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BUSINESS NEWS WARE MALCOMB PHOENIX PROJECT WINS IIDA SW PRIDE AWARD Ware Malcomb , an award- winning international design firm, announced its project, Sendoso located on the penthouse of the Camelback Towers in Scottsdale, has won the IIDA Pride award for commercial office space under 20,000 square feet. Ware Malcomb provided interior architecture and design services for the project. Along with the IIDA Pride award, the project received the NAIOP Arizona award for Office Tenant Improvement Project of the Year and the JLL Spaces Showcase award. The project is a 10,000 square foot office space located on the penthouse floor of the 11-story, 136,500 square foot high-rise office building of the Camelback Towers in Scottsdale. The space was designed with a minimalistic, neutral color palette, allowing the client’s branding to truly stand out. The pops of orange throughout the office are juxtaposed with the soft palette of grays, whites and blacks.
The 360-degree windows showcasing the expansive valley views were highlighted in the open design concept. The office was designed as a collaborative work environment with flexible spaces and private meeting accommodations such as conference and phone rooms for varying work needs. The large break room and wrap-around balcony with outdoor workspaces complement the connected and collaborative firm culture. “Sendoso’s new office reflects the company’s innovative and collaborative nature. The design also incorporates room for the company’s future growth needs,” said Kevin Evernham, Principal of Ware Malcomb’s Phoenix office. “The fact that Sendoso’s new office is in such a prominent downtown Scottsdale location is an added benefit for employees and visitors alike.” Along with the benefits of a flexible work environment, employees may bring their pets
to the dog-friendly office. There are a variety of amenities including beer on tap and snacks in their fully stocked kitchen. The space includes a professional sound system with Rockbot music streaming throughout, that offers white noise when needed to support the acoustics of the open office. In collaboration with Sendoso, Emily Agin of Disrupt Consultants was the workplace consultant and Ryan Bartos of JLL was the tenant broker. The developer for this project was West Coast Capital Partners and the general contractor was Wespac Construction. Established in 1972, Ware Malcomb is a contemporary and expanding full service design firm providing professional architecture, planning, interior design, civil engineering, branding and building measurement services to corporate, commercial/residential developer and public/institutional clients throughout the world.
MARK ZWEIG, from page 9
successful. If they DON’T trust management, they will tend to think only of what betters themselves. The business planning process should lead to more transparency and more trust because there are fewer secrets. Everything is out in the open. 5)You create “psychological ownership.” I will admit in the past I have been hesitant to use this term because I truly believe that real ownership – even if it’s just a tiny piece of a much larger enterprise – can be used as a motivational tool much more than it is in many A/E firms. But without getting into a debate on the merits or problems associated with that, we can all agree we want everyone to THINK like owners even if they aren’t actually owners of the enterprise. Bringing them into the planning process – even if all you do is give them a chance to express their opinions on the direction of the firm and what it does well or does poorly – is one way to help them feel like it is THEIR firm, too. That’s not only motivational for them – it also influences every single decision they make on a daily basis. 6)You create greater accountability. When everything is out in the open – and the goals and action items along with a clear idea of who is responsible for what is committed to writing, AND then results are shared with all employees over the course of the year – you establish greater accountability. Peer pressure to perform results, along with a tendency toward greater cooperation between all to achieve those results. That’s a good thing. I’m sure I could go on here. I realize that many firms in this business go off-course with their business planning efforts. Some people have a tendency to overcomplicate things and as a result, many of the positive outcomes that could be achieved through the process are lost. Don’t let that happen to you. And don’t underestimate the importance of somehow getting everyone involved in the business planning process and then sharing that plan with all, either! MARK ZWEIG is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.
2)You establish a context for everything that the business is trying to do to improve itself. Again, this is super important and crucial to your success. Does every employee know that there’s a bigger picture and how what they do fits into that? They should. They should also realize that their own efforts contribute to the success of the whole, and that if the whole firm does well they will benefit. Just making changes in the business without establishing the context can lead to a greater probability of failure in implementation. “There are so many other great reasons to get everyone in the firm involved with creation of the plan, along with reasons to share the whole thing with everyone in the firm once it is done.” 3)You train your people in the business aspects of our business. We know that somewhere around 70 percent to 80 percent of the employees working in A/E firms have had no formal business training. That means they have had no schooling on important subjects such as finance, accounting, marketing, promotion, HR, selling, management – I could go on, but hopefully you can see why that’s a big problem. On top of that, a large portion of the staff probably hasn’t worked at a better-managed firm in this business than yours. Where are they supposed to learn this stuff if you don’t teach them? Building a broad base of people in the firm who understand your business is crucial to your ability to operate profitably and withstand staff turnover, not to mention your longer- term efforts to set the stage for a successful management (and possibly ownership) transition. The business planning process should contribute to the business knowledge of every employee on your payroll. 4)You build trust with management. You want every single employee to trust that management has their best interests at heart because IF people feel that way they will (hopefully) tend to do more of the things that help the company be
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THE ZWEIG LETTER MARCH 22, 2021, ISSUE 1384
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