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ON THE MOVE KAI ADDS SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER, ESTIMATOR/PROJECT ENGINEER TO BUILD GROUP KAI has added two new employees to its build group. Melissa McGinnis-Russo, senior project manager, will serve as the MEP coordinator on the BJC HealthCare West County replacement hospital project, a PARIC/KAI joint venture. She has 30 years of AEC industry experience and a diverse engineering background. Most recently she worked for Ascension Health, the largest Catholic healthcare system in the country, as director of engineering where she oversaw MEP infrastructure projects for more than 130 hospitals. Her experience includes overseeing engineering on large capital projects, GPO agreements, executing contracts and building relationships with vendors, contractors and facility directors across the country. She has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and a commissioning certification from the University

of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds certifications in the following: ASHE Healthcare, OSHA 30- Hour and Carrier and Trane Load Calculation Programs. McGinnis-Russo is a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers; American Society of Healthcare Engineering and Design- Build Institute of America. Joe Kabance, estimator/project engineer, served as an intern at KAI while completing his bachelor’s degree in engineering/construction management at Southern Illinois University. Kabance accepted a position at KAI as an estimator/project engineer. He also has an associate’s degree in business management from St. Louis Community College and has earned an OSHA 10-Hour certification. He is also certified as an Associate Constructor with the American Institute of Constructors. KAI is a national 100 person design and build firm headquartered in St. Louis. A renowned

leader in the industry, KAI provides design and build integrated project delivery solutions through collaboration, technology, processes, and expertise. Since its inception in 1980, KAI has been instrumental in reshaping the urban environment through its expertise in housing, K-12 schools, transit facilities, collegiate structures, commercial buildings, sports and recreational facilities, government/ justice centers and healthcare buildings. Beginning as an architectural design firm, KAI added mechanical/electrical/plumbing engineering to give clients a full package of in-house disciplines for their projects. Today, KAI continues with its original core service of design and has quickly grown its construction management group since 1997. Additionally, KAI is a leader in BIM, applying the skill set to architectural, engineering and construction projects firm-wide. KAI’s affiliate locations include Atlanta, Omaha, Dallas, and San Antonio.

BERNIE SIBEN, from page 9

And that takes care of the general up and downsides of using “standardized” or boilerplate text. Next, three more specific downsides. 1)Firm with multiple service offerings. Let’s say your firm provides engineering, surveying, and construction manage- ment services, and you have one standard “About the Firm” write-up. When you respond to an RFP for surveying services, does that client really want to read about your engineering and construction management capabilities, staff, and experi- ence? So do you need one standard write-up for each type of service you provide? Or do you need one overall write-up that you edit each time you use it? And do you need both an over- view write-up and a detailed write-up with bullet listings of all your services? 2)Firm operating in multiple market sectors. Let’s say your firm provides its services to both the transportation and the municipal utility sectors. And what if each of those sectors exhibits a different “personality?” The first time I wrote a pro- posal for a railroad design project, I was told that the text had to read like the firm “spoke railroad” or the proposal wouldn’t be considered. 3)Firm operating in multiple marketplaces. Let’s say your firm provides its services in multiple cities, states, or regions. And what if each of those geographic locations exhibits a dif- ferent “personality?” When I moved to Dallas in 1987, I was told that you couldn’t market in Fort Worth the same way you marketed in Dallas. So do you need multiple versions of your marketing peripherals, each with a different level of formality and locally identifiable photographs? Remember that every piece of text a marketer puts out has to be what the reader wants to see. If you can standardize in a way that accommodates this, go ahead. But if your standardization is more about convenience for the pursuit’s marketer, principal in charge, or technical champion, you need to reassess and refocus. BERNIE SIBEN, CPSM, is owner and principal consultant of The Siben Consult, LLC, an independent A/E marketing and strategic consultancy located in Austin, Texas. He can be reached at 559.901.9596 or at siben@sibenconsult.com.

is correct, the marketers at headquarters rarely read the documents, so a typo from the original entry might still be in the text a few years later. Or the number of the firm’s staff might be that from two years ago. Or the listing of offices might include one that closed and omit one that opened a year ago. “Every piece of text a marketer puts out has to be what the reader wants to see. If you can standardize in a way that accommodates this, go ahead. But if your standardization is more about convenience for the pursuit’s marketer, principal in charge, or technical champion, you need to reassess and refocus.” So the senior principal in my branch office would hand me an RFP and warn me, “Don’t do a headquarters on me.” That meant I could use boilerplate, but only if I: 1) Selected only files that responded to the RFP – in other words, provide everything the client wanted to know, but not everything I wanted to tell. 2) Read the selected text and tweaked it to be relevant to the project being pursued – in other words, a proposal for road- way design did not need a beach nourishment project in the “Experience” section. Unfortunately, some marketers are so swamped and pressed for time that they just pull files from the database and assemble the document without giving serious thought to item No. 1 above, and without spending any time at all on item No. 2.

THE ZWEIG LETTER June 11, 2018, ISSUE 1252

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