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BUSINESS NEWS PRIMORIS SERVICES CORPORATION ANNOUNCES UNDERGROUND AND INDUSTRIAL AWARD VALUED AT $500 MILLION Primoris Services Corporation announced a new Master Service Agreement, which Primoris anticipates will generate approximately $500 million of revenues from a California utility customer. The contract was secured jointly by the underground and industrial divisions of ARB Inc., part of the West Construction Services segment. z The award is a five-year engineering, procurement, and construction agreement across all lines of the utility’s business, including both gas and electric transmission and distribution. z The agreement covers work in power substations, high voltage power transmission lines, compressor stations, and hydro-electric plants. z It is estimated that the MSA will generate approximately $100 million per year over

the course of the contract, based upon the customer provided anticipated needs for the project. The agreement does not obligate the customer to award Primoris a specific dollar amount. Primoris will subcontract the engineering requirements of the MSA. MCMAHON ASSOCIATES INC. KICKS OFF YEAR OF CELEBRATION TO COMMEMORATE FIRM’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY McMahon Associates Inc. , a transportation engineering and planning firm, announced the launch of a year-long celebration of the firm’s 40th anniversary. Since starting in 1976 on the kitchen table at Joe and Peggy McMahon’s home in North Hills, Pennsylvania, the firm has grown to 13 offices in six states along the East Coast with more than 150 employees. “When we sat down that day in 1976 and decided to go for it, we had no idea that 40 years later we would be celebrating this incredible milestone,” said Joe McMahon, chairman of the board. “We started with the idea of creating a place that was great to work

at. We have always focused on our people being our most valuable asset, along with sticking to our mission of providing exceptional client service. This has been the secret to our success and longevity.” “This year is certainly a special one for everyone at McMahon,” said Joseph DeSantis, president. “I’ve been with the firm for nearly 30 years and I’m proud of our adaptability and tenacity in this always changing industry. When McMahon was originally founded, we focused on traffic services for the private sector, but over these past decades our services, and geographic areas, have grown exponentially into multiple markets and the public sector, which is now the majority of our projects. “We have truly morphed, through careful decision-making and strategic planning, into a full-service transportation engineering and planning company. We could not have accomplished this without the talents and dedication of our employees and our management team.”

z Know your audience. If you’re leading a meeting, make sure you understand the audience before you begin. If your discus- sion ventures into areas possibly unknown to others, throw them a lifeline and provide a brief summary or background on the concept at hand. z Avoid using faddish terms found in the latest business man- agement books. What exactly is a BHAG? And I don’t know anything about your cheese or care about what’s in your buck- et or what color hat you’re wearing. Chances are most people will not have read those books and they may view you as a smug bloviator. Don’t get me wrong. I have my favorite busi- ness books, but if I’m going to make a reference to a concept I found in a book, I translate it so that everyone around me understands the point I’m trying to make. z Minimize the use of slang. The Pentagon is a breeding ground for such extraneous nothingness. If I had a dollar for every time I heard about a “self-licking ice cream cone” – code for a purposeless, self-serving process – or a dog that won’t hunt, I’d be a rich man. It literally took me months to figure out the thing about the ice cream cone. I don’t know anyone who likes to be the person who doesn’t get the inside joke. Do your clients and your audience a favor and speak in terms they’ll understand, because not everyone will get everything you’re saying – even if they’re smiling and nodding their heads. BILL MURPHEY is Zweig Group’s director of education. Contact him at bmurphey@zweiggroup.com. “If you’re leading a meeting, make sure you understand the audience before you begin. If your discussion ventures into areas possibly unknown to others, throw them a lifeline and provide a brief summary or background on the concept at hand.”

BILL MURPHEY, from page 9

z How confident are you that your clients understand every- thing you’ve proposed to them? z How many sports analogies do you make in your daily con- versations? Have you ever called “audible” on a project or asked someone to “take a knee” when presented with a scope change request? z Do your biweekly production meetings occur twice a week or every other week? Unambiguous speech is a force multiplier. It gets everyone moving in the same direction, as opposed to the classic, “I’m turning left, right?” There are several things you can do to help others avoid that uncomfortable feeling of not knowing what you’re talking about. z Avoid using acronyms outside of your organization. If you must use acronyms in a presentation, spell them out the first time you use them. z Build and maintain a master list of acronyms and commonly used terms in your organization. They are immensely help- ful for your new hires. They can also make a great addition to your contract proposal to ensure there’s no ambiguity be- tween your firm and your client’s firm. “The next time I taught that course, I spent a half hour describing the term and its meaning, and the class went so much better than the first one.” z Sometimes using acronyms with a client can signal to them that you understand their issue on a deeper level or even that you understand their company’s culture. Cover yourself and use the full phrase at least once to confirm your understand- ing of the acronym is the same as your client’s understanding.

THE ZWEIG LETTER May 23, 2016, ISSUE 1153

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