Management
How Trust Affects Business
This week, we were finalizing a contract with a first-time customer when a breakout number of the total contract value changed by a relatively small amount. Our project manager felt the…
Management
Success: Finding the Right Customers and Keeping Them
A number of years ago, I had the pleasure of hearing an address by Charles Cawley. He started his business on a shoestring in an empty A&P food store. This…
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Long Haul Reading
There are a zillion books out there on business that we all think we need to read to be successful. To me, the standouts are those that help us in…
Management
Growth Presents New Challenges
The purpose of any businesses is to grow. The last few years have been tough in this department, but remember how it was in the good ole days of last…
Management
Slow and Steady (Usually) Wins the Race
I’ve recently been working on a project with one of our customers. Everyone is in a hurry to complete the submittal before a real estate committee meeting. All parties are…
Management
True Grit.
Charles Portis penned the novel True Grit in 1968. It was subsequently made into a movie in 1969 and a remake was released in 2010. The story is of a…
Management
BIM, IPD and Project Efficiency Lessons Learned
We are about to start a project that has been in the pre-construction stages for two years. We’ve used of a couple of relatively new tools during this planning period: BIM…
Management
Playbooks vs. Torpedoes: Which Management Style Wins?
Peter Drucker, a great thinker in management theory and practice, was often quoted on the importance of shaping “the futures that have already happened.” As we are seeing this Recession…
Management
Corporate Culture: What Does Your Team Value?
We are hiring for a new senior level project management position. The process has us thinking on many levels, including how candidates would fit into our team dynamic. I was…
Management
How the Economy is Remodeling Office Space
A few weeks ago, I was showing the former President of the San Francisco AIA Chapter around our offices. He has done design work for Google and other .coms. His first comment: “Wow,…