Business Strategy Archives - Friedman & Partners

The Digital Asset Challenge: Using Technology to Improve Organization & Efficiency

One of the most challenging aspects of marketing and business development in the AEC industry is the organization, management, and accessibility of digital assets, including project photographs, headshots, renderings, and other imagery. Increasingly, AEC firms are turning to technology to solve this challenge. In this edition of The Friedman File, we explore how digital asset management (DAM) technology can increase efficiency, enhance proposal preparation, and reduce frustration for your marketing and business development team.

What is DAM, and Why Don’t More Firms Use It?

For architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms, efficiently organizing and retrieving digital assets is essential to successful marketing and business development. Yet many firms still rely on outdated systems or manually curated folders that limit productivity, create redundancy, and strain resources during high-stakes proposal preparation.

Digital asset management (DAM) systems streamline this process by providing a centralized, searchable platform that accelerates workflows, […]

By Rich Friedman|2024-11-11T09:56:11-05:00November 2024|Business Development, Business Strategy, Case Studies, Marketing & Branding|

Technology as a Competitive Edge for A/E/C Firms

A trend I’ve noticed in the last few years is the rising number of A/E/C firms with technology-based subsidiaries or divisions. This extends beyond the common tools used by architects, scientists and engineers, such as 3D modeling or CADD, to owning technology processes or products used in project delivery that have traditionally been a reimbursable item or subconsultant service.

This issue of The Friedman File outlines some of the benefits and challenges of this growing practice, with examples from the experiences of two industry-leading firms that have made this leap.

Opportunity Knocked

Environmental Science Associates (ESA) is a 700-employee environmental consulting firm with 21 offices across California, the Pacific Northwest, and the Southeast. In late 2021, it acquired 36-person Sitka Technology Group, which develops and manages knowledge infrastructure for conservation, restoration and sustainable development. With Sitka as the centerpiece, ESA launched its new Technology Services Group […]

By Rich Friedman|2024-08-06T11:36:11-04:00May 2024|Business Strategy, Case Studies, Market/Client Research|

Living the Dream: PAE Engineers’ HQ Embodies an Aspirational Vision

PAE Engineers enjoys a unique symbol of its brand identity – the company’s Portland headquarters office, which is the world’s first developer-driven Living Building. In this edition of The Friedman File, we look at how 375-person PAE Engineers achieved the multiple benefits of creating a sustainable, resilient and cost-effective speculative mixed-use building that serves as its main office, as well as an investment property, marketing jewel and beacon of the firm’s vision, mission, principles and values.

PAE’s Living Building Challenge

The PAE Living Building is a five-story, 58,000-square-foot mixed-use building located in a historic neighborhood in Portland. Designed to last 500 years, the comfortable, modern and functional structure uses far less energy, water, and material than comparable buildings of its size. The largest commercial urban Living Building in the world, it “demonstrates how the built environment can achieve the deep and immediate carbon emission reductions […]

By Rich Friedman|2024-02-05T20:01:23-05:00February 2024|Business Strategy, Case Studies, Marketing & Branding, Recruiting & Retaining Talent|

Here Comes 2024: What’s the Outlook?

Predicting the outlook for the U.S. economy and its market sectors is never easy, but 2024 presents particularly difficult and unique challenges. Even if you assume that the dysfunction in Congress dissipates and the likely historic presidential race between a politically unpopular octogenarian incumbent, an antagonistic septuagenarian facing 91 criminal charges, and an outlying independent from Camelot is more a sideshow than a driver, 2024 still has its share of questions. Will inflation remain in check? Will the Fed continue to raise interest rates? How will the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East impact our economy? What’s China’s next move? What of the stock and bond markets? Nostradamus might call it quits faced with these uncertainties, but in this issue of The Friedman File, we fearlessly attempt to assess the various major markets served by A/E/C firms and venture an educated guess […]

By Rich Friedman|2023-11-07T09:55:57-05:00November 2023|Business Strategy, Market/Client Research|

Is EOS the Answer or the Leadership Flavor of the Month?

The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) is a hot topic in A/E/C leadership circles. Curiosity about the effectiveness of this 15-year-old management approach runs high at conferences, online discussion boards and other gatherings. In this edition of The Friedman File, we examine pros and cons of EOS with insight from two CEOs whose firms adopted it.

What is EOS?

As perfectly described by the website Ablison.com, “Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) is a framework designed to help companies achieve their goals by creating structure and discipline in their operations. It is a set of tools that encompasses various management concepts such as Six Sigma, lean manufacturing and total quality management.”

Founder and entrepreneur Gino Wickman hatched the concept for EOS while advising companies on business and leadership in the 1990s and early 2000s. He and co-founder Don Tinney launched EOS Worldwide in 2008. The company – of which […]

By Rich Friedman|2023-09-05T12:33:17-04:00September 2023|Business Strategy, Case Studies, Leadership|

The AI Dilemma: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help You (and Possibly Hurt You)

Few issues have dominated a news cycle the way that artificial intelligence (AI) has in 2023. The watershed moment was the release of ChatGPT, a transformative word processing tool that uses AI to quickly, efficiently and comprehensively answer questions posed to it. Almost immediately, people and businesses found myriad ways to use ChatGPT’s functionality to save time while developing written content and performing other tasks. In this issue of The Friedman File, we look at how some A/E/C firms are using AI, and what you should do – and shouldn’t do – to make it work for your firm.

BD & AI: Great Match or Mismatch?

Marketing and business development is the area most expected to benefit from the use of AI. While many firms are still in the investigation and discussion phase of figuring out how AI can benefit their marketing/BD effort, some firms […]

By Rich Friedman|2023-06-07T10:36:03-04:00June 2023|Business Strategy, Market/Client Research|

Here Comes 2023: What’s the Outlook?

The surprises of the midterm election are behind us, and the uncertainty of 2023 lies ahead. In the last year, we experienced skyrocketing energy prices that eventually moderated, historically high inflation that has begun to temper, and major legislation kicking in that is likely to keep the good times rolling for many architecture, engineering and environmental consulting firms well into the future. In this issue of The Friedman File, we assess various markets served by A/E/C firms and venture an educated guess at their outlook for the coming year.

The Housing Divide

One of the biggest and most unexpected developments of late 2021 and early 2022 was the health of the housing construction market across all types. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index stood at a near-record-high level of 83 in January 2022, but gradually began to drop as the year […]

By Rich Friedman|2022-12-05T11:37:15-05:00December 2022|Business Strategy, Market/Client Research|

Putting it on the Line: Equal Opportunity Theory in Practice

Policies promoting equal opportunity have long been standard in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, but putting these policies into practice is not as common. In this installment of The Friedman File, we examine how three firms elevated the spirit of equal opportunity into actions delivering tangible benefits.

A “Chance” Meeting

Three years ago, Al Spagnolo and Troy Depeiza were among a handful of architects competing for a project. Neither won. And both did.

Their chance meeting sparked a friendship and formal partnership that underscores the concepts on which the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) movement is based. Spagnolo’s multidiscipline design firm, SGA, is renowned for its work in life sciences and higher education. It celebrated its 30^th Anniversary in January. Depeiza founded DREAM Collaborative, LLC, in 2008 with fellow Caribbean-born architect Greg Minott, but it wasn’t until 2014 that the workload allowed them to […]

By Rich Friedman|2022-01-07T17:19:02-05:00January 2022|Business Strategy, Case Studies, Leadership, Marketing & Branding|

How Will Your Firm Handle a Cyberattack?

When discussing cyberattacks with anyone knowledgeable on the topic – security experts, victims, insurers, even the criminals themselves – their ominous warning is the same: it is not if your firm will be attacked, it’s when. In this issue of The Friedman File, we speak with two firms who suffered and survived the nightmare of a ransomware attack, and we offer several crucial steps that every firm should take to protect itself from this growing and potentially catastrophic threat.

A Threat to the Firm’s Existence

On Monday morning, March 25, 2019, Grimm & Parker Architects’ President & CEO Melanie Hennigan led a successful client interview for her firm. Satisfaction quickly turned to disbelief, then to dread when she was informed on the ride back to the office that her firm’s computer network had been encrypted by cybercriminals demanding an exorbitant ransom.

“You don’t realize the pit you feel in your […]

By Rich Friedman|2021-08-11T10:31:18-04:00August 2021|Business Strategy, Case Studies, Leadership|

Markets Rebounding, but Uncertainty Reigns for AEC Firms

These are confusing times for AEC firms wondering where their markets are heading. Most sectors are recovering as economies in the U.S., Canada and across the globe emerge from the pandemic-induced slowdown. Some – particularly in the commercial and educational spaces – continue to struggle in many locations. Add to this the threat of inflation in materials pricing leading to escalating project costs, and the potential of a $1.9 trillion U.S.-government-backed infrastructure package, and you have an industry in flux.

In this issue of The Friedman File, we assess the current state and outlook for the markets that AEC firms serve, as well as disruptors and catalysts that could dictate the health of the industry for the next several years.

Recovery in Full Swing

Since 2003, consulting and publishing firm PSMJ Resources, Inc. has surveyed its customers about the outlook for the major AEC markets, using […]

By Rich Friedman|2021-06-03T19:28:26-04:00June 2021|Business Strategy, Market/Client Research|