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CONFERENCE CALL, from page 7
BI: I’ve been with this firm for almost 30 years, and I cred- it our founding principal with identifying opportunities where I could be successful, then supporting me with re- sources in a manner proportional to the degree I remained engaged making progress. I intend to uphold that tradition and continue to tweak our structure to create unique envi- ronments where you can show the firm “your stuff.” Beyond that, we want to take care of our people with good policies, top of market compensation and benefits, useful feedback loops, challenging projects, strong teams to work within, and solid examples of leadership to profile. Firms that openly promote respect, recognition, and relationship will get it done. If we promote an environment that respects people, recognizes good work, and fosters positive relation- ships, we’ll get it done, too. But I also won’t kid myself; we can’t be everything to ev- erybody, and I simply refuse to chase every demand. I’m a staunch believer in writing your own ticket, and if you have ambition, the firm will be right there to help you succeed. But if you think you’re a hotshot and need special treat- ment, this firm isn’t for you. We’ll invest heavily in people who are smart and want to get smarter, who are humble and work well in teams, and who are hungry for success. I believe culture is what you make of it in the moment, not some nebulous ideal that someone else should provide for you. TZL: What scares you about the geopolitical environ- ment today? BI: Just the general uncertainty of it all. Personally, I be- lieve we can make our own successes with tactical manage- ment even in the face of headwinds. However, I hear at least once a day that a recession is coming this year and that the economy is strong and has a lot of runway left. So, I do two things: Read everything I can get my hands on to stay cur- rent, then ignore the noise and focus on the next thing that will improve our firm. TZL: Are you currently pursuing the R&D tax credit? BI: We are. This was brought to our attention by our new ac- counting firm and we’re encouraged by the tax credit possi- bilities they’ve discovered so far. Since a large part of what we do is managing multi-disciplinary project delivery teams as the prime consultant, we’ve been told we’ll likely qualify, and they’re figuring out the how-much part right now. Fin- gers crossed! challenging projects, strong teams to work within, and solid examples of leadership to profile. Firms that openly promote respect, recognition, and relationship will get it done.” “We want to take care of our people with good policies, top of market compensation and benefits, useful feedback loops,
We recently completed an energizing five-year strategic planning process that everyone in the firm participated in. It outlines a balanced scorecard of improvement objectives with opportunities to dig in to what interests you the most. We just rolled that out at the beginning of 2019 and it’s my hope that the business practice engagement increases even more as the strategic plan evolves. “We can’t be everything to everybody, and I simply refuse to chase every demand. I’m a staunch believer in writing your own ticket, and if you have ambition, the firm will be right there to help you succeed. But if you think you’re a hotshot and need special treatment, this firm isn’t for you.” There is also broad participation in the assembly of our an- nual business plan, which formulates hiring plans, business development strategies, sales targets, revenue and prof- it metrics, and expense budgets for each of our five work- groups. We report against this plan monthly, sharing finan- cial performance data to everyone, and then quarterly, we review the firm’s overall performance in person with the whole firm, focusing on our culture, design innovation, cli- ent success stories, and our finances. Day to day, we mentor interested staff on a wide variety of business lessons, from how to prepare detailed project bud- gets for a new client to maintaining a profitable client-base over the long-term. We provide live project data on every- one’s desktop to manage against, so there’s little excuse to blindly tank a project. TZL: The seller-doer model is very successful, but with growth you need to adapt to new models. What is your program? BI: The seller-doer model has been the foundation for our long-term success and we don’t plan to stray very far from this model. To keep this model effective as we grow, we need to “remain small” at the same time. It’s critical for us to maintain the relationship of our repeat customers, which account for a high percentage of our work. But to grow, we need to pursue clients and projects that pro- file our skill sets and values. To do that, we deploy a broad sales team, and each member contributes in ways that en- gage their best skills and passions. For example, the man- aging principals of our workgroups are, in general, wired to pursue new business, so they lead many of the competitive RFQ/Ps we choose to pursue. They are directly responsible for building and maintaining their workgroup’s backlog, so they tend to manage fewer projects directly. Other mem- bers of our sales team excel at research, publishing articles, or public speaking, but everyone contributes. TZL: A firm’s longevity is valuable. What are you doing to encourage your staff to stick around?
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THE ZWEIG LETTER April 22, 2019, ISSUE 1293
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