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O P I N I O N
After landing the job
So you got the position you wanted, but that’s just the first step. You have to (help) create something bigger than yourself.
L ast month I wrote about my good fortune of meeting Art Gensler and intuitively sensing there was a philosophical fit with his fledgling firm, where I ultimately spent a fulfilling 34-year career. I labeled that first blog installment “How to find a Job.” With this installment, I turn to what I did after landing the job, when the work really began.
Edward Friedrichs
together to do the same. When I became president in 1995 and then CEO in 2000, I realized I needed to add a dimension as the steward of our culture and values. Sure, I was watching the firm’s finances closely. And I worked hard on staying close to our clients and their goals, the people in the firm, and our recruiting efforts. But the most “I spent my career at Gensler, from 1969 until 2003, helping to make the principles a reality and ensuring everyone else in the firm was working together to do the same.”
In my case, when I first joined Gensler, I felt aligned with this new organization and where Art and others in the firm wanted to take it. There were some core principles I wanted to support and build upon. I knew that for both the firm and for me to be successful, I had to be part of making those principles a reality through the culture we built at Gensler. This is about building an enterprise that works so consistently to a set of values that, as it grows, clients as well as employees know what to expect. This was particularly important as we grew to a large number of offices scattered all over the world. I spent my career at Gensler, from 1969 until 2003, helping to make the principles a reality and ensuring everyone else in the firm was working
See EDWARD FRIEDRICHS, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER April 30, 2018, ISSUE 1246
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