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AM: I think employees see through superficial attempts to engage them such as happy hours and dog-friendly offices. Today’s CEOs need to make a genuine effort to engage staff, communicate with them, and challenge them. People want to know what’s going on in the company, how they fit in, what they can do to better position themselves for the fu- ture, and they want to feel challenged. Don’t sit them at a desk, give them an assignment, and walk away. They’ll get bored, disengage, and leave the firm. “I think employees see through superficial attempts to engage them such as happy hours and dog-friendly offices. Today’s CEOs need to make a genuine effort to engage staff, communicate with them, and challenge them.” TZL: Zweig Group research shows there has been a shift in business development strategies. More and more, technical staff, not marketing staff, are responsible for BD. What’s the BD formula in your firm? AM: We’ve never used marketing staff for BD. We have sub- ject matter experts within the firm who have the title “prac- tice lead.” They are responsible for working with project managers to do BD work. TZL: As you look for talent, what position do you most need to fill in the coming year and why? AM: We are growing in all market segments and geogra- phies. We need to hire positions ranging from entry-level to senior. Hiring at the top levels is likely going to be the most challenging. TZL: Diversifying the portfolio is never a bad thing. What are the most recent steps you’ve taken to broaden your revenue streams? AM: We are adding service lines within existing markets, practices, and geographies. We are sticking to what we know and do well, but expanding the breadth of services and do- ing it in new geographies. TZL: The list of responsibilities for project managers is seemingly endless. How do you keep your PMs from burning out? And if they crash, how do you get them back out on the road, so to speak? AM: We aren’t seeing this, but this may be because we limit the number of projects they have and provide them strong task leads to help manage the project. TZL: What is the role of entrepreneurship in your firm? AM: We expect our staff to be entrepreneurial. We bring added value to our clients through the identification of their needs and how we can address those needs. To support the
development of value-added ideas, we provide “grants” for staff to pursue ideas that might bring value to our clients. TZL: In the next couple of years, what A/E segments will heat up, and which ones will cool down? AM: Energy work is heating up, particularly pipeline de- sign and electrical grid improvements. This industry is bud- geting for their infrastructure improvements. Public infra- structure will continue at its current pace without any pub- lic support for infrastructure funding. TZL: Measuring the effectiveness of marketing is diffi- cult to do using hard metrics for ROI. How do you evalu- ate the success/failure of your firm’s marketing efforts when results could take months, or even years, to mate- rialize? Do you track any metrics to guide your market- ing plan? AM: We track the number of RFPs that we are invited to submit and our hit rate on all proposals submitted. TZL: The last few years have been good for the A/E indus- try. Is there a downturn in the forecast, and if so, when and to what severity? AM: I thought there would be a downturn in 2018, howev- er I now believe that downturn won’t happen until 2019 or even 2020. I’m not expecting it to be too severe. “Firms are going to have determine whether a reduced organic growth rate will allow them to achieve their strategic goals. If not, they should be prepared to pay a premium for acquisitions that will allow them to add the skill sets necessary to meet their strategic goals.” TZL: While M&A is always an option, there’s something to be said about organic growth. What are your thoughts on why and how to grow a firm? AM: It depends on why a firm wants to grow and how big they want to be. Organic growth is going to become more difficult as recruiting staff is getting more difficult. Firms are going to have to determine whether a reduced organic growth rate will allow them to achieve their strategic goals. If not, they should be prepared to pay a premium for acqui- sitions that will allow them to add the skill sets necessary to meet their strategic goals. TZL: Do you use historical performance data or metrics to establish project billable hours and how does the type of contract play into determining the project budget?
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ruary 5, 2018, ISSUE 1234
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