6
Ayl
P R O F I L E
Conference call: Robert Aylward President and CEO of Jones|Carter (Best Firm Multidiscipline #17 and Hot Firm #18 for 2016), a 465-person engineering firm based in Houston, Texas.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent “T he board must conduct itself as a board and not as a management committee,” Aylward says. “Day-to-day execution has to be left to the or- ganization’s management team.” “You have to create an environment that offers challenging work, clear career paths, meaningful rewards, and an exciting and relevant corporate culture.” A CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT AYLWARD. The Zweig Letter: What is your philosophy on fee/billing and accounts receivable? How do you collect fees from a difficult client?
Robert Aylward: Every business must be focused on cash management. As a technical labor selling business, it’s important that we manage our bill- ing process such that we generate timely and proj- ect-appropriate invoices. Issuing those invoices is another step in the client communications proto- col and, if done properly, should be well received and understood by the client. Collection matters are more easily managed by setting proper expec- tations with the client at the beginning of the proj- ect. Understanding how the project will be fund- ed, the success criteria used by the client and the key variables that can impact scope, schedule, and fee can go a long way to creating a healthy work- ing relationship that produces smooth collections. If by “difficult client” you mean a client that is not paying their invoice or paying very slowly, we ap- proach those situations by first determining if we are meeting all the client’s project expectations. If problems or miscommunications have arisen, then
Robert Aylward, Presi- dent and CEO, Jones|Carter
THE ZWEIG LETTER Mar
Made with FlippingBook Annual report