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Conference call: Mark Israel President and CEO of Universal Engineering Sciences (Hot Firm #85 for 2016), a 715-person multi-discipline firm based in Orlando, Florida.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Correspondent “W e make a distinction between marketing and sales,” Israel says. “We believe market- ing is the process of putting yourself in position to make the sale, and that sales is the actual sale of business.” A CONVERSATION WITH MARK ISRAEL. The Zweig Letter: The A/E market is great right now. What are you doing to cushion your firm in the event of a downturn? Mark Israel: Prior to the last downturn, due to sev- eral market forces (some good, some not so good) our workload was more heavily weighted to private work than we prefer. Just prior to the downturn, we started focusing on servicing major projects as
well as design-build highway work. We have been very fortunate in both arenas in that we have won more than our share. We’re currently very busy in both private- and public-sector work which should help cushion against a downturn. Additionally, our balance sheet is better now than before the down- turn and we feel we have better tools to more quick- ly identify a downturn. TZL: Monthly happy hours and dog friendly of- fices. What do today’s CEOs need to know about today’s workforce? MI: We’re always reading about ping-pong tables at work, happy hours, and ice cream parties. Other than holiday parties and the occasional barbecue or ballgame outing, we do very little of this. That said, several of our offices have won multiple best plac- es to work awards. While today’s workforce may be
Mark Israel, President & CEO, Univer- sal Engineer- ing Sciences
THE ZWEIG LETTER Octo
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