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TRANSACT IONS MARTIN-MCGILL, INC. JOINS WITHERSRAVENEL WithersRavenel announced that Martin- McGill, Inc. is officially joining its team. By bringing in WR-Martin ’s personnel and resources, WithersRavenel has supplemented and strengthened its portfolio of service offerings, adding resources in grant and loan application and administration assistance, planning and facilitation, economic development, management strategy and operations. This organizational unification also achieves WithersRavenel’s vision of expansion into new markets in North Carolina. WithersRavenel has added Asheville to its list of office locations, which include

Cary, Greensboro, Pittsboro, Raleigh, and Wilmington. They now serve clients in Western North Carolina in addition to the Piedmont- Triad, the Triangle and the Coast, making WithersRavenel a true mountains-to-sea firm. “The joining of our two firms represents a milestone in our commitment to both firms’ common goals of continuous improvement and unwavering client commitment,” said Jim Canfield, WithersRavenel president. “Our team is now better positioned to serve both our current and future clients. By bringing the management consulting services in-house, we now serve as a one-stop-shop for helping our clients realize their goals and objectives.”

The inclusion of WR-Martin’s management consulting services in particular bolsters WithersRavenel position as a leader in the engineering consultancy field. “Having worked with professional engineering firms, local governments and private companies for 30 years, WR-Martin has a passion for helping our clients succeed. We are excited about what the future looks like for our clients and our people with WithersRavenel by our side,” said WR-Martin president, Jessica Martin-Lane. “Our passion and commitment will translate seamlessly into WithersRavenel’s sound company philosophy and core values.”

CONFERENCE CALL, from page 7

when results could take months, or even years, to mate- rialize? Do you track any metrics to guide your market- ing plan? RG: Yes, it’s difficult. We develop goals and metrics for all of our efforts including marketing at our end-of-year strategic plan retreat. We are improving our strategies and metrics with time, but as of now, the most useful metrics we have for tracking the success of these efforts are related to an- nual revenue goals, opportunities generated, and new cli- ent acquisition. TZL: The last few years have been good for the A/E indus- try. Is there a downturn in the forecast, and if so, when and to what severity? RG: Like every other market, A/E is cyclical. Yes, there will be a downturn in the near future. If the lack of interest in re- investing in infrastructure doesn’t change soon, the down- turn will come sooner than later and will be severe. TZL: They say failure is a great teacher. What’s the big- gest lesson you’ve had to learn the hard way? RG: Delegation does not excuse you from responsibility. TZL: While M&A is always an option, there’s something to be said about organic growth. What are your thoughts on why and how to grow a firm? RG: Organic growth is preferable to M&A. Organic growth controls the rate of growth and allows for less cultural and integration challenges than the alternative by allowing you to hire teammembers who believe in the same mission, core values, and culture. TZL: Do you use historical performance data or metrics to establish project billable hours and how does the type of contract play into determining the project budget? RG: We use historical data as a base and make adjustments for complexity, client, and risk. We estimate project bud- gets the same way for all contracts, except we may add more project management time if the client needs lots of back up in terms of timesheets, expenses, or reports.

TZL: What is the role of entrepreneurship in your firm? RG: We encourage and support entrepreneurship in our firm and have several budding success stories. We provide a stage for entrepreneurial development by having a sea- soned team of leaders/mentors and other resources in place to help our people build the skills and momentum they need to open new doors. I’m confident that each of our staff that has shown promising entrepreneurial initiative is fully ca- pable of building a team of a dozen or more and I’ll give them full personal and corporate support to do so. TZL: In the next couple of years, what A/E segments will heat up, and which ones will cool down? RG: I predict office and institutional campus development and defense contracts will heat up thanks to recent tax cuts and an increased defense budget. Conversely, I foresee transportation and infrastructure suffering due to less fed- eral funds allocated to those markets and a possible political stalemate in mid-term elections. “As you can imagine, creating a leadership pipeline and maintaining a high level of employee satisfaction is a marathon, not a sprint, and we’re happy with the results so far.” TZL: With overhead rates declining over the last five years and utilization rates slowly climbing back up to pre-recession levels, how do you deal with time manage- ment policies for your project teams? Is it different for different clients? RG: I’m not a big fan of utilization rates. I believe teams do better when you reward them by their accomplishments rather than utilization rates. I think this practice encour- ages more learning, more bonding and more efficient time management. TZL: Measuring the effectiveness of marketing is diffi- cult to do using hard metrics for ROI. How do you evalu- ate the success/failure of your firm’s marketing efforts

TZL: What’s your prediction for 2018? RG: It may not end up as great as it started.

THE ZWEIG LETTER April 30, 2018, ISSUE 1246

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