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Conference call: Grant Gibson Founder and CEO of GATE (Hot Firm #35 for 2017), a 300-plus person oil and gas engineering consulting company based in Houston.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
“W hen clients/friends see what we post and comment to colleagues, or know who we are before we walk through the door, marketing is doing its job – generating awareness and interest,” Gibson says. A CONVERSATION WITH GRANT GIBSON. The Zweig Letter: There are A/E leaders who say profit centers create corrosive internal competi- tion for firm resources. What’s your opinion on profit centers? Grant Gibson: We have five major profit centers depending on type of work, business model, and clients. Each profit center has a president who is responsible for all financial performance of his group. We try to create collaboration between the groups as they will each benefit by higher revenues and meet strategic objectives. TZL: What’s your policy on sharing the firm’s
financials with your staff? Weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually? And how far down into the org chart is financial information shared? GG: On a weekly basis we share our prime covenant – liquidity and over 90-day invoices. Monthly, we share our financials with all presidents and busi- ness group managers. Quarterly, we have a share- holders’ meeting where we share the group perfor- mance and each president presents on their perfor- mance. TZL: The talent war in the A/E industry is here. What steps do you take to create the leadership pipeline needed to retain your top people and not lose them to other firms? GG: Our focus has been to develop leadership to grow the firm. We’ve taken what we call a “Level 4 Organization” where we focus on people develop- ment. We do this in three areas:
Grant Gibson, Founder & CEO, GATE
THE ZWEIG LETTER Ju
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