TZL 1303

ON THE MOVE DPS GROUP PROMOTES JIM GRUNWALD TO SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, U.S. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DPS Group announced that Jim Grunwald has been promoted to senior vice president for U.S. business development. Based in the DPS Boston office, Grunwald will be responsible for sales and marketing of DPS Group’s services throughout U.S. markets and the company’s U.S. business units, including architectural and engineering design; commissioning, qualification, and validation; technical services operation; construction management; and strategic consulting. “Since joining DPS, Jim has played a key role in expanding Boston’s project portfolio, working closely with senior management to lead Boston project operations during a time of steady growth,” said Frank Keogh, CEO of DPS Group. “Jim has made outstanding

contributions toward advancing DPS’ strategic initiatives, and we are confident in his ability to competitively position the firm and help grow the DPS business in the U.S. life sciences market.” Grunwald brings more than 30 years of experience in the AEC industry to his new position. He joined DPS Group in 2015 and previously served as vice president of strategic development for Boston’s project operations. In this role, he successfully led teams and delivered strategic capital projects for leading biotech/pharmaceutical and advanced technology clients. Grunwald supports all of DPS’ internal and external client relationships with expert guidance in the areas of planning, risk assessment, site selection, estimating, CQV, and operational readiness. He also has special expertise in strategic planning, real estate development, and risk assessments

associated with capital projects and product development in the regulated industry and advanced technology sectors. Additionally, Grunwald fulfills the role of project sponsor for many of DPS’ strategic project initiatives, providing senior management oversight and guidance to project teams on behalf of clients including Moderna, Sanofi, AbbVie, Acorda, Brammer Bio, and Waters Corporation. Grunwald is an active member of ISPE Boston, having previously served as president of the chapter’s board of directors and helping to start the ISPE Boston Chapter Scholarship Fund. He is also a founding member of the I2SL New England Chapter. DPS Group is a privately-owned engineering, consulting, and project management company, serving high-tech industries around the world.

PETER ATHERTON, from page 9

Relying solely on more of the same is not a credible strategy for today and won’t prepare us for a future trending more toward the amount of “value produced” than “time-spent.” Increasing our ability to scale will be more critical to successfully competing and profiting. For most firms, now is the time to adjust our strategic planning and invest. As leaders, we can’t confuse the good market conditions of today with doing what’s right and needed to win tomorrow. DESIGNING FOR SCALE. Scaling our business moving forward is likely to include the following elements: ❚ ❚ Integrating new technology ❚ ❚ Process innovation ❚ ❚ Productization ❚ ❚ Leveraging of the gig economy ❚ ❚ Value escalation ❚ ❚ Transformational thinking ❚ ❚ In-demand branding Re-opening our strategic plan or reconsidering its implementation in light of these elements is an important first step if we’ve not already done so. Part 2 of this series focuses on growing our people to help scale our business. Part 3 focuses on what it takes to build a brand designed to attract and save us time and money while increasing loyalty and retention. PETER ATHERTON, P.E., is an AEC industry insider who has spent more than 20 years as a successful professional civil engineer, principal, major owner, and member of the board of directors for a high-achieving firm. Atherton is now president and founder of ActionsProve, LLC , author of Reversing Burnout. How to Immediately Engage Top Talent and Grow! A Blueprint for Professionals and Business Owners , and creator of the I.M.P.A.C.T. process. Atherton works with AEC firms to grow and advance their success through strategic planning implementation, executive coaching, performance-based employee engagement, and corporate impact design. Connect with him at pete@ actionsprove.com.

To progress professionally and generate profit, key individuals must take on increasing levels of responsibility and be leveraged over more clients and more staff. As teams build-out, the “one” becomes more standardized and has less day-to-day interactions with clients and non- direct-report members of the team by design. This limiting connection, however, is becoming more problematic (more on that later in this series). At the same time, each “one” often carries the burden of at least two roles as “doer-seller,” or “principal-manager,” or “manager-engineer.” The problem, especially today, is that our best talent is disproportionately burdened by this model. Workloads for most are skyrocketing, clients are demanding more, budgets are tighter, there’s less new talent, and there’s less time to fully engage and develop the talent we have. Even though much of the work is getting done and profits are high, this is not “scale.” Operating in this mode is not sustainable and there is a cost – in the short-term for talent and culture, and longer-term for production in terms of talent burnout, disengagement, and the bottom- line in addressing talent loss and project quality gaps. THE NEED FOR SCALE. Developing talent takes investment and time, and cost-effectively adding experienced talent is a challenge – unless you are truly doing something special to attract them (more on that later too). Business scale is different. It is a process of increasing revenue with little to no increase in expenses while maintaining high quality.” “Business growth can simply be an increase in revenue. Most often this requires an increase in expenses to support and sustain the new growth ...

THE ZWEIG LETTER July 8, 2019, ISSUE 1303

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