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Carthy
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TZL: What’s the greatest challenge presented by growth? JM: Tough question since growth has many factors. But if I only get to pick one, then I have to go with maintaining the company culture as you grow in size. As the firm grows, you need to incorporate procedures and standardization that does not exist when a firm is smaller. This can be tough for the more tenured staff who remember when things were less formal. Keeping the culture can especially be challeng- ing when making acquisitions. Assimilating a whole other company that had its own different culture does not happen overnight. All of this is positive in the long-term, but it can cause issues in the short-term. TZL: What is the role of entrepreneurship in your firm? JM: Our goal is for every member of the firm to have an entrepreneurial mindset and understand the business as- pect of everything we do. We are very open with company financials and share performance indicators and news with our entire team regularly. Our goal is simple – we want ev- ery employee to think like they are an owner in everything that they do. Over our 18 years in business, as a testament to this, we’ve seen several team members move on to start their own engineering firms. TZL: In the event of failure, how does your firm react? JM: We identify the root cause of the failure, collectively de- velop a solution, and implement corrective actions in a col- laborative manner. We then share the lesson learned with the entire team to prevent the same failure from occurring in the future. Our philosophy is that no one can be perfect on their own, but together as a team perfection is attain- able. “We are very open with company financials and share performance indicators and news with our entire team regularly. Our goal is simple – we want every employee to think like they are an owner in everything that they do.” TZL: Monthly happy hours and dog friendly offices. What do today’s CEOs need to know about today’s workforce? JM: Today’s workforce is more mobile and less likely to stay in a position or with a company for an extended length of time than in the past. As leaders, we need to be open to their needs, give them an environment where they can be part of a team, and demonstrate that their ideas are valued by senior leadership. Training programs must be developed to more quickly onboard today’s workforce. The old days of putting them in a workstation and letting them figure it out over the next few years are a thing of the past. We have a See CONFERENCE CALL, page 8
employee and hey identify the areas of improvement and mutually develop an improvement plan which may include additional in-house or third-party training. If that does not prove effective, the manager places the employee on a formalized professional improvement plan which has specific milestones and goals. If they are not met, the non-performer is removed from the firm. standardization that does not exist when a firm is smaller. This can be tough for the more tenured staff who remember when things were less formal. Keeping the culture can especially be challenging when making acquisitions.” TZL: Firms that have principals and firm owners who lower their compensation and invest back into the firm perform better, grow quicker, and have higher valua- tions. How do you balance owner compensation with in- vestment in the firm? JM: We have historically invested significantly more into the firm to allow for continued growth, to weather down- turns in the economy, and to allow for growth without the need for lender financing. We look at the firm as a long- term investment and minimize short-term compensation to principals to support this methodology. TZL: How does marketing contribute to your success rate? Are you content with your marketing efforts, or do you think you should increase/decrease marketing? JM: We have clearly defined our brand and the ways in which we communicate that to our market. Equally impor- tant is making sure all the employees understand the brand and how they represent it any time we interact with some- one. We have outbound marketing programs that generate leads and opportunities from various sources. The strug- gle with marketing in our industry is doing effective B to B marketing with specific targeted potential customers. We find a concentrated and focused marketing and sales effort to be the most effective way of growing our business along with referrals from current and past customers and clients. TZL: If there was one program, course, or degree pro- gram that you could take or recommend before becoming a principal or owner, what would it be? JM: It would be a course in financial management tailored to the engineering field. We have sent our principals to the Zweig Principals Academy and they all came back with a much better understanding of the financial side of the firm and the impacts of all decisions. “As the firm grows, you need to incorporate procedures and
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nuary 1, 2018, ISSUE 1229
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