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FROM THE FOUNDER
Good to not so great
A few of the reasons a great, successful firm can falter and experience a fall from grace.
A t Zweig Group, we love to celebrate the successful companies in the AEC business. Our Hot Firm award that looks at revenue growth over a multi-year period is just one example. But what about the companies in this business that grow and become super successful, and then falter and eventually get swallowed up by another firm in their decimated state, or worse, just close their doors and shut down completely? These are the firms that go from good to not so great.
Mark Zweig
After 42 years working in this business, first as a management consultant, then as an employee, manager, owner, and board member of a variety of AEC firms across the land, I have seen a number of firms go from good to not so great. Here are just some of the reasons WHY this can happen and a great firm can fall from grace: 1. No one has an interest or understanding of the business side of our business. I have always said that architects and engineers go into architecture or engineering because they like it. That doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that they will also love business. Not everyone who forms one of these companies has to love or even like business. But someone has
to, or eventually the whole thing will blow up from a lack of profitability, bad cash flow, poor marketing, ownership transition plans that are unsustainable, or failure to create an environment that other people want to work in. The other problem associated with a lack of business knowledge is when too much cash is taken out of the business by the owners (and I blame the outside accountants in many of these cases!). The working capital gets stripped every year in an attempt to minimize taxes and maximize personal incomes. Or the owners have too much personal overhead, or overhead from other unprofitable businesses or real estate investments they may
See MARK ZWEIG , page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER AUGUST 15, 2022, ISSUE 1453
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