it’s hard to hire. Well here...

These are the good old days for the A/E/P and environmental consulting business. Times are good. Firms are growing. Employment offers are going out weekly, daily, and in some cases, hourly. But did you ever...

“You’re only as good as your reputation.” Somebody wise must have said that somewhere along the line! It’s certainly true. When your reputation is good, the phone rings with new work opportunities, your competitors’ staff...

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...

You spend all kinds of money to get the phone to ring and to get on qualified bidders lists. Your best technical seller-doer-closers beat the bushes for new opportunities. Your glossy quarterly newsletters are mailed...

Until the 69,000 firms who make up the A/E/P and environmental consulting industry wake up and start doing something different marketing-wise, we’re destined to remain a fragmented group of small firms owned by people who...

Mention “human resources management,” and too many principals and managers working in A/E/P and environmental firms will turn their noses up. They immediately associate it with benefits administration or eight-page performance appraisal forms, instead of...

I get to see a lot of proposals and qualification documents from A/E/P and environmental consulting firms of all types and sizes. In most cases, there’s plenty of room for improvement. Consider the following: Length:...

I visited one of my favorite client companies the other day. It’s a mid- to large-sized consulting engineering firm that has been around a while. The principals are entrepreneurial. The staff is pretty good, too,...

The ability of an A/E or environmental consulting firm to quickly hire qualified people for any opening affects virtually every aspect of its management. I call it “supply-side human resources management.” If you think about...

Reflecting back on all of the A/E and environmental consulting firms that we came in contact with during 1992, one thought comes to mind. By and large, our industry’s management expertise has significantly improved. The...