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marketing and business development. Lastly, we have intentionally developed highly-diversified services and clients, and this has served us well in past economic slowdowns. TZL: Are you using the R&D tax credit? If so, how is it working for your firm? If not, why not? BW: Yes. We’ve pursued this credit the last two years and it appears to be working well so far. TZL: It is often said that people leave managers, not companies. What are you doing to ensure that your line leadership are great people managers? BW: Because this is such an important topic, we’ve always emphasized soft skills with our managers, and we are now developing a formal in-house people management/development training program for all of our personnel managers. “There are times when we ask people to stretch when we have reason to believe that it’s a relatively short-term spike in work. Asking people to stretch for a prolonged period is inconsistent with our values and can lead to the departure of a good person.” TZL: Does your firm work closely with any higher education institutions to gain access to the latest technology, experience, and innovation and/or recruiting to find qualified resources? BW: Yes. We partner with several regional, higher education institutions – mostly in the form of providing technical presentations to students at different times throughout the year. This provides us with an opportunity to engage with students pursuing degrees in the fields where we practice, as well as an opportunity for the students to learn more about our company and our people. TZL: How often do you valuate your firm and what key metrics do you use in the process? Do you valuate using in- house staff or is it outsourced? BW: We conduct an annual valuation and it’s performed by a third-party accounting

firm. The valuation includes several different factors and multiple methods, but is weighted most heavily upon three- year trailing earnings. TZL: What financial metrics do you monitor to gauge the health of your firm? BW: We examine employee engagement survey results, utilization, overhead rate, census, gross profit percentage, revenue, effective multiplier, and average billing rate. In terms of planning and projections, we look most closely at weekly sales, proposal activity and backlog trends. TZL: Ownership transition can be tricky, to say the least. What’s the key to ensuring a smooth passing of the baton? What’s the biggest pitfall to avoid? BW: We are amid a formal 10-year succession plan to enable the divestiture of some of ARM’s original principals. In my view, some of the keys to success are planning for the transition far in advance, developing a detailed plan that garners a firm commitment from company leadership, sticking to the plan, and making sure you are actively developing the next generation of leaders to facilitate project, client, and knowledge transition and succession. The succession and development plan for replacing key senior principals is critically important and must begin many years before planned retirements. TZL: You want high utilization for profitability, but that means employees are fully loaded with assignments. How do you balance growth, utilization, new clients, and new hires? BW: This is one of the most challenging balancing acts in consulting. In simple terms, we look at individual and practice area utilization and backlog relative to staffing to make decisions about whether to hire. We’re very sensitive to avoiding burnout and, consequently, we work hard to balance and/or rebalance workloads on a regular basis. We generally hire when backlog is strong and when practice area utilization or position utilization is elevated for an extended period. However, we will also hire what we consider to be outstanding candidates even if backlog and utilization don’t justify it, as we’ve found that these exceptional candidates end up staying busy. See STEWARDSHIP, page 8

HEADQUARTERS: Hershey, PA NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 210 YEAR FOUNDED: 1998 OFFICE LOCATIONS: ❚ ❚ Hershey, PA ❚ ❚ Columbia, MD ❚ ❚ State College, PA ❚ ❚ Pittsburgh, PA ❚ ❚ Lehigh Valley, PA ❚ ❚ Boston, MA ❚ ❚ Mechanicsburg, PA ❚ ❚ Johnstown, PA ❚ ❚ Jamesburg, NJ ❚ ❚ Jessup, PA SERVICES: ❚ ❚ Environmental investigation, design, remediation, and compliance ❚ ❚ Solid waste disposal and processing facility permitting, design, compliance support, and construction-phase engineering ❚ ❚ Civil and geotechnical engineering services ❚ ❚ Water resources planning and management ❚ ❚ Natural resource studies, permitting, and mitigation ❚ ❚ Geophysical surveys ❚ ❚ Oil and gas exploration and production support ❚ ❚ Renewable energy SAFETY COME FIRST: Safety is ARM’s number one corporate priority. Over its 20 year history, ARM has earned a superior safety record despite the magnitude of field operations conducted by its professionals. Exemplary safety records are the product of a safety culture in which the stakeholders have “bought in.”

ember 2, 2019, ISSUE 1322

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