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By Janki DePalma | A “hell yeah” mindset helps firms move from fear-based decisions to choices grounded in clarity and strategy.

By Morgan Stinson | Great leaders do not chase comfort – they choose difficult conversations, hard decisions, and accountability before crisis forces them to.

By Richard McCree Jr. | A century of success is built on daily decisions, disciplined leadership, and an unwavering commitment to doing things the right way

By Mark Zweig | Work/life balance sounds appealing, but real careers and real lives are built through integration.

By Mark Zweig | Strong leaders address underperformance directly, clearly, and quickly before it damages culture, client relationships, and team morale.

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

By Mark Zweig | Annual performance reviews fail AEC firms because real leadership requires continuous feedback, not once-a-year management theater.

By Michael Sanderson | The future of professional services depends less on hours logged and more on trust, ownership, and meaningful results.

By Mark Zweig | There are nine reasons why selling your firm to the right buyer can strengthen opportunities, stability, and growth for your people.

By Shelby Harvey | Encouraging curiosity at work turns tough questions into opportunities to build trust, share knowledge, and strengthen engagement.

By Mark Zweig | The right attorney with specialized expertise can save AEC firms significant costs, mitigate risks, and protect their business.

By Jeremy Clarke | Handle hidden tension before it blows – eroding trust, culture, and leadership credibility.

By Mark Zweig | Most AEC firms play it safe with bland marketing, but bold, consistent outreach is what actually drives results.

By Dave Williams | Policy slack combines structure with flexibility, empowering leaders with the room to move, own decisions, and grow.

By Janki DePalma | Ghosting job candidates damages trust, reputation, and your firm’s future recruitment success.

By Mark Zweig | Success comes from bold, consistent marketing efforts that push visibility, build trust, and attract high-quality clients.

By Liisa Andreassen | President and CEO of Cedarville Engineering Group (Pottstown, PA), a civil and environmental design-build firm that delivers value through innovation.

By Mark Zweig | There are things you can do to stay positive and prevent pessimism from ruining your ability to lead.

By Mark Zweig | These qualities will be essential for entrepreneurial leaders in the AEC business to have in the coming months and years ahead.

By Mark Zweig | These misleading statements often stem from naivety and perpetuate harmful conventional wisdom.

By Mark Zweig | Success in AEC hinges on guiding clients toward actions that align with their best interests.

By Mark Zweig | Don’t turn yours into a joke by getting the wrong help and taking the wrong direction with revising your strategic plan.

By Chad Coldiron | Takeaways from Zweig Group’s 2024 ElevateAEC Conference & Awards Gala.

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 Mark Zweig | Entrepreneurship is all about seeing and doing things differently from everyone else, so maybe you should be more questioning of the status quo.

By Mark Zweig | Employees who decide to disengage and shift out completely do so at their own peril.

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

By Mark Zweig | LLCs are often ill-suited for growing AEC firms, leading to legal entanglements and hindrances later on.

By Mark Zweig | Some of the ways entrepreneurial small firm owners create value and differentiate themselves.

By Mark Zweig | If you take an honest look at people who are really good project managers, you’ll find they have some specific personality traits and abilities that lead to their success.

By Mark Zweig | Those who read your emails, letters, reports, social media posts, and resumes are all deciding how intelligent you are in large part from your writing.

By Kevin Brown | To become an employer of choice in AEC, you must prioritize getting the fundamentals right before investing in advanced employee programs.

By Mark Zweig | Work should be an integral part of life, so why do so many people working in AEC firms clearly not feel that way?

By Mark Zweig | These are the most important qualities that decide who gets to move up as firm leaders, managers, and future owners.

By Mark Zweig | The majority of AEC companies are doing well, but that could be in spite of how they are being managed.

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

By Mark Zweig | You can learn something from every new experience, so don’t lose the sense of curiosity and wonder you had as a kid.

By Justin Smith | Instead of waiting for the perfect project manager to appear, invest in developing these valuable professionals within your firm.

By John Shaw | Communication and relationships are the greatest driving forces in success or failure during a change journey.

By Mark Hodges | Don’t be a victim of continuation bias; it’s time to completely change your IT strategy in the face of the ongoing cyber threat.

By Mark Zweig | Many of these things will increase the value of your ownership in an external, or even internal, transition.

By Mark | If your project managers did these six things consistently, your projects and your firm would be more successful.

By Mark Hodges | If you’re not taking a proactive approach to your firm’s cybersecurity, this could be the year you decide to go out of business without realizing it.

By Mark Zweig | We’ve all heard about the attributes of highly effective people, but what about the habits of highly ineffective people?

By Mark Zweig | Where are you now in terms of billable work versus business stuff? Are you happy with the mix?

By Mark Zweig | Business ownership can be one of the most rewarding things for any person to participate in.

By Will Anderson | When coming into the market to acquire a firm, it’s often wise to expand your horizons and think outside the box.

By Mark Zweig | You can’t make people do what you want, so you must get your people to realize you’re all on the same team.

  In this episode, Jamie Claire Kiser – Managing Principal and Director of Advisory Services for Zweig Group – discusses the current state of M&A affairs in the AEC industry. Jamie Claire originally joined Zweig...

By Kraig Kern | Too much of a good thing can lead to a crisis for you and your staff and dissatisfaction for your clients.

By Mark Zweig | If you truly want “best practices” for your firm, you need to look for real innovation versus following the pack.

By Jim Toby | The quality of your projects sets your firm apart from the competition, so urge your prospective clients to look beyond the costs.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | Firms need to devote resources toward business development and ensuring a steady stream of work for the future.

By Keyan Zandy | There are a lot of heroes in our companies, but some are less noticeable. Their successes are quieter and less dramatic, but no less valuable.

By Mark Zweig | Being retired from the day-to-day business for nearly three years gives you more time to think.

By Mark Zweig | We create much of our own good luck – and a lot of that comes down to understanding probabilities and doing things that increase our odds for success.

By Mark Zweig | How can we each achieve the lofty and satisfying position of knowing we have made a difference through our work in this business?

By Mark Zweig | If you’re trying to buy or thinking about buying another company in this business, here are a few things that may be helpful to you.

By Mark Zweig | Look in the mirror and ask yourself if you are still doing what you want to do every day. Maybe now is the time to get really serious about your transition.

By Mark Zweig | The leadership abilities of you firm’s principals and managers will determine your collective success this year.

By Mark Zweig | There are 10 things practically every firm in this business should do but won’t. If you try these things, your firm will be more successful.

There are countless ways to develop business without being a business developer, and you are most likely doing some of these things already.

By Mark Zweig | What your firm becomes should be the result of a plan, of deliberate efforts. You can and should “design” your design firm.

Educating yourself about these biases as well as potential strategies for mitigation can help you avoid prejudice in your decision-making.

By Christina Zweig Niehues | With some ingenuity and proper planning, the AEC industry can adapt and thrive in any climate.

By Mark Zweig | If we truly want to elevate our people and help them achieve all they can achieve, we must help them be better communicators.

By Mark Zweig | Getting on the phone right now may be the single most important thing you can do to bring in new work.

By Mark Zweig | For many A/E firms, it is going to take a lot of tough decisions, hard work, mental intensity, and help from everyone in the firm to get through this situation intact.

“You would be surprised how quickly your employees get in the bandwagon when they can be part of the solution.”

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.

“People who show any signs of a lack of character must be confronted and dealt with immediately.”

“When directly confronted with a difficult or painful question and you aren’t honest with people – they’ll figure that out. And you can forget them ever trusting you again.”

“Every time you take off early or give yourself that perk you always wanted, you could unknowingly be demotivating someone. I’ve seen some egregious examples of this over the years.”

By John Bray | With a low unemployment rate, more firms are relying on a national approach for recruiting.

“We need to collect our money sooner. With dragged out collection periods, most companies don’t have the working capital they need without borrowing.”

Use this seven step process to focus on project management for year-over-year improvement.

“There’s a lot to know about your people. And we have to keep updating this information because your people are constantly changing.”

“There’s a lot to know about your own business that you cannot know if you aren’t intimately involved with every detail of it at some point.”

On the surface everything might appear to be fine, but back at their office, the consulting engineers might be telling the (painful) truth.

It might seem far fetched, but it’s true. AEC firms can learn a thing or two from the fast-food industry.

“If any of these situations sounds familiar – and you have tried to correct the situation by directly confronting it – it may be time to let that person go.”

In the early rush to make our names in the AEC business, we often overlook the basic building blocks for a great career. As a younger engineer, I occasionally spent time doing the wrong things....

“It’s crucial that the individual manager work hard to gain acceptance. Not doing so will almost inevitably lead to getting shot in the back.” While it’s best if you can promote from within, there are...

“We get our greatest satisfaction from accomplishing things – yet we seem hell bent on getting to a position where we don’t DO anything that would give us that satisfaction.” I don’t know what’s wrong...

“Should one design their organization and then look for the right people to fill specific roles on the chart, or should the organization be designed around the people the firm already has on board?” An...

We’re all busy with our personal and professional lives, but that doesn’t mean we should stop educating ourselves. I have spent a good portion of the last eight months crisscrossing the country training professionals in...

Leading through accountability takes a willingness to do a better job at recognizing challenges and accepting feedback toward positive change. Have you ever worked with someone who can’t perform their basic job functions? Have you...

I have said it before. I am worn out from all the talk about leadership versus management, Level 5 leadership, servant-leader leadership, and the rest of it. The “L” word – leadership – sure is...

It seems to me that one of the keys to being a really successful design professional is figuring out what you are really good at and doing more of it. No one is good at...

If you request even a minute of precious time to meet with your firm’s leader, make sure you don’t waste the moment. If there is one thing I have learned growing up in an increasingly...

By Jamie Claire Kiser | A meandering mission statement won’t inspire your team. If you want your employees to rally around your brand, give them something they can believe in.

It’s hard to believe that in this market there are still design professionals who don’t feel fairly compensated for what they do – especially when compared to other professionals. While I don’t think the $200K+...

As hot as merger and acquisition activity in the A/E industry is – and it is hot (we probably get two or three calls/inquiries/RFPs a day now) – internal transition – selling from employees/owners to...

Social media isn’t nuclear physics, but you have to have the right voice for the right channel, otherwise you’re speaking Spanish in China. Would you walk up to someone at a cocktail party and say,...

One of the most frustrating aspects of being a business owner is when two or more employees – or worse – two or more work groups – both productive ones – don’t get along. One...

While clients want to be in the hands of an expert, they also want that expert to care deeply about the success of their project. A best practice in business development/project initiation that you can...

All of us in the A/E/P business are consultants. Sure, we are either engineers or architects or planners or surveyors or designers – but we are also consultants. I have been studying consulting firms and...

You’ll lose control of your office if you have no performance metrics, no accountability, and put employees in the wrong roles. The difference between leadership and management is quite substantial. Make no mistake, as a...

President and COO of DCI Engineers (Hot Firm #62 for 2017), a 320-person Seattle firm with offices in seven states. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Start early,” Heeringa says of ownership transition. “Make it a standard...

“Quality” is an elusive thing. It’s like a moving target. One person’s definition of high quality could be completely different from another’s. For firms providing architecture, engineering, planning, or related services, it is really all...

There’s always something nice about a new year. It’s a fresh start. It’s time for a new plan. The accounting starts all over at zero. Let’s get going! Here are my thoughts: Org structure. Do...

Branding, education, a low barrier to entry, and the creation of fans are all part of it, so what are you waiting for? I rejoined Zweig Group more than three years ago after an almost...

Having a quick response for clients and colleagues is good business, and it’s easy, so when you get that email, do the right thing. Something’s happened a couple dozen times in the last two-plus years...

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...

You go to so much trouble to find the right person for your critical job opening. Sometimes, the process takes months. The higher level the job, the longer it takes to fill. Everyone is busy....

This post first appeared as an article in The Zweig Letter, Issue 1223 Besides the fact that an external sale will typically provide the greatest financial return for A/E owners who want to transition out...

If you want entrepreneurship in the DNA of your firm’s culture, a top-down commitment to innovation and risk is essential. How important is culture? Since it’s the amorphous, intangible, and mysterious thing that drives your...

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...

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....

David Arends, president and CEO of CR architecture + design (Hot Firm #19 for 2016), a 175-person firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio. By Liisa Andreassen Correspondent “Entrepreneurship is not a standard genetic of architects, so...

They count, and they need to be made across numerous fronts if you want to get your foot in the door with a new client. As the saying goes, first impressions count. Although much of...

We are a bunch of conformists. It’s a big problem in the AEC business. Everyone is sitting around waiting to do what the other guy is doing. And this is precisely the WRONG course of...

I’ve written and said it many times. AEC firms have many different paths to success. There is no ONE single formula that always works better. Nor is there one magic bullet – a single thing...

If you want to boost your project profits, analyze past failures, and use that knowledge to craft winning estimates. We have all had projects that for some reason did not meet our financial expectations. Over-budget...

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 –...

99 is a lot of problems, how about 9 common problems and some solutions. 1) Difficulty making a decision. Engineers too often really struggle with this one. There’s never enough information. Therefore, it is deemed...

There's so much written about leadership training and developing better leaders in your AEC firm. But there's little information about how to become a better leader yourself. It's all about what you can do for...

There's so much written about leadership training and developing better leaders in your AEC firm. But there's little information about how to become a better leader yourself. It's all about what you can do for...

AEC firms have a big problem. We wait for clients to tell us what THEY want or need and then we give them a proposal. That may seem perfectly normal to you. What’s wrong with...

We got a fax the other day from a firm that wanted to cancel four seminar registrations it had sent in just a couple weeks before. Evidently, the firm had hit on hard times, had...

“John,” the president, CEO, and co-founder of a 250-person midwestern E/A firm, was frustrated. After so many years of success, it seemed to him that all he was doing now was de-fusing irate clients, talking...

A good communication plan is vital when things don’t go your way, so put a little thought into who’s going to do the talking when people start asking questions. Not a day goes by that...

Blame is a form of punishment that rarely works, and removing it from a firm’s environment will increase productivity and collaboration. Would you rather have an employee change her behavior, become more motivated, or make...

Virginia landscape architecture firm was acquired by a much larger engineering outfit from North Carolina, and big and small didn’t mesh. By Richard Massey Managing Editor The owners of what was then called H&G Landscape...

The M&A process is like the dating game: there’s plenty of fish in the sea, but hauling in the big catch isn’t easy. Firms close deals every day without engaging an M&A consultant to help...

Everyone wants better project management. That's why principals of AEC companies spend more time and money on PM training than any other type of business training. But I'm not here to talk about training. I...

Sometimes, firms get lost in utilization and project profitability, and end up solving the wrong problem. People respond to what you track and report. The accounting really does matter. For example, we've helped companies dismantle...

Mistakes happen, and to minimize them without demotivating your people, a measured response is critical. We had a situation this week – a headline had been added to my recent article on millennials in the...

A lot of A/E/P firms complain, but in fact, they’re not really trying to grow. As an executive in residence teaching entrepreneurship in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas‎,...

This month, readers seek advice on topics related to social media, benchmarking, and increasing prices. WHO SHOULD FIRMS COMPARE THEMSELVES TO WHEN BENCHMARKING? Dear Christy, “We’re about to start our strategic planning process and like...

My husband and I had dinner one evening last week at one of our favorite local restaurants, an upscale place with a gracious staff and fantastic fare. Or, at least, we went to the restaurant...

There are a few basic traits that differentiate firms that make money from those that scrape by. Chad Clinehens and I were talking in the office yesterday about why some firms we work with make...

Sometimes negative thoughts can creep in; here’s why leaders should always try to maintain a positive outlook. Being positive – surrounding yourself with other positive people and believing you CAN do something – is essential...

It may sound cheesy, but it applies to both personal and professional relationships. There’s so much written these days about how to be a great leader. It’s everywhere. A million ideas and things one should...

Five types of unnecessary practices that are making you lose big bucks, Mark Zweig writes. I’ve always thought there was a lot of time wasted in the typical AEC firm’s office, especially for the managers....

Mark Zweig lays out the steps you must take to create a successful organization. Also, be a real leader. One of the most important jobs any leader has is that of building their team. Yet...

Mark Zweig reflects on the passing of a friend and employee, and offers six tips about forming a winning team. A week ago Sunday, one of my best friends, and also the lead carpenter for...

Coach your staff on the small things that make all the difference and follow these four tips from Mark Zweig. So much of one’s success in the architecture, engineering, planning or environmental business has nothing...

The motherload list of truisms that makes Mark Zweig’s blood boil. One benefit of aging has been a certain calmness that I now have that I didn’t have when I was younger. That makes each...

Four additional suggestions from Mark Zweig because the time is now. It’s here – the New Year. They keep coming faster and faster. It’s kind of funny to see the past futurists’ ideas about what...

Don’t we all want to be part of an organization that we are thrilled to be a part of; that makes us proud? I often get chills when I think back on my early career...

By Hobson Hogan Principal, Investment Banking There is a time in everyone’s life when you are holding onto something too tightly. I was reminded of this fact by my son on Christmas Day. Santa had...

By Mark C. Zweig I may make many folks mad at me with this week’s editorial. But too bad. I never wanted to be one of those CONsultants who tells his clients what they want...

By Mark C. Zweig I thought it might be fun to reflect back on my 30-plus years of working in this business and assemble a list of fundamental laws none of us can get around....

Business is starting to get better and hiring activity is restarting for many A/E/P and environmental firms that have shrunk over the last few years. That’s good news for the economy and for some of...

As many firms in our industry are still reeling from a tough market for what they do, it is becoming almost blasphemous to suggest that they get back to a growth philosophy. It’s not that...

I hear the question all the time: “How can we make good project managers out of our people?” The answer— like it or not— is, “You may not be able to make good project managers...

As a consultant for 30 years now, I have done a lot of turnarounds. Even though they can be terrible and painful, when they go well, a successful turnaround can be incredibly gratifying. There is...

The bad economy of the last couple years, with the A/E/P professions being particularly hard-hit, has created a serious problem for many firms today— that being disillusioned workers. It is not easy to pin down...

As the year starts to wrap up, most A/E and environmental firms begin to rethink their incentive compensation plans: “Is our plan right for our company?”; “Does it reward the behavior we want to reward?”;...

Everyone thinks they know why clients hire their A/E/P or environmental firm. Sometimes you DO know— but sometimes people make bad assumptions. Those bad assumptions will HURT your future selling efforts because you will be...

With this kind of a statement, you might assume I am either stuck in a 90s time warp, or that I have finally lost my mind. But neither is true. Yes— I know times are...

Many firms in the A/E/P or environmental business today have some sort of designated market leaders. Usually, there’s a new business plan and part of it requires a “realignment” to a more market-driven structure. Then,...

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...

This week’s focus is all about the new industry buzz term, “IPD.” For those who don’t know, IPD stands for “integrated project delivery.” You might wonder what that means (as I did the first time...

After 29 years observing leaders and managers in A/E/P and environmental firms (as well as many other professions and industries), I have learned that one of the keys to success is simply “being nice.” That...

My desk is in such disarray these days that my former co-workers at ZweigWhite would surely think I’d lost my mind if they saw it. I have always been an “everything in its place” kind...

Any business— be that A/E/P or otherwise— survives and prospers to the extent it meets the needs of its clients. That is so incredibly fundamental it borders on the obvious— yet firms falter (and occasionally...

I just sold a house this past weekend that I have had on the market for quite some time— much longer than it usually takes me to sell one. This was a beautiful little 1925...

If you have a firm of any size and have been in business for any length of time, you will at some point discover one of your key people is interviewing with a competitor. You...

When things get ugly in a firm— as they tend to do when the firm’s financial status takes a downturn— you’ll often see fights break out. Some principals form factions with other principals or principal...

As someone who has worked, studied, and written about this business for 28 years now, I thought today is as good as any day to share some of what I’ve learned. Here it goes: What...

Although it doesn’t happen to everyone who becomes a principal in an architecture, engineering, or planning firm, it happens to many of us. What I am speaking of is the dilemma one faces when you...

Steve Tomlinson was in shock. He always took great pride in the work output of his now 80-person environmental firm, Tomlinson Consultants. But the truth was, as they grew, their quality was getting worse and...

A friend of mine who redoes old houses here in town was telling me the other day about an architect he’s been working with lately. She’s a registered architect, has her own company, and is...

I was at Lowe’s the other day buying a Jacuzzi tub for a 1925 bungalow we are redoing from top to bottom to resell. While the plumbing guy ran off to get my tub, I...

There’s no question in my mind that using personal letters is one of the best-kept marketing secrets for architects, engineers, and environmental consultants. Newsletters are overused. Every firm has one. And if the firm is...

I was in a board meeting recently with a quality, old-line engineering/architecture/consulting firm where one of the primary topics was business development. We spent several hours talking about it and how they are changing their...

Human resources management has long been criticized and undervalued by top management in A/E/P and environmental firms. Evidence of this fact is pay. According to ZweigWhite’s 2007-2008 Management Compensation Survey of Architecture, Engineering, Planning &...

I have already written in The Zweig Letter that I think times are going to get a little—perhaps even a lot— tougher for many A/E/P and environmental consulting firms. It doesn’t mean I’m not bullish...

Just about every firm in the A/E/P or environmental business today has identified its number one problem as “not having enough good people.” Solving this ongoing problem takes a lot of hard work and some...

Most of us could benefit at times from a new perspective. This is especially true when you start considering the subject of business planning in A/E/P and environmental consulting firms. But a new perspective is...

After doing business plans for more than 20 years, the truth has finally sunk into me: You cannot please everyone with one strategic plan. In other words, the strategic plan for internal purposes is probably...

A recent article in The Zweig Letter where various A/E and environmental firm principals were asked about the best interview questions to ask prospective employees got me thinking. It got me thinking about what I...

By Mark Zweig | If you really want to raise your effective labor multiplier, here are some things to try.

How many times have you heard it? Someone turns in their notice to leave and the response of his or her immediate supervisor is: “We didn’t need Bob (or Sue), anyway,” or, “We were going...

Just about anything you read nowadays for our business mentions the top concern of firm owners everywhere is finding and keeping good people. Finding good people is never easy. Nor is it the topic of...

We’ve been at this business for some time now— and have worked with hundreds of A/E/P and environmental firms whose principals wanted to sell. Unfortunately, we can’t help all of them— just those who will...

I could talk about growth all day and why it’s good to be a growth firm. Any faithful reader of The Zweig Letter over the last 14 years has heard me pounding the growth drum...

Somewhere in the journalistic masterpiece known as USA Today during the week of July 17 is a small blurb about business ethics. It was one of their polls that they regularly take. Forgive me for...

If you examine any business— a restaurant, a car dealership, or an A/E/P/environmental firm— they all seem to benefit from active leadership. Likewise, they all tend to suffer from a lack of it. I would...

I know it sounds corny, but the fact is, a client is precious. They are hard to get and harder to keep happy. We need to treat them as if they are as valuable as...

There’s something about the entire design and construction industry when it comes to doing projects— we just don’t spend enough time on communication. I think there are a number of reasons for this persistent state....

Those who knew me way back when could tell you that, in my younger days, I was more rigid in my beliefs, more certain of my direction, and generally a lot less flexible than I...

A lot of design and environmental firm principals have been around a long time— they’re an average of 48 years old. That means that they have probably been doing this work for 20-25 years or...

We held our 2004 AEC Mergers and Acquisitions Summit at the Biltmore in Coral Gables, Florida, the first week in December. The food and accommodations were great, and the meetings were a success. As someone...

I’m getting ready to start teaching a course at The Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville this spring semester. It will be a class on entrepreneurship— more specifically,...

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...

I can’t tell you how many business planning meetings I have sat in on in large firms where someone comes up with the novel idea of checking all project deliverables before they go out. It’s...

Paul Weir, president and CEO of Weir-Sofein Architects and Engineers in Albany, New York, had a problem. He and his primary business partner, Wolfgang Sofein, usually saw eye-to-eye. There was a long history of mutual...

Human resources people are big on job descriptions. I was never that fond of them because it seems that they can always be used against you somehow. Here are some examples: “I meet the requirements...

Let’s face it, the motivation of any A/E or environmental firm’s leaders is, in many ways, more important than the motivation of the staff. Because if the leaders aren’t fired up, how can anyone else...

Let’s face it. The economy of the last couple of years has led to diminished expectations and in some cases, declining values, not just in our 401(k) plans and stock portfolios, but also in terms...

As you get your A/E/P or environmental firm ready for 2003, you may be patting yourselves on the back. The fact is that while overall, 2002 was not as good as 2001, a lot of...

What a difference one year makes, huh? Things have gone from an employee-driven job market to an employer-driven one. Nevertheless, if you get out there and talk with the folks in the trenches, you may...

A couple weeks ago I was down at my alma mater for a College of Business Advisory Board meeting. While I was there, I was asked to sit on a panel on business ethics. I...

It seems to me that the mega management consultants have gotten their comeuppance recently. Read your local business pages or The Wall Street Journal. Many of these firms are hurting as evidenced by revenue reductions,...

Antoine Nicholas Smith had just started feeling a little better. He’d survived some tough times recently and come out smelling like a rose. After 9/11, his firm, Jones and Stern, tanked. They were losing money,...

Last week I was on the phone ordering a part for an old British motorcycle. It vibrates so much that every time I ride it something either breaks off or falls off. In any event,...

I don’t want to be negative nor schizophrenic. Sure, there was panic after 9/11, but the fact is our industry (overall) has been remarkably healthy since then. The data still looks good in many sectors....

Everyone wants to talk about project management as one of the keys to profitability. But based on some of what I have seen and heard lately, the problem may not be so much about how...

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...

When I worked inside an A/E firm as a human resources director, I would occasionally have someone in my office telling me that they wanted to be an associate. And I have to tell you,...

Denise Jones, CADD technician and seven-year employee at DEF Associates, was fed up with the complainers at her firm. What was wrong with these people? All they could do was gripe about one thing or...

Let’s face it. In business, as in life, things don’t always go the way you want. There will be problems that you can anticipate, and there will be problems that you never expected. Either way,...

Everyone says they’re interested in it, and there are all kinds of articles out there on the subject. How to attract and keep an outstanding workforce is clearly on the minds of many principals and...

“What goes around comes around.” “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” “You reap what you sow.” “To get love, you need to give love.” These adages (and many more) all reinforce the thinking...

I’m bullish on this business. As a group of firms, we are doing better than ever. Revenue is up. Profits are up. And the projects are gratifying. It’s an ethical business. There are a lot...

Set to music from The Beverly Hillbillies: Let me tell a little story about a man named Jed, a poor engineer, barely kept his family fed. And then one day when designing to buy food,...

Everything I need to know was not taught in kindergarten! In growing our own business and working with hundreds of firms over the years to help them grow theirs, I feel like I have learned...

One thing I know about smart people—they hate being treated like children. It’s insulting and demeaning. Unfortunately, we routinely see owners and managers of A/E/P and environmental firms who do just that to their employees....

I just got back from a College of Business Advisory Board meeting at my alma mater, Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. Thanks to the State of Illinois, I got my BS and MBA degrees...

If you ask me, a good deal of success in work (and in life) comes from doing what you need to do every day. If you can’t get done what should have been done today,...

Most of us will never get rich quick. We won’t have a single breakthrough discovery that makes us millions. We won’t win the lottery. We won’t have a rich aunt who leaves us her art...

I don’t mind telling our readers that it’s a great feeling to have a vehicle such as The Zweig Letter to share my thoughts so widely. Along with that comes a certain responsibility not to...

He’s a really nice person, a “people person.” He’s someone who deeply cares about other people. He’s a really good listener. He’s someone the employees will confide in. Does this sound like the ideal human...

If you consider the truly successful people you know who own and manage A/E/P or environmental firms, I think you’ll find that they think differently from everybody else. They are irreverent. They defy logic. They...

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...

“Training.” It sounds like a good thing, right? Everybody likes training. It’s supposed to make people better at their jobs, and that’s good for them. The business news media tells us that Generation X-ers will...

At the car wash this past weekend I saw a 1969 Barracuda with a 440-cubic engine. It was hot pink (a factory color) with what Chrysler used to refer to as a “six-pack” (that’s three,...

“Process marketing” is a term you’ll see a lot of in The Zweig Letter. Heck, we even have a supplemental, stand-alone Process Marketing Advisor devoted entirely to the subject! The reason is that process marketing...

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...

t seems to me the only way to really be successful is to be different from everyone else. Whether it’s your career or your firm we are talking about, it’s all the same. Yet many...

Talk to some architects and engineers and their real feelings will come out: They believe there’s something bad, something sick, something wrong, something immoral about business. Their attitude is that design or technical work is...

One of my associates and I recently went to Idaho to visit a new consulting client— Power Engineers, Inc. (Hailey, ID). Without question, one of the high points of our trip was meeting their CEO...

Anyone who studies human behavior in business organizations can tell you that confidence is a critical quality for leaders to have. This certainly applies to A/E/P and environmental consulting firms. When the leader is confident,...

“You’re only as good as your reputation.” Somebody wise must have said that somewhere along the line! It’s certainly true. When your reputation is good, the phone rings with new work opportunities, your competitors’ staff...

One thing I have learned over the years is that how good something turns out depends on the sum total of many small decisions. Most of the time, as it relates to projects, it’s not...

Why do some firms grow, have happy employees, keep satisfied clients, and make their owners rich, while others start up, muddle along, and then either continue to muddle along or fizzle out completely? If you...

You know, it drives me crazy when I hear some whiner complaining that you can’t make any money in the A/E/P or environmental consulting business. Sure, most people aren’t all that successful. The average firm...

Believe it or not, having fun helps your pocketbook. If your people are having fun, they’ll work harder, longer, and put out better quality work. And that will make you more money. I’m convinced that...

I’ve received several calls asking me if I had seen a recent article that appeared in The Wall Street Journal (November 21, 1996) on performance appraisals. Evidently, it is causing quite an uproar in the...

I gave a talk last week at a meeting one of our clients had for all their market sector leaders. This is a successful company that we do quite a bit of work for, and...

I get to see a lot of proposals and qualification documents from A/E/P and environmental consulting firms of all types and sizes. In most cases, there’s plenty of room for improvement. Consider the following: Length:...

One of the great things about the A/E/P and environmental consulting business is that it always provides you with a challenge. Right now, many firms are feeling particularly stressed— with a higher than normal workload,...

Every A/E/P and environmental firm I’ve encountered that has survived over the long haul has periodically made a push to improve its profitability. All the growth in the world won’t do you any good if...

It is almost heresy in this day and age of “customer service” to say it, but in the A/E/P and environmental consulting business, the customer is not always right. In fact, many times the customer...

ONE OF OUR CLIENTS just hired a new marketing director. He’s a great guy— been in the business a long time— somebody with a firm handshake who makes friends easily. He can talk with anyone....

Everybody who’s anybody in the A/E/P and environmental business will tell you that teamwork is critical to the success of their firms. But aside from the occasional hiring of a smooth-talking organizational psychologist to give...

Most A/E/P and environmental consulting firm insiders would agree that we, as a group of companies, do not manage very well. I say that because if we did, we would not be an industry made...

As someone with a business orientation and education who started competing at a young age, competition is something I’ve always been interested in. I take pride in being a pretty competitive guy— one who likes...

Management people are usually critical of technical people for their lack of business knowledge. But having a business degree is no assurance you know any more than the average design or environmental consultant about how...

From time to time, architects and other design professionals all come under fire from the business types for not being sufficiently “business-minded.” And, the standard line of defense from those under attack is “I didn’t...

We just had the experience in the last few weeks of working with an architect. Business has been good, and we are committed to growth, so we decided to triple our office by moving to...

Have you seen the bumper sticker that says “Question Authority?” One thing is for sure— now’s the time to question conventional wisdom with respect to marketing A/E and environmental consulting services. Many of the experts...

No matter what the self-appointed experts are telling you, right now is a great time to buy a firm or to be acquired by or merge with another firm. But, like most things, it’s not...

Throughout my working career, I never asked for a raise. I never asked for a bigger bonus. I figured if my employers weren’t smart enough to pay me what I was worth, I’d go somewhere...

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...

We’ve all heard it before from people we work with: “I’m going to...” or “We’re going to...” or “I would have, but....” or “Some day, we’ll...” These “do-nothing” people may work for you, with you...

TQM (Total Quality Management) for A/E/P firms is nothing more than a fad. I’d be willing to bet right here and now that in two or three years, you won’t hear anything about it. TQM...