1162

TRANSACT IONS SALAS O’BRIEN MERGES WITH MINICK ENGINEERING: NATIONAL ENGINEERING FIRM GROWS IN THE ATLANTA AREA Minick Engineering, Inc. , announced they are joining forces with a leading national firm, Salas O’Brien . Minick Engineering is known for mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering consulting services primarily focused on the healthcare and industrial sector, with a strong history of great projects in all markets throughout Georgia and the Southeast; Minick Engineering will adopt the Salas O’Brien name. The combined firm will serve clients nationally from 14 offices throughout the United States. The Salas O’Brien organization now has over 280 professionals and more than 75 registered

professionals, including a talented team of more than 60 in the Atlanta offices. Salas O’Brien focuses in critical environments (data centers and telecom switches), healthcare, hospitality, educational, government, clean energy, building systems/controls, retail, and commercial markets. “The team at Minick Engineering is excited to join the Salas O’Brien family,” said Mark Minick, president of Minick Engineering. “The decision to merge with Salas O’Brien is positive for everyone involved because it opens up opportunities and strengthens both organizations.” “Mark, Debra Segal, and their team have over 35 years of success in the Atlanta region,”

said Stan Everett, managing principal of Salas O’Brien South. “We have not historically competed with them in the past because we target different markets. However, we share the same passion for providing outstanding engineering design services and value to our client base, and have complementary skills and experiences that will further drive the success of our organization. The combination of Salas O’Brien and Minick furthers the already great breadth and depth of our growing and successful organization.” Both Salas O’Brien and Minick Engineering were founded over 35 years ago and have a long history of providing outstanding design work to a loyal client base.

BILL MURPHEY, from page 9

not make guesses on what happened. I’ll let the accident investigation team finish their work and then we’ll all have a better idea of what happened.” Avoid spreading rumors while a formal investigation is underway. I recommend preparing your firm for the day that will, hope- fully, never come. Having an already developed crisis commu- nication plan will make the process go as smoothly as it could possibly go. ❚ ❚ Designate a public relations representative within your firm. Large firms may have a designated spokesperson, but too often it’s someone in the human resources or marketing department who has never received formal training on how to handle anything more than a simple press release. Small firms should appoint someone to fill the role on an as-needed basis. In either case, your designated spokesperson must have un- fettered access to your firm’s senior leaders. They are the voice of the firm, so they better have access to as much information as possible. ❚ ❚ Take a proactive approach. Get out in front of the situation and let your stakeholders know you’re actively working to re- solve the issue. ❚ ❚ Coordinate and communicate. When handling a crisis event, bring all stakeholders together to share the currently available information. That way, everyone hears the same in- formation at the same time. As an event progresses, you can always trim down the number of people required for each up- date meeting. For major events, consider setting a recurring meeting every four to six hours. ❚ ❚ Attend a media training class. As with any training pro- gram, be cautious when choosing your media consultant. Some consultants are great, while others spout theory and lack the experience of crisis communication when a fatality or other significant event is involved. You’ll do your firm a dis- service by sending an untrained spokesperson to face highly trained media. Hopefully, you won’t ever have to handle a major occurrence, but chances are you’ll have to address some relatively minor ones. Having a plan in place will help you work through the event and can make the process a little less stressful. BILL MURPHEY is Zweig Group’s director of education. Contact him at bmurphey@zweiggroup.com.

When handling a crisis, consider several things: ❚ ❚ Bad news never gets better with age. Holding onto bad news in the hopes that your client or the community will forget or overlook an incident is not a recipe for success. Let your firm, your clients, and any other stakeholders know what has happened, so they can respond appropriately and in a timely manner. As a military commander, I gave all of my direct reports a “When to Wake Me Up” list. This helped my subordinates understand which events I deemed critical. If something occurred and it was on the list, they needed to call me immediately. If not, they could wait until the morning. “How you handle a crisis will say a lot about you and you’re A/E/P firm. Even minor issues can become large problems if not handled correctly and within a reasonable amount of time.” ❚ ❚ First reports are always wrong. You may have heard this expression before. Rarely will anyone have all the facts within the first few minutes. Be deliberate and methodical in your fact-gathering and avoid guessing until a preponderance of the evidence is available. If asked for an immediate comment, leave yourself some wiggle room for when you have to correct your first report. “Based on what we know at this time, we believe …” ❚ ❚ “No comment” is no comment. Never give up an opportu- nity to tell your story. If asked for a comment when you’re not ready to provide a formal statement, there’s no harm in responding with a placeholder such as, “Our first priority is to ensure the safety of our community as we continue to gather information about this incident. We will provide more details as we conduct our investigation.” ❚ ❚ Stay in your lane. A friend of mine, a retired Navy pilot and former Blue Angel demonstration team member, was recently asked for his assessment of the cause of a fatal accident in- volving a Blue Angel pilot and his aircraft. Rather than specu- lating about causes, my friend wisely refrained from ventur- ing into an area for which he had no first-hand information. He deflected the question with a simple answer: “I’d rather

THE ZWEIG LETTER August 1, 2016, ISSUE 1162

Made with FlippingBook Annual report