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

By Steve Jarmon | AEC firms cannot afford to ignore cybersecurity leadership as digital risk grows alongside cloud platforms, data sharing, and remote work.

By Rachel Gresham | Culture erodes when organizations ask people to behave one way while systems, incentives, and authority structures reward another.

By Stephen Parker & Mei-Ling Krabbe | The most successful organizations will treat adaptability, personalization, and inclusivity as organizing principles for workplace design.

By Chad Clinehens | Becoming a principal isn’t a reward for past success – it’s the start of owning responsibility for future value.

By Kyle Ahern | Outdated pay benchmarks are quietly undermining retention and credibility in today’s AEC compensation decisions.

By Daryl Simons Jr. | Technology can enhance recruiting efficiency, but human connection, trust, and judgment will always define successful hiring.

By Erik Stroemberg | Practical insights and recommendations for creating, communicating, and maintaining an effective AI policy.

By Matt Cooper | These firms often rely on few clients, multitasking staff, and undocumented processes, creating volatility, inefficiency, and growth challenges.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and COO of OBMI (Miami, FL), a global master planning, architecture, and design firm.

By Morgan Stinson | Lessons from The Bear show AEC leaders the value of purpose, process, development, and treating every client like a VIP.

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

By Phil Keeney | Government contractors must act now to secure CMMC compliance – or risk losing valuable federal contracts.

By Mark Zweig | If you want more “word of mouth” advertising, assess how your firm measures up against these six critical factors.

March 21 – NV5 (Hollywood, FL) acquired CRS Survey (Albemarle, NC), a transportation and land development surveying firm. The move strengthens NV5’s mapping and data collection capabilities for infrastructure projects in the southeastern U.S. [More...

By Hugh Smith | Community outreach and engagement are foundational to the success of any project.

By Kevin Norgaard | Together, younger and older employees create a dynamic and innovative workplace where every generation has something valuable to offer.

By Shelby Harvey | Ignoring the elephant in the room won’t make it go away, but it might be what pushes your top talent to leave.

By Mark Zweig | Non-responsiveness in professional settings can stem from various reasons but addressing it directly can improve communication.

Kristin Kautz delves into the evolving landscape of AI, emphasizing its transformative potential in business and daily activities. Highlighting tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft's Copilot, and Unanet's CRM integration, she illustrates how AI can enhance...

By Jeremy Clarke | Spot these devastating hires before they sabotage your team.

By Ezequiel Tovar | These are vital instruments for AEC companies to ensure smooth transitions and business continuity.

By Javier Suarez | Mentorship relationships are mentee-driven – so, it’s up to you to not only establish one (or more), but to make it worth your while.

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

By Elizabeth Preston | How do AEC industry businesses use artificial intelligence effectively and responsibly for writing?

By Leisbel Lam | To integrate effective change management, identify needs, understand deeply, honor the past, mandate change, and provide a precise, optimistic roadmap forward.

By Mark Zweig | Stand out by steering clear of cliches, as they make firms seem generic and may push clients away.

By John Watkins | Great partnership between groups inside and outside the firm don’t just happen on their own.

By Ezequiel Tovar | The four pillars of ownership transition strengthen your firm and provide a foundation for success.

By Lillian Minix | When prompting AI like ChatGPT to generate content, you are responsible for applying the program conscientiously.

By Kraig Kern | Identifying and fixing crucial problems is the job of leadership, but sometimes the most debilitating problems are with the leaders themselves.

By Phil Keil | It’s time to start building a strategy for how you will compete and stay relevant in this rapidly evolving environment.

By Liisa Andreassen | Project director at OBMI (Miami, FL), a leading global master planning, architecture, and design firm that has been creating timeless spaces for 85 years.

By Matt Hoying | Open up and embrace full company transparency, not just financial, to enhance your firm’s culture.

By Linda Schulte | When your team views you as a leader and not just a manager, they will work much harder and be willing to go the extra mile when necessary.

By Carol Martsolf | Many may find these discussions uncomfortable, but there are steps firms can take to make staff feel safe.

By Liisa Andreassen | Managing principal of RDLR Architects (Houston, TX), a community-driven architectural firm that is recognized throughout Texas.

By Kevin Brown | Those companies that are resolute, agile, and creative will define the workplace rules of tomorrow, while the rest will be forced to follow or buckle beneath the pressure.

By Jared Maxwell | By adopting a zero-trust approach, AEC firms can strengthen their data security and their protection against occupational fraud and external cyber-related threats.

By Allyson McDonald & Megan Chang | Matching your communication style to the needs of those you’re communicating with will ensure your message is received.

From training your staff to making sure your firewall is up-to-date, it’s important that you take action to protect your firm’s data, your clients’ data, and your network from cyberattacks.

By Mark Zweig | No matter how you feel personally about anything happening in the country or world as a whole, it’s your job to do your job.

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

All of us in the AEC industry are being challenged by the disruption this virus is causing, but we got this. Solving problems is what we do.

President and CEO of BSI Engineering (Cincinnati, OH), a consulting and process design engineering firm that’s building on the past to design the future.

President of R.E. Warner & Associates (Cleveland, OH), a 68-year-old full service, multi-discipline consulting firm that’s in growth mode.

It’s important to understand your business model and the various outside factors that can affect the execution of an ESOP transaction.

President and CEO of ARM Group (Hershey, PA), a science and engineering consulting firm where the entrepreneurial spirit thrives.

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

When the veteran transportation engineer changed lanes from the public sector to a private firm, he used his blinker and stepped on the gas.

By Will Swearingen | If you develop a reputation for being less than forthcoming, you could derail a critical ownership transition – and even destroy your firm.

“When it comes to branding for an AEC firm, I wouldn’t look to other AEC firms. Frankly, we make a lot of branding mistakes in this business.”

“People working in this industry can be sensitive. It’s so easy to turn them off – and difficult to get them going again – if you can!” The difference between making and losing money in...

“After devoting my entire career – since getting out of grad school at the ripe old age of 22 – to the AEC industry, I have had plenty of time to reflect on where we’ve...

President and CEO of Larson Design Group (Best Firm #5 Geotechnical and Best Firm # 29 Multi-discipline for 2017), a 300-person firm based in Williamsport, PA. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “One person alone can’t make...

Editor’s note: Originally published 4/25/2005 Every A/E and environmental firm experiences those inevitable departures of key employees. After the notice is turned in and the hand-wringing, self-flagellation, and/or angry statements come out from management, the...

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...

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...

Are all your processes in place in the event your firm is waylaid by a wildfire, earthquake, hurricane or flood? Things were pretty much business as usual in early December with sunny skies and strong...

Social responsibility can be one of the biggest and most powerful marketing and recruiting tools at your disposal, but be careful. How much should your firm be concerned with social responsibility? And are charitable donations...

There’s a strong case for including marketing staff post-proposal, especially if things didn’t go so well with the client. I have long told my clients that requesting a debriefing after a selection has been made...

When you think about it, management of the design process for a complex construction project is all about accomplishing things through others. Many different people have to come together to get something done by a...

Valuation formulas are subject to many influences, so it helps to periodically test them out to make sure they yield accurate results. Many firms in the A/E industry are attracted to using a “valuation formula”...

People always laugh over here at Zweig Group when I launch into a tirade about a guy who worked for us long ago. This fellow was a consultant – an engineer with an MBA –...

Florida multidiscipline firm Kisinger Campo and Associates, with four decades under its belt, knows how to treat clients and employees. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent Kisinger Campo and Associates (Tampa, FL), a multidisciplinary engineering firm of...

Your ability to sell work is probably the most crucial skill you can have IF you really want to maximize your opportunities in the AEC world we all live in. Here are a few pointers...

Rapid hiring during the recovery has changed the complexion of many firms The rapid recovery in the A/E industry has led to unprecedented growth for many firms. Most firms have rebounded, surpassing their pre-recession revenue...

(The following is an excerpt from the book Successful Project Management for A/E/P and Environmental Consulting Firms, by Ernest Burden) Client service. Client-focused. Client-driven. Client-centered. Every A/E/P and environmental consulting firm includes these words in...

Design firms may have a niche to fill in this area. After all, you can do it better than a dispassionate program manager. Architects and engineers have long complained about their relationships with program managers....

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...

By Ed Friedrichs Chairman, ZweigWhite When I was CEO of Gensler I was often asked how I kept track of it all. At the end of my tenure, we had 2,400 people in 25 offices...

By Ed Friedrichs Chairman, ZweigWhite As architects and engineers, we’re in a long-cycle business. That means we work on long duration assignments, often with extended start/stop cycles— waiting for a public hearing, an EIR to...

By Mark Zweig CEO, ZweigWhite We’ve had a rough three years. And although there have been some bright spots and encouraging moments, it could get a whole lot worse. I read one gloom and doom...

By Ed Friedrichs In a fascinating recent book, Fred Reichheld asks The Ultimate Question (also the title of the book), “On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to refer __________ (fill...

Project management training tends to emphasize the legal and liability aspects of what we do, along with scheduling and budgeting techniques. But, there is so much more to it beyond the science of project management....

It’s pretty well accepted by most firm owners that if you want to be successful in the A/E/P or environmental business, you MUST keep the good clients you have. No one’s marketing is so good...

For my kickoff presentation at our eighth annual The Zweig Letter Hot Firm Conference and Awards Celebration in Boston last month, I decided to talk about the differences in entrepreneurial A/E/P firms from those that...

After 26 years of immersion in A/E/P and environmental firms, it has come to my attention that one thing probably holds more firms back from achieving their potential more than anything else: the owners’ fear....

Every A/E and environmental firm experiences those inevitable departures of key employees. After the notice is turned in and the hand-wringing, self-flagellation, and/or angry statements come out from management, the next question is, “Now what?”...

Hiring enough people— and the right ones— is where it’s at today. How well an A/E/P or environmental firm does this really is either an impediment (or stimulus) to growth. It impacts every area of...

The fact of the matter is that design and environmental firms are not easy organizations to lead. Their cultures are fragmented. The people who work in them are all too smart, their egos too big,...

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,...

Designers, by all rights, should be fantastic managers. They understand how important motivation is to creativity. They are tuned in to context and are good at seeking input from others. They know how sensitive people...

Ever have one of those days where something hits you out of nowhere and it just knocks the wind out of you? It’s so demotivating. You feel like you got kicked in the stomach. These...

It’s what we’re all looking for: young people that we can move up. And if we aren’t, we’re fools. Why would we hire someone, especially a younger person, who we don’t think has any potential...

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...

I have had a chance to work with a great number of firm leaders over the years. Some were incredibly effective people. Some were incredibly ineffective, too. When you look at the characteristics of those...

Let’s all hope it never happens. But as anyone with a few gray hairs can tell you, another recession can, and probably will, occur. So what are you going to do about it? Here are...

I would say that most readers of The Zweig Letter work in firms that export themselves beyond their immediate local area. Although not everyone gets on a plane every week, some travel is required to...

Believe it or not, as good as things are in the A/E/P and environmental industry, there are still some firms out there that need to be turned around. These firms just can’t make a profit....

Most intelligent, ambitious people working in A/E/P and environmental consulting firms aspire to be a leader some day. Whether it’s the CEO, managing partner, director of operations, or office manager job they covet varies from...

If you’re not worried about who is going to take over when you’re gone, you should be. The second-tier management in an A/E/P or environmental firm is every bit as important as the first. This...

There’s truth to the old adage that “the seeds of destruction are sown along with the spoils of success.” We see it all the time, but that doesn’t make it any more palatable. I’m talking...

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...

It has been said that the only thing an A/E/P or environmental firm can do in a presentation is “not lose the job”— meaning that the selection decisions are made before presentation time, and can...

Management junkies— There is a whole cadre of “management junkies” out there working in A/E/P and environmental consulting firms. These are smart people. But as a friend-of-a-friend of mine, Tony Pirrone (an octogenarian Cadillac salesman)...

Just about every A/E or environmental firm wants to grow. And there are a lot of good reasons for it. To paraphrase an old adage, “growth covers a multitude of sins.” When you are growing,...

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...

This year’s Professional Services Management Association (PSMA) National Convention was held in St. Paul last week. (I keep wanting to say “Minneapolis,” but St. Paulians are sensitive about that). Ed Vick, president of PSMA (Charlotte,...

I watched a movie on T.V. the other night titled “Lean on Me,” starring one of my favorite contemporary actors, Morgan Freeman. Freeman played Joe Clark, the inner-city high school principal who had one year...

It’s the time of year when you can’t reach anyone on the telephone, when important decisions seem to be postponed, and when, as one CFO who participates in our ZWEIG 100 index remarked recently, firm-wide...