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By Milly Sordo | Neurodiversity awareness can help AEC firms build more inclusive workplaces where all minds are empowered to succeed.

By Sara Grayum | AI is accelerating fast, but in AEC the real opportunity lies in using it to expand capacity, not replace people.

By Julia Moroney | AEC firms must protect flexibility without sacrificing mentorship and visibility for young leaders.

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

By Scott Butcher | Despite capacity challenges, AEC firms still rely on seller-doers because complex projects reward expertise at the first client interaction.

By Michael Makris & Laura Terrebonne | When promotions become the goal, firms miss the real work of building leaders, influence, and long-term engagement.

By Duncan Robertson | Being able to turn challenges into lasting opportunities requires sacrifice, strategic risk, and strong teams.

By Som Kundral | Leadership isn’t about standing out – it’s about lifting others up and making sure no one’s contribution goes unseen.

By Sara Parkman | The top 2025 Marketing Excellence Award winners share how strategy, authenticity, and collaboration drive real AEC marketing impact.

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

By Carlo Lebron | Take the time to define your culture, engage your team, and make this a central part of your operational strategy – the rewards are well worth the effort.

By Rennee Richardson | Embracing cross-generational collaboration in the workplace helps bridge experience, skills, and fresh perspectives.

By Nathan Hamm | Firms must blur the lines between business units to allow for better collaboration, client service, firm growth, and sustainable returns.

By Sara Parkman | The 2024 Rising Stars shed light on how the next generation of AEC professionals is driving innovation and strengthening firm culture in a rapidly changing environment.

This refinement of our service structure is designed to streamline our offerings, providing our clients with a more efficient path to enhanced business performance and optimization.

By Sara Parkman | Zweig Group’s 2024 Marketing Excellence Award winners share the strategies behind their winning campaigns and the impact on their firms’ success.

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 Kurtis John | Ignoring these areas of risk and their potential implications can have significant impacts on your success and your firm’s future.

By Alan Lloyd | With the right approach, our people can develop the skills and confidence needed to excel in business development, contributing to our collective success.

By Mallory Lindgren | Improve your ability to solve complex problems and better support your colleagues and clients.

By Eduardo Smith | For any COO to be successful in the AEC industry today, they must embrace the soft side of leadership, focusing on the people and culture as much as the numbers.

By Eduardo Smith | Whether you’re running a race or running a business, put these five tips into practice and you may be surprised at how far they can take you.

By Matt Verderamo | The way you handle yourself as an employee directly correlates to the level of success you can reach in your organization.

Zweig Group’s 2023 Marketing Excellence Award winners share the strategies behind their winning campaigns and the impact on their firms’ success.

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 Ashley Heinnickel | Dedicate time and energy to your rollout to ensure the best possible outcome when launching a new strategic initiative.

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 Mark Zweig | Hiring often takes a lot of time and a real commitment to get the key people you want.

By Mark Zweig | It’s time to turn your firm’s HR upside down and make some big changes to your policies and practices.

By John Milano | Through inorganic growth, Hill International has expanded and diversified across Europe – but still has its sights set on working as a cohesive and homogenous unit.

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

By Rob Hughes | Many design firms that adjusted their workplace to address COVID-19 face heightened exposures to employment-related litigation and related negative consequences.

By Brittney Odom & Eduardo Smith | In today’s fast-paced and mostly remote work environments, the processes described on paper often don’t resemble the way work is actually conducted.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of Universal Engineering Sciences (Orlando, FL), a firm that has provided essential engineering services throughout the United States for nearly six decades.

By Eduardo Smith | With more work than we can handle and the current recruiting challenges we face, we need to be sure that our organizations have the foundations for sustained growth.

By Liisa Andreassen | CEO and president of MKN (Arroyo Grande, CA), a firm specializing in water, wastewater, and water reuse engineering for public agencies.

By Rob Hughes | Having a clear understanding of some key insurance concepts can help your firm navigate heightened requirements and hard insurance market conditions more effectively.

By Corey Fenwick & Andrew Chakmakjian | Networking is a key part of any business – no matter the industry – because it can lead to a new job, experience, or business for your firm.

Endurance Partners, a leading investment group that partners with exceptional management teams for the long-term, has made a strategic investment in Westwood Professional Services, Inc., a national award-winning AEC firm. Zweig Group, a full-service AEC...

By Jake Voorhees | Whether it be remote flexibility considerations, how firms make strategic growth decisions, or hiring tactics in general, engineering workplace culture is changed forever.

By Rob Hughes | With the market hardening for AEC professional liability insurance, an accurate and complete application may help keep your firm’s premium as low as possible.

By Joan DeLorey & Jared Maxwell | All indications point to 2021 being a year when more buyers see higher rates for their professional liability insurance.

AUSTIN – (May 3, 2021) — STG Design, an integrated architecture, interiors, and planning firm transforming businesses through design, announced that Sandra M. Parét (AIA, IIDA) has been named Chief Executive Officer for the firm,...

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 Rob Hughes | Enterprise risk management provides a formal process for firms to examine their critical risks in context, and implement cost-effective risk management and risk-financing solutions.

By Eduardo Smith | Strategic thinking enables us to enlarge the value and impact of our work, connecting it much more than a technical solution.

By Sara Parkman | President of Shive-Hattery (Cedar Rapids, IA), a multi-disciplinary architecture and engineering firm that recognizes the power of design in transforming the human experience.

By Rob Hughes | This subtle but onerous language is becoming fairly widespread in design contracts and, if overlooked, could leave design firms with significant, potentially uninsured exposures.

Contract disclaimers reflect the reality that estimating is an art, not a science – and that design professionals cannot guarantee or warrant the actual costs of construction.

CEO of Olsson (Lincoln, NE), an employee owned 1,300-person firm that is working to leave the world better than they found it.

Evolving these relationships is a critical and too-often-overlooked key to successful project delivery and retaining satisfied clients.

Keep tabs on your insurers in a difficult economy by reviewing evaluations by popular ratings agencies.

The ways our businesses and facilities function in relation to employees and customers are bound to adjust due to COVID-19.

Leaders from Zweig Group’s top five Hot Firms talk about what they attribute their success to.

President and CEO of RJN Group (Wheaton, IL), a firm that is passionate about the environment, committed to community, and devoted to the welfare of its employees.

By Eduardo Smith | It’s more important than ever to stay close to our clients, to understand their changing needs, and to help them achieve their business goals.

In the current economic environment, avoid costly payment disputes and counterclaims by choosing clients carefully and staying on top of your receivables and collections.

By Eduardo Smith | Company culture, employee engagement, and morale are often the differentiators between common and great companies.

It’s important to revisit your purpose and values statements from time to time to make sure they still hold true for your firm.

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

Firms should evaluate their services, internal IT systems and controls, and check their insurance to make sure they have the protection they need.

Ten takeaways from the Ames & Gough survey of 15 leading insurance companies providing AEC professional liability insurance in the U.S.

Michael Davis, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at WGI, talks to Randy Wilburn about the state of affairs at his firm and how they’re responding to COVID-19.

It’s possible for a mature company to stay innovative – the key is unlocking talent from within.

To keep up with the “smart revolution,” AEC firms must embrace emerging technological solutions, innovate, and lead clients into the future.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | The situation is changing quickly, but versatility and fast decision-making have become necessary.

Chairman and CEO of Mabbett & Associates, Inc. (Bedford, MA), a verified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business.

Careful review of certifications with your legal counsel and insurance advisor will enable you to better address the needs of your clients and lenders.

As market conditions for professional liability insurance evolve, there’s a great deal you can do to position your firm for a more favorable renewal.

Good contracts can help, but timely and thorough reviews of shop drawings are, perhaps, the best defense.

Westwood Professional Services, Inc., a leading multi-disciplined surveying and engineering firm, completed the acquisition of Main Line Energy Consultants, LLC on October 1, 2019. The acquisition combines the firms’ expertise and strength to better serve...

In an M&A deal, the seller’s professional liability insurance for legacy projects will likely come into play. Deal with it early on.

There’s a push for architects and engineers to consider the safety of construction and maintenance workers when designing new structures.

Considering a design project in the fledgling cannabis industry? Make sure your professional liability coverage won’t go up in smoke.

President of JBCI, a small, but venerable, repair and restoration firm based in Philadelphia.

The blunt honesty typically associated with the old gray hairs is something that should be embraced by the younger generation.

Unless you put yourself out there as perfect, courts will typically hold you to the standard of reasonable care if you make a mistake.

Zweig Group has announced the list of speakers and discussion topics for the upcoming M&A Next Symposium, held on October 2, 2019 at the Green Valley Ranch Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. This highly interactive...

For AEC firms, findings of latest annual professional liability insurer survey may help guide 2019 risk management and renewal strategies.

If you’re a firm owner or design professional, don’t leave contractors guessing. Using plain language, make your intent clear to avoid disputes, change orders, and claims.

In today’s competitive market conditions, being able to spot red flags may prove helpful in knowing when to pull out of a discussion or for negotiating a more equitable transaction.

President of Bernardon (Hot Firm #39 for 2018), an 80-person architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture firm based in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Having the ability to offer candidates participation in the ESOP may provide your company a benefit your competition cannot offer.

(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,...

AEC firms have new options for addressing the ‘Duty to Defend’ obligation in indemnification provisions. As clients continue to look for ways to transfer greater amounts of project-related risk to design firms, it has become...

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...

As communities look for ways to protect themselves from large-scale weather-related events, design firms are equipped to help them meet the challenge. Through mid-2018, the U.S. experienced six weather and climate disaster events with losses...

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...

In the absence of extraordinary situations, the courts will rely on the contract’s terms, not the Impossibility of Performance Doctrine. My wife and I visited St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome a few years ago. A...

AEC firms must be diligent during design and construction to avoid becoming ‘responsible’ for worksite injuries or death. Although site safety generally is the responsibility of construction contractors and subcontractors, when injuries or deaths occur...

If you want your closing to go smoothly – before, during, and after the deal – make sure you take these six critical steps. There is a lot of acquisition activity in the AEC industry...

Designing for the future will require intense research, following tech trends, and thinking beyond conventional boundaries. When we moved into the 21st century just a short 18 years ago, surveyors were using the same techniques...

Employee stock ownership plans are rewarding for your staff, allow for continuity, and can enhance a firm’s culture and legacy. Editor’s note: Wintrust Commercial Banking is a sponsor of the 2018 Hot Firm + A/E...

As the outlook for AEC firms remains bright and professional liability insurance rates stay competitive, the time is right to make sure your firm has adequate protection. Things are looking up for design firms. They...

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...

Expanding its multidisciplinary services in Northern California, engineering firm LACO – based in Santa Rosa, Eureka, and Ukiah – recently acquired surveying firm DobleThomas in a match that increases LACO’s surveying capacity DobleThomas, based in...

Be careful. While a design firm can retain its copyrights by contract, the firm can just as easily give those rights away – by written contract. Design professionals are, traditionally, reluctant to give up ownership...

An experienced insurance advisor can help design firms find the coverage and program structure required to address their evolving needs. A new survey by Ames & Gough of 17 leading insurance companies providing A/E professional...

Planning and preparation are crucial if you want to take care of your people, take care of your clients, and get your firm back to doing business. Hurricanes, bomb-cyclones, catastrophic floods – a well-considered plan...

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...

The true character of any firm can be determined by how it responds to adversity, and that character is usually embodied in the troubleshooter. The troubleshooter. Every A/E and environmental services firm has at least...

Do you want to make 2018 a great year of growth and prosperity? Pay attention to, and act upon, a four-point plan to get the best out of your firm. To prepare for a successful...

In states that adhere to the ELD, design professionals have a strong defense against third-party claims for economic damages. Know the law in your project state. Law books are full of various “doctrines” that have...

As 2018 approaches, A/E firms may want to revisit professional liability insurance limits, and find optimal solutions for their requirements. As design firms look ahead to 2018, the time may be right to reassess their...

President of Fleis & VandenBrink Engineering, Inc. (Hot Firm #30 for 2017), a 200-person civil engineering firm based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Marketing is very important,” Galdes says. “We actually increased...

Sustainable design is becoming a must, but you need to drill down to the roots of every project to get the most out of the process. First, full disclosure, I have never been a “climate...

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:...

Senior employees are outperformed by their subordinates all the time. Use metrics to reward the doers and identify the dead weight. The subject of compensation is a challenging and emotionally-charged issue. It affects all of...

What does your contract say about the ability to recover legal fees or staff time incurred to recover unpaid fees? Good question, huh? Two recent cases show that architects with good contracts can recover not...

Albuquerque, N.M. – Tenants of a new, build-to-suit building – Souder, Miller & Associates (SMA), one of Albuquerque’s largest engineering, environmental, and surveying firms; along with New Life City Church, a growing Albuquerque church –...

A/E firms with sound risk management may benefit most from a competitive professional liability market, and should take the opportunity to increase coverage. Design firms that practice sound risk management, have good loss experience, and...

PHILADELPHIA – Hill International (NYSE:HIL), the global leader in managing construction risk, announced the following changes to executive leadership, effective immediately. David L. Richter has resigned as Chief Executive Officer of the company. During his...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (May 1, 2017) –Eppstein Uhen Architects (EUA) Expands into Rocky Mountain Region through Denver’s Burkettdesign Milwaukee-based Eppstein Uhen Architects (EUA), a leading architecture and design firm that has more than 180 employees in...

Milwaukee-based Eppstein Uhen Architects (EUA), a leading architecture and design firm that has more than 200 employees in three offices in Wisconsin and Iowa, today announced that it has expanded into the Rocky Mountain region...

The acronym is PDB, not to be confused with PBR, the beer, or PBR, professional bull riding. Bone up on the latest method of project delivery. By some statistics, design-build accounts for some 40 percent...

Due to the absence of a comprehensive, federal Good Samaritan law, A/E professionals are hesitant to lend a helping hand after an emergency. We have all heard someone in a perilous condition say, “Don’t just...

Should you buy a firm or sell yours? That’s the question, and regardless of the answer, there’s a lot that goes into a successful merger or acquisition. In the ever-evolving AEC industry, both large and...

Claims are not like fine wine – they do not get better with time. So take these four steps to assess and manage potential exposures. Design firms are always looking for ways to increase revenues...

HELIX CEO Michael Schwerin headed into the New Year with double-digit profits and a strong book-to-bill ratio. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent In 2001, Michael Schwerin started as an assistant environmental planning group manager with HELIX...

Philadelphia firm undertakes huge effort to improve CRM, update brand, and otherwise remain ahead of the curve. For Pennoni (Hot Firm #48 for 2016) marketing “success” can be viewed in a variety of ways –...

By assessing how they plan to use drones, and by carefully evaluating related risks, A/E firms will benefit from this new capability. As more A/E firms begin integrating drones into their operations, they need to...

AIA’s new push for materials transparency might help the planet, but it could also put design firms up against the wall should cases go to court. On April 8, 2016, the American Institute of Architects...

Even minor changes in contract language can create major liability and insurance issues for design firms, so be aware of what’s out there and act accordingly. Today’s contracts involving design firms and owners, project managers...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (May 29, 2015) – Zweig Group successfully completed a strategic search for Wold Architects and Engineers (St. Paul, Minn.). Wold A&E is a 150-person industry leading service provider for public sector education and...

Over-confidence going into a proposal or interview can create a self-fulfilling prophecy; front-runners must be sure to wow clients. We have all been there. We find out we are short-listed for that project that we...

The manager-producer dilemma and how it can affect your course. I am reflecting on the month of January as I write this. I was in the office for one business day and on the road...

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...

Search outside the firm or groom from within? To this author, the answer is obvious. I wrote last month about a position description for an office leader. But where do you look for the talent...

Press Release: October 28, 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (October 28, 2011) – To recognize philanthropic efforts and acknowledge those in the A/E industry who are making a difference for the greater good, ZweigWhite and Deltek, Inc....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 19, 2011 Press Contact: Christina Zweig (479) 582-5700 direct (800) 466-6275 corporate (479) 445-7564 mobile ZweigWhite, LLC P.O. Box 1528 Fayetteville, AR 72702-1528 christinaz@zweigwhite.com www.zweigwhite.com FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (May 19, 2011) –Two...

Press Release: February 22, 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, AR (February 22, 2011) — Architects, engineers, project owners and others wishing to work collaboratively under a delivery method known as Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) may have a found...

Press Release: February 2 , 2011 FAYETTEVILLE, AR — Firms in the architecture, engineering, planning and environmental consulting sphere are joining the national chorus of opposition to a provision that would significantly boost tax-reporting requirements,...

They’re making their lists. Nope— I am not talking about the Santa Clauses of the world. I am talking about your employees, and more specifically, your key employees. And the lists they are making don’t...

It’s hard to grow if you can’t keep the people you already have working for you. Every time someone leaves you have to replace them. And it’s as hard or harder than ever— as well...

Terry Mitchell, senior vice president and transportation division head for MonsterFirm, Inc., knew one thing: If the firm was going to make any real money, it was going to take a new level of top...

Every month or two, I end up in an office where the owners or managers of the firm are telling me that their most critical need is to have formal job descriptions for each of...

I came away from our first-ever Hot Firm conference held last week in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as impressed as I could be. Not only did our conference planning staff do a first-class job in terms of...

Raymond Stodge, managing principal of “Stodge Engineers and Architects,” was depressed. How would he get the firm’s executive committee to start taking action on the issues that had plagued the firm for years? And now...

A common theme is emerging in our business right now, especially with large firms— but certainly not limited to them. Firms need to improve their profits. Volume is up, optimism is up, backlog is growing,...

I have a few unanswered about the A/E/P and environmental industry that I thought our readers could help me with. For example: What do the terms “multi-disciplinary” and “multi-disciplined” mean? Multi-disciplinary sounds like a high...

In seven years at XYZ Engineers, Bill Jones had become one of the firm’s most dependable project managers. Bill’s jobs always made money, and his clients loved him. Unfortunately, XYZ had gone through three bad...

This is the time of year many firms do their budgeting. Unfortunately, many of them make the budgeting process far more difficult than it has to be. Small firms may not know where to start...