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OHM Advisors staff in Detroit.
Conference call: John Hiltz President of OHM Advisors (Hot Firm #25 for 2017), a 440-person engineering and architecture firm based in Michigan.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent
“M any firms tried to cut their way to success,” says Hiltz, looking back at the Great Reces- sion. “We were fortunate and pushed for growth during the worst of times. I think the decision to focus on maintaining our team during difficult times truly paid off.” A CONVERSATION WITH JOHN HILTZ. The Zweig Letter: 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? John Hiltz: Although I would like to say this never happens, this is a definite reality that we’ve all ex- perienced. There’s always the temptation to over- load the star performers. That said, we have tak- en the time to step back and better define job du- ties and responsibilities for all of our roles, includ- ing our PMs. Additionally, as we have grown, we’re finding that we need to shepherd individuals to let go of roles that no longer bring the greatest corpo- rate contribution. We’ve found that the PM role is
much more manageable when not combined with a department director and/or a BD role. TZL: What is the role of entrepreneurship in your firm? JH: Cultivating a spirit of innovative thinking and creation of new opportunities is a core focus of the firm, so we continue to foster a culture that en- courages and rewards this behavior. Interestingly, our Environmental Water Resources Group – one of our largest disciplines in the firm today – was formed as a direct result of a small group of indi- viduals who embraced this entrepreneurial spirit. They saw an unfilled client need and started offer- ing new services to our clients. Today, the services we offer through this team are truly a differentiator for OHM Advisors. Innovating thinking and entre- preneurship is not only a passion we need to feed, but also, the results bring great value to our clients. TZL: In the next couple of years, what A/E seg- ments will heat up, and which ones will cool down? JH: For public sector work, my hope is that strong
John Hiltz, President, OHM Advisors
THE ZWEIG LETTER Ap
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