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IN THE BOOKS, from page 3

Looking back on nearly 40 years in the AEC industry, Zweig said the biggest changes he’s seen are that firms have finally embraced mar- keting, and that increasing value has been placed on business acu- men, not just design expertise. Zweig, of course, circled back to the foundation of any good firm – its people. “You have to treat your folks well or they will leave,” Zweig says. “You can’t be too cheap and you have to be nice.” This year’s sponsors were Corporate Tax Advisors, Bentley, Project- Boss, Wintrust Commercial Banking, AEC Business Solutions, Cli- ent Savvy, Ames & Gough, KiwiCo, BLK EYE Vodka, Hiball Energy, Menguin, and Civil + Structural Engineer magazine. Keynote speak- ers included Jay Steinfeld, founder and CEO of Blinds.com, and Christopher Parsons, founder and CEO of Knowledge Architecture. One of the liveliest breakouts was the one focused on an important topic in the AEC industry – mergers and acquisitions. Hosted by Ja- mie Claire Kiser, Zweig Group’s CFO and director of consulting, the panel featured Bryan Powell, VP, Land Division, Westwood Profes- sional Services ; L. Joe Boyer, CEO, Atlas Technical Consultants ; Paul DiDonato, CEO and president, ATI Architects and Engineers ; and Lawson & Weitzen attorney George Christodoulo. “Once you do a deal, the headhunters are on the phone,” said Christ- odoulo, referring to the ripple effect an acquisition can have on a selling firm’s employees. While staffers who must sign non-com- petes are important, the selling firm’s employees that really need to be retained, post-deal, are the ones on the next tier down. You lose them, and you could lose the firm. “What are my people going to think of this?” said Christodoulo, re- ferring to a critical question that all selling CEOs must ask them- selves – and appropriately answer. Boyer, who recently closed on the acquisition of Atlanta-based Pied- mont Geotechnical Consultants , had this to say about mergers and acquisitions: “There’s no such thing as a merger. There’s always a buyer and there’s always a seller.” Dickerson Wright, chairman and CEO of NV5 , the No. 1 Hot Firm for 2018 and 2017, during his keynote address spoke to the impor- tance of organic growth and how to keep employees satisfied and engaged. A publicly traded company, NV5 offers stock to all employ- ees. “Equity, equity, equity,” Wright said, referring to his firm’s approach to inclusion in a company with a flat org chart. Repeat conference sponsor and long-time management consultant June Jewell, founder of AEC Business Solutions, appeared in front of a packed house during her breakout session, Getting Your Em- ployees to Think (And Act) Like Owners. Having met with countless CEOs to discuss the ills that infect their firms, Jewell has her finger on the pulse of the C-suite and those they lead. Not surprisingly, her comments were consistently met with nods of approval as she moved through her presentation. Referring to over-delivery on projects, potential leaders that know nothing about business, employees that don’t use company sys- tems, increasing overhead and declining fees, disengaged employ- ees, work silos, and PMs that might be PMs in title only, Jewell looked at her audience and, with a knowing glance, said, “There are things that are happening in your company that you think should be different.”

SOURCE: The Changing Workplace: New School vs. Old School, 2018 Hot Firm & A/E Industry Awards Conference

THE ZWEIG LETTER October 22, 2018, ISSUE 1269

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