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By Mark Zweig | Great planning forces hard choices, clear accountability, and alignment across the entire firm.

By Mark Zweig | If you are serious about wanting to improve your project management performance, here are some things to focus on.

By Chad Surprenant | A one-profit-center approach encourages teamwork across offices and disciplines, minimizing silos and supporting sustainable, firm-wide growth.

By Mailena Urso | This year’s winners prove marketing done right delivers higher margins and stronger growth.

Benchmarking the Future: AE Firm Performance Insights with Monograph and Zweig Group   “Whatever is the hardest path is probably the path we should be on. The hardest path is also the least traveled.” Robert...

By Stefanie Richter | High-performing AEC teams thrive on chemistry, clarity, and control – enabled by integrated systems that eliminate costly friction.

By Liisa Andreassen | CEO of Dunaway (Fort Worth, TX), a leading independent multi-discipline design firm in Texas.

By Alicia Kamischke | This is a versatile segment of your organization that should be tailored to best fit your company structure, strengths, weaknesses, goals, and needs.

By Mark Zweig | Exploring common questions – and their answers – from firm leaders about the buying and selling process.

By Kristin Kautz | In the rapidly evolving universe of AI, firms willing to “go big” will be at the forefront of transformation – with all of the risk and reward that implies.

By Ezequiel Tovar | In turbulent times, strategic capital allocation is crucial for firm survival.

By Andy Chavez | We’re seeing increasing M&A activity in AEC industry, rising private equity involvement, and growing demand for infrastructure-related sectors.

By Alec Russell | The Zweig Index reports on 11 of the AEC industry's leading firms on a monthly basis. This installment details the financial standing of NV5.

By Sol Sim | It is in the interest of both the project owner and contractor to critically review risks and allocate them to the party most capable of controlling them.

By Lucas Hayden | Unanet’s inaugural AEC benchmarking study reveals the data-management practices that separate the best firms from the rest.

By Liisa Andreassen | President of KSA (Longview, TX), an industry leader that provides a broad range of engineering, architecture, planning, surveying, and construction management services.

By Mark Zweig | Only a small number of people really get the idea that building a business is not a sprint – it’s an endurance race. It is all about who can last the...

By Mark Zweig | Not only do you need to monitor and report on the right performance metrics for your firm, but you also have to explain what these numbers mean to your people.

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 Liisa Andreassen | CEO of Hardesty & Hanover (New York, NY), a world-renowned full-service engineering firm with more than 130 years of experience.

CEO and president of SEH (St. Paul, MN), a firm that’s simplifying the world’s complex challenges by designing better places, engineering clean water, and renewing infrastructure.

President and CEO of Ramey Kemp & Assoc. (Raleigh, NC), a transportation engineering, planning, and design firm founded in 1992.

CEO of A&E Architects (Billings, MT), a firm that believes all disciplines can live together within any given project.

For S-corps and C-corps, ESOPs offer different, but significant, tax benefits to both the selling shareholder and the surviving company.

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

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

While the software is a proven workhouse for data storage and analysis, there are 7 good reasons to stop using it to manage your projects Editor’s note: ProjectBoss was a sponsor of the 2018 Hot...

Do you have a gazillion underused software programs languishing on computers across your firm? If you do, you’re certainly not alone. Shelfware, or unused software, is said to cost companies roughly $30 billion per year...

President and CEO of Tectonic Engineering & Surveying Consultants P.C. (Hot Firm #89 for 2018), a 500-person multifaceted engineering firm based in Mountainville, NY. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Years ago we tried the sales force...

It’s not about taking one step, but about taking 10. This could also be painful, but there’s a lot of additional revenue on the back end. The employee utilization rate is one of a handful...

Honoring your clients’ business success above all else will enhance your firm’s reputation and bottom line – without compromising design. This is the third installment of a three-part discussion on the topic of job success,...

Banish profit centers in small to midsize firms. Focus on your people by letting each do what each is best qualified to do. An engineering, architecture or planning professional services firm can be very successful...

We’re seeing more and more multi-office A/E/P and environmental firms wrestle with this issue: should branch offices be profit centers or not? Or should some other organization units be the place where we measure profitts...

For multi-office firms, it’s important to monitor overhead allocations so one region doesn’t consume more than its fair share of resources. Here’s the issue: Department managers, regional managers, and office managers all question the general...

If improperly worded, they not only can shift significant risks, but do so in ways that leave design professionals exposed to potentially large claims. A critical component of effective risk management for design firms involves...

The holiday season always motivates us to give back, but a company-wide campaign can provide for charity where and when it’s needed most – locally and all year long. I really like this quote from...

Technical professionals should appreciate the importance of timely and accurate time-sheets for determining appropriate project billing and more. For most A/E/P firms, it is the talent, technical expertise, and experience that are sold to clients...

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...

I had a lengthy conversation the other day with someone who is currently in the throes of helping his company design a new incentive compensation plan. This fellow is a smart guy. He had done...

As the fall air turns crisp and cool here in Northwest Arkansas, many folks’ thoughts turn to football, leaf raking, and the upcoming holiday season. Owners and managers of A/E/P and environmental consulting firms, however,...

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....

A couple weeks ago, a motley group of A/E firm principals and I went on a 700+ mile ride on two-lane roads through some beautiful countryside in New Hampshire, Vermont, and just a little bit...

My theory is that no firm is completely happy with how it handles project management. There are always problems. And one of the common complaints heard is, “We don’t have enough good project managers.” While...

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

As hard as it may seem to believe, 1999 is already wrapping up. We’re into the last quarter of the year now. Over the next couple of months, many A/E/P and environmental firms will be...

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....

We’re seeing more and more multi-office A/E/P and environmental firms wrestle with this issue: should branch offices be profit centers or not? Or should some other organization units be the place where we measure profits...

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....

We’ve all either experienced it in our own firm or heard about one of our competitors going through it— what I’m referring to is a complete turnaround. Consider the case of one of our clients....

I have tremendous respect for any A/E/P or environmental firm that has learned to successfully manage a network of satellite or branch offices. It's not easy. There's no question that having multiple offices greatly complicates...