Search results

By Stuart McLendon | When economic data grows less reliable, long-term AEC planning becomes a far riskier bet.

By Nam Douglass | Neglecting immigration compliance during mergers or acquisitions can expose firms to costly consequences.

By Jared Maxwell | Despite recent success, AEC firms may need to navigate headwinds to mitigate risk and sustain growth and profitability.

By Lauren Martin | Design firms need to be vigilant about clauses and language that have the potential to significantly expand their risk while undermining their insurance protection.

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

By Mark Zweig | What owners and managers of AEC firms should be thinking about and doing as we plow headfirst into 2024.

By Todd Perry | Lessons learned after taking a big risk to launch a new firm in an up-and-coming sector.

By Brian Nordmann | An actionable cybersecurity strategy can be established without significant financial investment, and with measurable results and rewards.

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.

Design firms in the process of renewing their professional liability insurance will find the marketplace generally stable and competitive, even amid uncertainty created by COVID-19.

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.

Innovators should consider following these best practices to ensure that what they believe to be their trademarks and copyrights actually are their legal property.

Phil Keil, Zweig Group’s director of strategic services, knows how to put the pieces together to craft unique strategies and implementation plans for AEC firms.

“So many [A/E firm leaders] feel they are being pulled in so many directions that oftentimes, at the end of a day or week, it is hard to see what was accomplished.”

Trust your judgement, speak up, and keep learning. Your efforts will pay dividends down the road.

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

Undisciplined growth, poor people focus, low financial performance, and a weak capital structure can sink a firm – even big ones with brand names. I’ve been working with several colleagues for the past four years...

“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...

If you haven’t created a culture of cyber security, you’re asking for big trouble, like long-term damage to your firm’s reputation. Protection from cyberattacks involves much more than firewalls and encrypted passwords. Of course, these...

So many firms want to be at the top of the list for growth, but to get there, you have to be good, not necessarily fast. There is much hullabaloo made in our industry about...

We can always improve. Take these steps and your life as a leader will get much better. Confronting those who are not doing their jobs. This is one of the primary roles of a leader....

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...

The talent war is here. Building a bigger pipeline of leaders and doing it much earlier in their careers is critical if you want to win. We sometimes have too much tradition and are slow...

As architects and engineers, we need to be on the front line in the campaign against inefficiency and waste. I just listened to an excellent edition of National Public Radio’s TED Radio Hour titled “Finite,”...

Troublemakers within a firm can do a lot of damage, especially if they are tolerated. Every firm has these people to some degree. The naysayers, the skeptics, and the gossips. These people are holding back...

Leadership, accounting, rewards, and more contribute to an organizational culture of positivity and high morale. ​Great projects happen, and successful firms become even more so, when morale is high inside the firm. It’s one thing...

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...

With times as good as they are, particularly for architecture, engineering, and building-related environmental consulting firms, it’s hard to think about failure. But there are still firms going out of business and firms on the...

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...

It has come to our attention that a number of our readers are flying high right now. Business is great, you’re growing, you’re making money— it’s an exciting time. It seems like you’re getting every...

We’re convinced that 1993 is going to be a good year for the A/E and environmental consulting industry. No matter how bad the last few years have been, every single firm has the potential to...