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TZL: The talent war in the A/E indus- try is here. What steps do you take to create the leadership pipeline need- ed to retain your top people and not lose them to other firms? DB: You need to provide challeng- ing and interesting work along with growth opportunities. It’s important to encourage and mentor those with potential and to send them to execu- tive level training sessions that not only teach project management skills, but also people management skills. “You need to provide challenging and interesting work along with growth opportunities.” TZL: As you look for talent, what po- sition do you most need to fill in the coming year and why? DB: Like most other firms – we’re al- ways seeking mid- to senior-level proj- ect managers. They are the lifeblood of the firm. We’re also looking for design engineers and construction inspectors for transportation, infrastructure, and general building projects. The main problem with finding inspectors is that people coming out of college are focused more on the design end rath- er than the inspection end. They see these jobs as less prestigious some- how. However, there are great oppor- tunities for people who start on the inspection side. They can often open up a career path in a contracting firm, too. TZL: While plenty of firms have an ownership transition plan in place, many do not. What’s your advice for firms that have not taken steps to identify and empower the next gen- eration of owners? DB: It’s a long-term process. You need to identify key players and have a strong management structure. Some hurdles involved include being able to provide the right amount of financial capitalization so flow of income can finance ownership transition. Firms have to consider factors such as size of firm, profitability, and markets. TZL: Zweig Group research shows there has been a shift in business development strategies. More and more, technical staff, not marketing

staff, are responsible for BD. What’s the BD formula in your firm? DB: Years ago we tried the sales force approach. It didn’t work. Engineers want to deal with engineers. We op- erate on a seller/doer model and then have business development staff who support those efforts. These people are technically marketing, but they are part of the business development team. They work on marketing collat- eral, etc. TZL: Diversifying the portfolio is never a bad thing. What are the most recent steps you’ve taken to broaden your revenue streams? DB: After Hurricane Sandy hit a few years ago, we got involved in disas- ter clean up. We’ve been finding more and more opportunities in the disas- ter/recovery market. It’s an evolving process. We work on the side that fo- cuses on things like rebuilding, evalu- ation of structure damage, overseeing repair programs, and environmental permitting. Our geographic reach has expanded to Texas and Puerto Rico. TZL: The list of responsibilities for project managers is seemingly end- less. How do you keep your PMs from burning out? And if they crash, how do you get them back out on the road, so to speak? DB: We insist they take their vaca- tion time. In fact, we have a policy in place that limits the amount of vaca- tion time they can defer. They basically have to ‘use it or lose it’ and not many people want to lose it. Also, if we need to add temporary staff or support staff to get a project manager through a specific crunch, we will. “If anyone wants to see information at any time, of course, we will share. We run pretty much on an open-book policy.” TZL: What is the role of entrepre- neurship in your firm? DB: We have a flat management struc- ture. There’s minimal micromanage- ment. People run their profit cen- ters like micro businesses. We step See CONFERENCE CALL, page 8

YEAR FOUNDED: 1986 HEADQUARTERS: Mountainville, NY OFFICES: 13 offices in 8 states NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 500+ SERVICES OFFERED: ❚ ❚ Civil ❚ ❚ Geotechnical ❚ ❚ Structural ❚ ❚ Environmental ❚ ❚ Survey ❚ ❚ Program and construction management ❚ ❚ Construction inspection ❚ ❚ Materials testing ❚ ❚ Site acquisition ❚ ❚ Homeland security THEIR WORK: Tectonic has worked on many innovative solutions that have made some of the country’s mega projects constructible, such as the rebuilding at the World Trade Center site, the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement, and the MTA’s East Side Access. Tectonic has also assisted Fortune 500 companies with turnkey solutions for nationwide telecommunications deployments and scaled up its project management expertise to provide program management services along with engineering and environmental services to achieve large-scale disaster recovery success.

ember 17, 2018, ISSUE 1264

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