TZL 1388

ON THE MOVE RJN ANNOUNCES NEW PARTNERS At RJN , when individuals demonstrate acute business acumen and an aptitude for leadership, our firm takes notice. With this in mind, we are pleased to announce that Randall Brodner, PE, and Todd Leistner have been named RJN principals. In their current roles Randy and Todd – Tulsa branch manager and CFO, respectively – have had a tremendous impact on our firm and the value we strive to bring to our clients. Under their leadership their respective offices have made great strides to achieve smart growth in RJN’s business portfolio and strong financials. Being a principal carries with it several

responsibilities, the primary ones being to promote RJN’s employee ownership culture, mature client relationships, and further the company’s vision. Partners are key representatives of RJN’s interest and act as ambassadors internally and externally for the company. Executive Vice President Paul Costa said that their joining the principals will add depth of expertise and diversification to RJN’s leadership team. “Both Randy and Todd bring experience and knowledge in their areas of expertise,” he said. “They have proven themselves to be strategic thinkers and their addition to the

principal group will serve RJN well for years to come.” Established in 1975, RJN Group Inc. is an employee-owned, professional engineering and specialty field services firm with a focus on water, wastewater, and stormwater systems. RJN’s mission is, with an unwavering commitment to the water environment, to continue lead with innovation and ingenuity, to help utility owners meet their level of service goals. RJN Group, Inc. has been named a Zweig Group Best Firms to Work For, a recognition that is a culmination of effort by all employee- owners.

MARK ZWEIG, from page 9

owners and staff. That is crazy! It is widely accepted that paying bonuses sooner to connect behaviors to results is much better. I prefer monthly bonus payments. My fallback, if I can’t get a firm to do that, is quarterly bonus payments. Paying out bonuses annually is too slow! ❚ ❚ A lack of speed in returning phone calls and emails. This is number one in my book, and the easiest thing anyone in this business can do. Being fast to respond is always appreciated by people inside and outside of the company. It shows the other people you think they are important. Speed it up and stop making excuses. ❚ ❚ A lack of speed in dealing with problems in the field. This is almost always a common complaint about A/E firms from clients and contractors. Time is money. And the sooner you deal with problems, the less likely they will mushroom out of control. Pick up the pace and improve your firm’s performance. ❚ ❚ A lack of speed to perform cost cutting. A/E firms are notoriously bad about cost-cutting. Billings can be down and backlogs low, and the pipeline can be too thin, and yet we still wait too long to cut costs. As a result, we dig huge financial holes that may take years to get out of all because we do not act when it is clear that we need to. I have seen A/E firms put out of business because of their lack of speed in decision making. ❚ ❚ A lack of speed in dealing with employee performance problems. You cannot wait until annual review time to confront performance and attitude problems with employees, yet procrastination and wishful thinking on the part of A/E firm managers rule the day in so many firms. The sooner you deal with performance problems in your employees, the better. One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch, so pick up the pace! ❚ ❚ A lack of speed in communicating everything. Whether it is the open-book management report that goes out to all, or getting word out after a critical project meeting about changes that will affect everyone else on the design team who wasn’t at the meeting, or providing notifications about policy or benefit changes, time is your enemy! Speed up! I could go on here, but I, too, have to speed this up. It’s time to take a quick shower and get on with my day! MARK ZWEIG is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.

can tell you that a lack of speed is a big problem in the A/E firms I have worked for and with over the years. You all really need to pick up the pace! What do I mean by that? Here are my thoughts: ❚ ❚ A lack of speed to fill jobs. Why are A/E firms so slow to fill their job openings? Not filling key roles quickly can impact client service, revenue, and profitability, and contribute to staff burnout. Time to fill jobs needs to be tracked and reported, and reduced as much as possible to avoid these kinds of problems. ❚ ❚ A lack of speed in billing. As hard as it is to believe, there are still small firms out there that don’t bill their clients throughout the month. Instead they wait until the end of the month to send clients bills, which is crazy. They also commonly spend days and sometimes weeks reviewing draft bills before sending them, which also hurts their cash flow. Billing has to be sped up! “Being fast to respond is always appreciated by people inside and outside of the company. It shows the other people you think they are important. Speed it up and stop making excuses.” ❚ ❚ A lack of speed in collecting money that’s owed. Why so many cash-strapped A/E firms act as if their clients can pay whenever they feel like it is beyond me. Ninety days is NOT normal nor is it OK. Any firm that tolerates this kind of nonsense will need so much more working capital than those that don’t, and it’s commonly the reason companies in our business need huge accounts receivable (AR) lines of credit because they don’t do a good job collecting money owed to them just so they can stay in business. It’s crazy! ❚ ❚ A lack of speed to perform the month-end closing. Why A/E firms take weeks or months to close out a month is beyond me. It should be done quickly and within days of the period ending so you can tell whether or not you made any money. Stop making excuses and speed it up! ❚ ❚ A lack of speed in making bonus payments. Most firms wait until year-end to pay out any bonus money to their

THE ZWEIG LETTER APRIL 19, 2021, ISSUE 1388

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