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BUSINESS NEWS COLUMBUS SELECTS WOOLPERT TO PROVIDE ENGINEERING, SURVEY FOR SIDEWALKS AROUND SCHOOLS The city of Columbus, Ohio, has contracted with Woolpert to provide engineering, survey, and technical expertise to improve pedestrian access to schools. The project is part of the Columbus City Council’s initiative to support and improve the safety and quality of life of city residents by installing sidewalks around schools within three urban neighborhoods. Woolpert has been assigned the Near South neighborhood, which will improve routes for students and families attending Lincoln Park Elementary School, Livingston Elementary School and South High School in the Columbus City School District. The basic services to be provided under this contract include civil engineering for roadways, intersections and stormwater design; survey and right-of-way services; construction plan development; and landscaping details.
Nathan Fischer, Woolpert project manager, said these infrastructure improvements will make communities more walkable and improve home values, but the primary goal of the project is safety. He added that Columbus is ahead of the curve in implementing projects such as these that promote stronger, safer, and healthier cities. “Columbus has been very progressive in pursuing funding for pedestrian safety specifically and in supporting national efforts like Safe Routes to School,” said Fischer, who works on roads and bridges projects throughout the state. “Other cities of similar sizes have begun to look to Columbus to lead the way.” Survey and engineering work for the Near South project is now underway. Woolpert is the fastest growing architecture, engineering and geospatial firm in the country, delivering value to clients in all 50 states and around the world by strategically blending
innovative design and engineering excellence with leading-edge technology and geospatial applications. With a dynamic research and development department, Woolpert works with inventive business partners such as Google and Esri; operates a fleet of planes, sensors and unmanned aircraft systems; and continually pushes industry boundaries by working with advanced water technologies, asset management, building information modeling and sustainable design. The firm, which is 95th among ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms, supports a mission to help its clients progress and become more progressive. For more than 100 years and with 28 offices across the U.S., Woolpert serves federal, state and local governments; private and public companies and universities; energy and transportation departments; and the U.S. Armed Forces.
employee who does not have the potential to be on your “A” team. Focusing on employee performance, getting great clients and projects, and implementing effective best practices will quickly transform your firm and culture, and take much of the strain off of having to keep up with crappy projects and put up with lower performing staff. There is a lot to be said for growth if it ends up being successful, profitable and fun. If it only adds additional risk, stress, and problems, then growth in itself is not a good thing for your firm. Profits, rather than revenues, are a much more effective indicator of success. The top performing or “Top-Tier” firms in the industry have developed strategies based on being better, not bigger. This means elevating the skills, performance, and effectiveness of every employee – not just hiring more of them. By investing in your team and giving them what they need to be successful, you will increase employee retention, client satisfaction and, ultimately, your bottom line. JUNE JEWELL is the author of the best-selling book Find the Lost Dollars: 6 Steps to Increase Profits in Architecture, Engineering and Environmental Firms . She is president of AEC Business Solutions, helping progressive AEC firm leaders transform their cultures, increase project profits and boost employee performance. Connect with her on LinkedIn and learn more about how to improve your project financial performance at aecbusiness.com. “There is a lot to be said for growth if it ends up being successful, profitable and fun. If it only adds additional risk, stress ,and problems, then growth in itself is not a good thing for your firm.”
JUNE JEWELL, from page 11
inconsistency in project execution and client service and hin- ders the leaders’ ability to implement new processes and get employees to use and update data in key enterprise systems. As firms grow, it is essential to put business best practices in place to control quality, reduce risk, ensure safety, and pro- vide consistency essential to ensuring excellent client service and repeat business. Getting employees aligned with these best business practices is a key culture challenge that many firms battle with as they grow. 3)Lack of leadership and project management competen- cies to enable growth in business units, offices, and teams. With the fast growth and high backlogs comes the need to be better organized, and implement best practices that ensure high quality. But when everyone is so busy and you are adding new people faster, it is harder to ensure that your project managers and senior leaders have the skills, over- sight, and processes in place to ensure their success. “As we grow and add more people, offices, services, clients and projects, we have so much more complexity to deal with, and potentially more risk. This can lead to a feeling of chaos.” Rather than trying to grow to reach specific revenue or employee targets, you might consider that a better goal is to work towards being the best. This sets the bar high and actually may slow down growth because decisions about hiring and taking on marginal projects will lean towards the side of being more selective. Being highly selective means that you don’t take projects that are not A+ projects with highly desirable clients and high fees. It also means that you don’t knowingly hire an
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THE ZWEIG LETTER April 15, 2019, ISSUE 1292
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