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By John McGill | AI may speed up rendering and iteration in AEC, but human judgment still determines accuracy, compliance, and meaningful design innovation.

By Matt Cooper | Repeat clients keep AEC firms stable, but winning new work is what determines long-term growth and resilience.

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 Adam White | Meaningful employee growth goes beyond trainings and workshops – it takes time, trust, feedback, and a clear path forward.

By Jeremy Clarke | The key to embracing growth without giving up what made your firm great in the first place.

By Jane Lawler Smith | Marketing professionals are the unsung heroes of the AEC industry, driving synchronization, strategy, and success in securing projects.

By Mark Zweig | This advice isn’t hard to follow; it just takes some conscious effort and a little discipline.

By Julia DeFrances | Professional associations offer a lot of benefits to the firms that support them, and for most firms are well worth the price of a membership.

By Todd Perry | Be wary of spreading yourself and your services too thin; your team’s productivity and your firm's profits could begin to suffer.

By Leo MacLeod | Email is a great tool, but if it’s not managed efficiently, it can dominate our day and rob precious time from getting work done.

By Tom Godin | A look back at 2021 – and ahead to 2022 – through the lyrics of Billy Joel.

By Mark Zweig | If you’re running a business, you have to pick and choose carefully what information you consume and how you process and employ it in your own business.

By Julie Benezet | Time limits tighten focus, propel you over challenging hurdles, and maximize your chances of success.

By Jane Lawler Smith | Make sure your marketing uses fresh ingredients, is thoughtfully assembled, and temptingly delivered.

Focus on getting stuff done and moving forward by fitting the tasks on your to-do list to either the time slot or energy you have available.

We must apply our human intelligence to identify the real problems and leverage technology as a platform to bridge the gaps between tools, people, and processes.

Co-founder and principal at CWE (Fullerton, CA), a  civil engineering, water resources, and environmental engineering firm whose experts pledge to create a better tomorrow, today.

In these uncharted times, we run the risk of only thinking about the immediate and not about where we are going to be three months, six months, or a year from now.

By putting energy into the power of habit, deep work, productivity tools, and daily scheduling, you will see immediate and lasting productivity gains.

“To maximize your chances for success, remember you are in the consulting business. Keep these points in mind as you guide the growth and development of your business.”

Create a three-year vision thinking about what you need to achieve personally and professionally to be happy with your progress, and then work to reach your mountain.

Implement these tips to decrease tension and drastically increase the utility of your feedback.

In this era of recycle/reuse/renew, instead of discarding boilerplate information, we should embrace it.

The word growth is often associated with the bald pursuit of profits, but it’s really about the health of your firm and your staff.

Portland office leader for PCS Structural Solutions believes in the legacy of engineering as a community builder.

Come to the 2018 Hot Firm + A/E Industry Awards Conference in Dallas this September 20-21, and bring your colleagues with you! People are understandably reluctant to leave the office and their clients to attend...

The more you ask, the more you learn, and that knowledge can be driven back into your firm for the benefit of clients and employees. Maintaining a leading position in the AEC industry requires that...

Successful business planning isn’t about having a crystal ball. It’s about a culture that discusses goals, actions, and results on an open and regular basis. The end of one year and the beginning of a...

With the environment we are living in – crazy political stuff – potential nuclear war – mass shootings by maniacs – it would be easy to let it all get to you. But you can’t....

CEO and chairman of Mead & Hunt (#82 Hot Firm for 2017), a 592-person national firm offering services in planning, design, architecture, and engineering. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “There is something to be said for...

Campaign finance laws, bid rigging, price fixing, and bribery. We hear about this with contractors, but how about design professionals? Several times each year, there is an article about some contractor being debarred or convicted...

Over the years, we have developed work styles that are not good for our physical, mental, or emotional health, but that can be changed. Taking these tips to heart can really change the health of...

SlideShare is an easy and inexpensive way to present information to your target audience in a visually appealing manner. SlideShare is a web-based service that gives AEC firms the ability to infuse a powerful visual...

Great leaders know when to hold their tongues, take a step back, ask questions, and come to a better solution. Every day that goes by, the more convinced I am that our abilities to keep...

Are you getting all you need from HR today? Three suggestions from Mark Zweig. Human resources management often gets a bad rap. That isn’t without cause. In my experience, too many HR managers forget whose...

The seller-doer model works best for design firms and Mark Zweig shows how you can do it in your firm. 2014 is going to be the year of the seller-doer for those of us working...

Let’s face it. People will come AND go. And they don’t always leave (voluntarily or otherwise) at the best time. Sometimes it really hurts! A critical client relationship may be injured or lost by a...

I just got back from the ninth annual Zweig Letter Hot Firm Conference and Awards Celebration, held in Chicago this year. It was, as it always is, a great event filled with optimistic people— something...

With all of the employment-related pressures that firms face today, it’s getting harder and harder to figure out what you really need to pay somebody to do a given job. There are so many ways...

I’ve been thinking a lot about change lately, probably because I have been experiencing so much of it so fast. Moves are one type of change that most people find stressful. I know— I have...