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O P I N I O N
Knowledge is never automatic
I n the Fiddler on the Roof song, “If I Were a Rich Man,” Tevye sings, “When you’re rich they think you really know!” The second someone becomes a principal, they (erroneously) think they know everything there is to know about their industry and how their firm fits in.
The challenge I often see is that too many AEC firm owners seem to believe – by virtue of their status as owners – that they know everything there is to know about their industry and how their firm fits in. In addition, they seem to believe this knowledge came to them in one lightning strike, during the first sleep period after they became a principal. So when they woke up the next morning, they suddenly knew everything they needed to know to run their part of the operation and make decisions for the overall firm. When an engineer or architect becomes a firm principal, nobody hounds him/her about billable hours anymore; his/her primary responsibilities become firm management, client relationships, and marketing/business development. He/she no longer designs projects, and manages only what I call “signature projects,” those projects large and/ or significant enough to become firmly tied to the firm’s reputation for the foreseeable future and possibly longer.
Now – suddenly – these people who were previously focused only on billable hours are in charge of marketing, overhead hours, with a marketing manager and staff they must direct. “The challenge I often see is that too many AEC firm owners seem to believe – by virtue of their status as owners – that they know everything there is to know about their industry and how their firm fits in.”
Bernie Siben THE FAST LANE
So what is their first decision?
They decide that marketing can’t be that important because it’s an overhead function. So they skip the weekly marketing meetings. If one or two of them miss a meeting, decisions will be made without them. And – as we often joke –
See BERNIE SIBEN, page 12
THE ZWEIG LETTER April 16, 2018, ISSUE 1244
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