For anyone contemplating a transition, or frankly for anyone who has not yet considered their exit strategy but should, this one-hour aecKnowledge course is well worth your time. The speaker covers the topic of Ownership and Leadership Transitions in a clear and concise fashion for AEC professionals.Read the full review on Industry Speaks.
The most important factor to consider is whether or not an owner who is contemplating succession planning should merge with another firm or transition from within...
Showing posts with label Ownership Transition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ownership Transition. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Ownership and Leadership Transitions: aecKnowledge course reviewed on Industry Speaks
Lisa Sachs, author of "What Is Your Construction Management IQ?" and managing principal at Cumming, published a course review on Industry Speaks. Excerpt:
Thursday, May 2, 2013
What's Your Problem? - Part 2
We all have problems. By sharing them, we can all learn. Here are more challenges and questions from the AEC community:
Any advice for Business Development in a firm as it looks towards a transition in ownership?
Do a business plan. Transition is a tough time and it is not quick. We have two clients in various stages of transition (three years out and five years out). We completed business plans for each in order to help them define the “new firm,” its brand and management. We also identified the leadership development that will need to take place during that time horizon.
Transition is often a time to change or expand markets. For your firm, then, there must be a business development or sales plan that attempts to bridge the experience and history of the "old" firm with its new market focus and client commitments going forward. New and emerging leaders must be part of the strategy and the client meetings.
Finally, it is important to develop a marketing and public relations plan that articulates the "new brand" and firm direction so that clients aren't afraid of the transition and what it means to them.
The completed plans will take time to implement; you will also need time buy out shares and develop and transition leaders. Because of the time and effort involved in transition, don’t be averse to having a consultant help you.
How can firms leverage other staff to develop business for their firm? How can a firm mentor employees to also be business developers as they work on projects and in their communities?
Business development is not an action. It is a culture. The organization must build the framework of a BD culture which includes making BD a part of everyone’s role and responsibility—and make sure to include the administrative assistants. I think the easiest thing to do is to develop small and achievable goals for low- and emerging-level staff such as networking with peer-to-peer groups to find out what others are doing. But, there has to be a top down program in order for it to work, otherwise everyone is doing their own, uncoordinated thing.
Does branding have an increasingly important role?
IF what you mean by branding is the PROMISE that comes along with the work of your firm—excellence, service delivery, collaboration, cost effective—YES. If you mean logos and slogan—NO. Unfortunately, about five years ago the word “branding” started mean everything from the logo to the graphics on your web page. A real BRAND is the promise that comes along with the name. If the firm’s brand (its PROMISE) is weak, then your sales strategy will struggle unless or until it is resolved.
Got more questions? Send them along to me at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com. And for more information, see the AIA PMKC webinar Wisdom of the Ages: Best Practices in Business Development Part 2. This popular series and other resources are available on A3K Consulting's "Inform" webpage.
Any advice for Business Development in a firm as it looks towards a transition in ownership?
Do a business plan. Transition is a tough time and it is not quick. We have two clients in various stages of transition (three years out and five years out). We completed business plans for each in order to help them define the “new firm,” its brand and management. We also identified the leadership development that will need to take place during that time horizon.
Transition is often a time to change or expand markets. For your firm, then, there must be a business development or sales plan that attempts to bridge the experience and history of the "old" firm with its new market focus and client commitments going forward. New and emerging leaders must be part of the strategy and the client meetings.
Finally, it is important to develop a marketing and public relations plan that articulates the "new brand" and firm direction so that clients aren't afraid of the transition and what it means to them.
The completed plans will take time to implement; you will also need time buy out shares and develop and transition leaders. Because of the time and effort involved in transition, don’t be averse to having a consultant help you.
How can firms leverage other staff to develop business for their firm? How can a firm mentor employees to also be business developers as they work on projects and in their communities?
Business development is not an action. It is a culture. The organization must build the framework of a BD culture which includes making BD a part of everyone’s role and responsibility—and make sure to include the administrative assistants. I think the easiest thing to do is to develop small and achievable goals for low- and emerging-level staff such as networking with peer-to-peer groups to find out what others are doing. But, there has to be a top down program in order for it to work, otherwise everyone is doing their own, uncoordinated thing.
Does branding have an increasingly important role?
IF what you mean by branding is the PROMISE that comes along with the work of your firm—excellence, service delivery, collaboration, cost effective—YES. If you mean logos and slogan—NO. Unfortunately, about five years ago the word “branding” started mean everything from the logo to the graphics on your web page. A real BRAND is the promise that comes along with the name. If the firm’s brand (its PROMISE) is weak, then your sales strategy will struggle unless or until it is resolved.
Got more questions? Send them along to me at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com. And for more information, see the AIA PMKC webinar Wisdom of the Ages: Best Practices in Business Development Part 2. This popular series and other resources are available on A3K Consulting's "Inform" webpage.
Karen Compton, CPSM. Karen Compton is principal of A3K Consulting
(Glendale, CA), a business development and strategic planning firm specializing
in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Ms. Compton is also
the founder of Industry Speaks™, a web-based business-to-business portal that connects AEC firms with experienced consultants, provides peer reviews of consultants, reports on key industry trends, and publishes expert reviews of professional courses and books. Contact her at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Follow You Where?
Even our readers who aren’t familiar with the Bible can appreciate this analogy. The Bible speaks of a time when the Lord told Abraham to pick up his belongings and be led to a land of promise. Abraham picked up everything he had without any idea where he was going, and followed. The punch line is: You are not the Lord! You cannot ask your staff to follow you without communicating a plan and without direction.
A Business Plan is a necessary part of your business. It is not optional. It defines where you want to go as a business, and the needs and expectations of your staff as you all set out on this journey. Beyond these benefits, it prioritizes what you need to do and identifies milestones for achievement.
I have a wonderful and very successful client whose discipline shall remain unnamed. It really isn’t relevant. What is relevant is that he is CEO of a firm that does a lot of work with a particular public agency. Like most owners, he is a seller-doer. He sells the work and oversees its delivery back to his clients. On any given day, he deals with everything from lines of credit, to client meetings, new business endeavors, service delivery and mentoring. Sound familiar? It’s your life and mine. The problem is, as I explained to him, that he will go about the day-to-day requirements of running a business in the years ahead and never move any closer to the objectives he wants to achieve.
Do a Business Plan. You say, “But that takes too much time!” To which I retort, “Which is worse: spending 10 hours planning your future or waking up in ten years realizing you never achieved it?”
Learn from my client. He invested time in the development of a business plan. He defined priorities for himself and his staff because he finally focused on the larger goal: positioning his firm for an acquisition. Guess what? He’s well into his strategy and has grown his revenue and client base by 15% percent in what can only be called a bad economy. He didn’t do it because he was large and had a lot of resources. He did it because he took the time to plan for it. You can, too!
A Business Plan is a necessary part of your business. It is not optional. It defines where you want to go as a business, and the needs and expectations of your staff as you all set out on this journey. Beyond these benefits, it prioritizes what you need to do and identifies milestones for achievement.
I have a wonderful and very successful client whose discipline shall remain unnamed. It really isn’t relevant. What is relevant is that he is CEO of a firm that does a lot of work with a particular public agency. Like most owners, he is a seller-doer. He sells the work and oversees its delivery back to his clients. On any given day, he deals with everything from lines of credit, to client meetings, new business endeavors, service delivery and mentoring. Sound familiar? It’s your life and mine. The problem is, as I explained to him, that he will go about the day-to-day requirements of running a business in the years ahead and never move any closer to the objectives he wants to achieve.
Do a Business Plan. You say, “But that takes too much time!” To which I retort, “Which is worse: spending 10 hours planning your future or waking up in ten years realizing you never achieved it?”
Learn from my client. He invested time in the development of a business plan. He defined priorities for himself and his staff because he finally focused on the larger goal: positioning his firm for an acquisition. Guess what? He’s well into his strategy and has grown his revenue and client base by 15% percent in what can only be called a bad economy. He didn’t do it because he was large and had a lot of resources. He did it because he took the time to plan for it. You can, too!
Karen Compton, CPSM. Karen Compton is principal of A3K Consulting
(Glendale, CA), a business development and strategic planning firm specializing
in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Ms. Compton is also
the founder of Industry Speaks™, a web-based business-to-business portal that connects AEC firms with experienced consultants, provides peer reviews of consultants, reports on key industry trends, and publishes expert reviews of professional courses and books. Contact her at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
The Relationships That Matter
AEC firms focus on relationships. Architects are focused on owners. Owners are focused on contractors. Subs are focused on primes. But sometimes we lose sight of other relationships that require just as much nurturing as those that drive our sales. Those are the relationships that drive our businesses.
A client told me she wasn’t ready to sell her firm just yet. She was thinking about it, but she had a “long time to go.” The truth was her horizon wasn’t that far away—three years, five tops! As ridiculous as it sounded, I said to her, “Then now is the time to start looking for this firm you’d like to buy you.” She looked confused. I went on, “The best time to find a husband is when you don’t need one. And, the best time for you to seek an acquiring firm is when you don’t need one. If you wait, you’re going to end up with the abusive, drunken guy left at the bar at last call.” I’m pretty direct, and my analogy gave her pause.
“But where do I find my ‘husband’?” she asked. The truth is, we have changes to meet our future business partners at every turn: at conferences, trade shows, pre-proposal meetings. We often chose to ignore them until we need them, and then we are unable to articulate who they would be. Business partners are much like mates.
Find partners with whom you share a value set. An attorney friend commented to me that so many firms she represents in transactions claim that “fit is important,” but when the chips are down all they really look at are the assets. We both agreed that this is short-sighted. If assets and portfolio are the only criteria for evaluation, but values and cultural fit don’t mesh, we can be assured of only one outcome: the mid-level leadership will eventually leave. Why does that matter?
We’ve all been asked to list individual(s) who worked on a project in our portfolio. But if the mid-level leadership has left, the experience you will point towards won’t exist. In short, you “bought” projects on a page, but that’s really not what you paid for. It’s important to value not just the numbers and projects, but the people who made them possible. Which brings me to my final point (for now):
Define new goals to achieve together. Many transactions are focused on the money. I understand why. But in order to be sustainable, partnerships must find and understand what new goals can be achieved together that could not be achieved alone. Whether it is expanding into new sectors, new services, or new ideas, the union must, like a successful marriage, define its goals and work toward them as a team.
What am I suggesting? I’m not telling you to walk up to every stranger in a bar (or at a conference) and assess them as a business partner. I’m recommending that in your day-to-day efforts to develop sales relationships, seek out compatible prospects for business relationships. While it may not be clear today what you can do together, that competitor or complementary practitioner may prove to be your knight in shining armor!
A client told me she wasn’t ready to sell her firm just yet. She was thinking about it, but she had a “long time to go.” The truth was her horizon wasn’t that far away—three years, five tops! As ridiculous as it sounded, I said to her, “Then now is the time to start looking for this firm you’d like to buy you.” She looked confused. I went on, “The best time to find a husband is when you don’t need one. And, the best time for you to seek an acquiring firm is when you don’t need one. If you wait, you’re going to end up with the abusive, drunken guy left at the bar at last call.” I’m pretty direct, and my analogy gave her pause.
“But where do I find my ‘husband’?” she asked. The truth is, we have changes to meet our future business partners at every turn: at conferences, trade shows, pre-proposal meetings. We often chose to ignore them until we need them, and then we are unable to articulate who they would be. Business partners are much like mates.
Find partners with whom you share a value set. An attorney friend commented to me that so many firms she represents in transactions claim that “fit is important,” but when the chips are down all they really look at are the assets. We both agreed that this is short-sighted. If assets and portfolio are the only criteria for evaluation, but values and cultural fit don’t mesh, we can be assured of only one outcome: the mid-level leadership will eventually leave. Why does that matter?
We’ve all been asked to list individual(s) who worked on a project in our portfolio. But if the mid-level leadership has left, the experience you will point towards won’t exist. In short, you “bought” projects on a page, but that’s really not what you paid for. It’s important to value not just the numbers and projects, but the people who made them possible. Which brings me to my final point (for now):
Define new goals to achieve together. Many transactions are focused on the money. I understand why. But in order to be sustainable, partnerships must find and understand what new goals can be achieved together that could not be achieved alone. Whether it is expanding into new sectors, new services, or new ideas, the union must, like a successful marriage, define its goals and work toward them as a team.
What am I suggesting? I’m not telling you to walk up to every stranger in a bar (or at a conference) and assess them as a business partner. I’m recommending that in your day-to-day efforts to develop sales relationships, seek out compatible prospects for business relationships. While it may not be clear today what you can do together, that competitor or complementary practitioner may prove to be your knight in shining armor!
Karen Compton, CPSM, principal of A3K Consulting
(Glendale, CA), a business development and strategic planning firm specializing
in the architecture, engineering and construction industries. Ms. Compton is also
the founder of Industry Speaks™, a web-based business-to-business portal that connects AEC firms with experienced consultants, provides peer reviews of consultants, reports on key industry trends, and publishes expert reviews of professional courses and books. Contact her at kcompton@a3kconsulting.com.
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