Architecture & Engineering Business Strategies

Digital is taking over the working world, and it’s time for your company to catch up. More and more, clients are clamoring for digital-based options, but many businesses are reluctant to shift their policies to accommodate new technology. On the latest Best Practice, Shane Burger, principal and director of technical innovation at Woods Bagot, shares how to accommodate digital culture at your workplace so you can keep up with the competition.

Interview Takeaways

• Make your data work for you
• Modernize your thinking
• Build an experience with the client
• Prioritize your client’s concerns
• Help your people connect
• Involve everyone in innovation
• Organize your operations
• Create a positive community culture
• Cooperate to succeed
• Prepare for change now
• Develop your people’s abilities
• Reduce your carbon footprint

Show Links

• Connect with Shane Burger on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Check out Woods Bagot
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

Launching an office in a new city requires a solid operations team and a structured plan for growth. Moody Nolan’s New York City office started with four people just over a year ago and now it has 20. The secret to that fast success? Delivering high-quality projects to the clients you have. It’s the best marketing tool to achieve steady growth. In this Best Practice interview, Associate Principal and Director of NY Operations Latoya Nelson Kamdang and Senior Associate and Project Manager Dawne David-Pierre talked to us about launching operations in New York City and how they’ve grown with excellence.

Interview Takeaways

• Focus on the clients you have
• Involve PMs from the beginning
• Approach each client individually
• Offer diversity to a big city
• Let the larger firm support you
• Justify staff growth
• Hire senior-level employees first
• Merge design into a business
• Use office time to learn each other’s processes
• Collaborate in person
• Share clients and talent across offices
• Communicate when clients’ values are misaligned with yours

Show Links

• Connect with Latoya Nelson Kamdang on LinkedIn 
• Connect with Dawne David-Pierre on LinkedIn 
• Check out Moody Nolan
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

Midsize architecture firms face unique threats to their longevity compared to small and large firms. Mega firms seem poised to gobble them up, and it’s hard to compete with extra large firms that offer far more services. There’s also the issue of leadership transition. Many midsize firms that started off small and haven’t given enough thought to how they’ll evolve into the future with new leaders. Without a plan, there is no future. But all is not lost. In this Best Practice episode, Kirsten Sibilia, managing principal of Dattner Architects, discusses how midsize firms can do more than just survive. They can grow with health and vitality.

Interview Takeaways

• Be proactive against threats to midsize firms
• Aspire to a variety of work
• Let go of certain tasks in order to grow
• Gauge your success with KPIs
• Use your website to show who you are
• Use your website to amplify your brand
• Approach recruitment like marketing
• Share information and communication
• Recognize marketing’s value
• Open up paths for leadership
• Create peer connections at larger firms
• Define your needs before hiring

Show Links

• Connect with Kirsten Sibilia on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Check out Dattner Architects
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

The idea of a $20 billion budget can make your head spin. But in the right hands, that kind of funding can accomplish a world of good. That’s exactly the mission of Angel Dizon, Managing Director of the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations. While the government may get a bad rap from time to time, there’s a steady revolution happening from within the OBO department. Angel joined us on Best Practice to explain how an embassy is so much more than just a building, how his team goes about solving complex problems, and why working in government leads to more opportunity than meets the eye.

Interview Takeaways

• Recognize what you can accomplish with a billion-dollar budget
• Remember that US buildings are symbolic
• The Embassy Effect
• Make a positive social impact
• Educate others on the true meaning of architecture
• Create buildings that can last for decades
• Hire people with passion and perseverance
• Identify future drivers of the built environment
• The professional perks of working for the government
• The power of peer-to-peer collaboration
• Redefine “good enough for the government”
• Seek employees with a good attitude

Show Links

• Connect with Angel A. Dizon, III on LinkedIn
• Check out the Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

You own your career trajectory. Whatever field you’re in, you have the power to make your work stand out, so clients take notice and want more. It takes a little daring and a strong stomach for risks (and the inevitable failure), says Gregg Pasquarelli, founding principal at SHoP architects. In this Best Practice interview, Gregg explains why as long as you pick yourself up and learn something from every project, you’ll keep advancing your business—and your industry—at the same time.

Interview Takeaways

• Know the financials of your industry
• Tell a compelling story 
• Blow up the last 10%
• Get some skin in the game
• Take risks to expand your opportunity
• Go the extra mile
• Don’t say “We can’t!”
• Do it yourself
• Pull the positive from failures
• Mitigate risk by doing a good job
• Set aside time to recharge
• Get your ideas out there

Show Links

• Connect with Gregg Pasquerelli on LinkedIn 
• Check out SHoP
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

A growing number of firms are combining two major responsibilities into one role: chief operating officer and sustainability director. It’s a lot to juggle in a small firm, let alone a quickly growing one spread across multiple cities. But Allen Schaffer, COO and Director of Sustainability at Moody Nolan, has handled the two roles for almost two years now as they’ve expanded into new markets. In this Best Practice interview, Allen discusses the ways the two roles overlap and how they differ, how the firm is managing growth, and how success all comes down to having a plan and communicating.

Interview Takeaways

• Find the overlap in operations and sustainability
• Juggle the differences between two roles
• Look internally for operations and sustainability roles
• Engage in responsive architecture
• Strive for structured growth
• Lean into diversity
• Deliver solutions to clients and your team
• Monitor and adjust to stay on budget
• Use communication to stay on track
• Create strategic plans for sustainability
• Find consultants who challenge you
• Care deeply and look for others who do too

Show Links

• Check out Moody Nolan
• Connect with Allen Schaffer on LinkedIn 
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

In the workplace, collaboration is the glue that holds a company together. But getting your employees to function as a cohesive unit is a unique challenge, especially in the design and architectural world. So how can you get a bunch of creative individuals to create solutions as a collective force? It begins with your workplace environment. In this Section Cut interview, Elaine Molinar, partner and managing director at Snøhetta, and Partner and Landscape Architect Michelle Delk share the importance of collaboration and how to encourage collective intuition in your business.

Interview Takeaways

• Good design won’t automatically equal financial success
• Approach design with a work-together mentality
• Learn how to scale as an employer
• Aim for work-life integration over work-life balance
• Opposing viewpoints are equally valuable
• Refresh your mind by taking breaks
• Gain second-hand experience through your peers
• Cultivate a collaborative mindset
• Set aside your individual point of view
• Let go of the fear of looking foolish
• Set your design in motion through site planning
• Nurture the next generation

Show Links

• Connect with Elaine Molinar on LinkedIn
• Connect with Michelle Delk on LinkedIn
• Check out Snøhetta
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Check out Section Cut
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

Today’s business landscape calls for new and disruptive ways of doing things. You wouldn’t typically think of placing a software professional at the helm of an architecture firm. But that’s exactly what Rossmann Architecture did when they tapped Shane Balcom for the role of Managing Director. Thanks to new ways of operating from the ground up and the adoption of tech tools like Monograph, the team at Rossmann has grown from 14 employees to 33 in just one year.

Interview Takeaways

• Think outside your vertical to scale
• Dial in your tech deck
• Efficiency is good for business
• Incentivize staff with bonus targets
• Get into a forecasting rhythm
• Align your company culture
• Build strong habits with Monograph
• Let Monograph enable hyper-growth
• Pivot structure as you grow
• Keep ops on pace with billable growth
• Design a different practice

Show Links

• Connect with Shane Balcom on LinkedIn
• Check out Rossmann Architecture Inc.
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Check out Monograph
• Check out Section Cut
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

When the focal point of your work is design justice, your processes look a bit different than the average design firm. For one thing, processes need to be simultaneously more efficient and also more unique. When you’re seeking diverse voices and shaping public spaces, steps like community outreach are complex and time-consuming, making efficiency key. At the same time, conducting radical thinking and seeking to overturn past injustices requires brand new modes of operation. Bryan C. Lee Jr. is the CEO and principal of Colloqate Design, a firm focused on shifting the power dynamics inherent in the built environment. In this Section Cut interview, he described the type of work Colloqate does, and why thinking about processes is so important.

Interview Takeaways

• Understand the implications of architecture
• All power dynamics are tied to the land
• Design justice requires radical thinking
• Think outside of architecture processes
• Serve diverse communities
• Prioritize the outreach process
• Focus on public spaces
• Justice is greater than equality
• Engage with stakeholders
• Consider the communities you serve
• The value of efficient work

Show Links

• Check out Colloqate Design 
• Connect with Bryan C. Lee Jr. on LinkedIn 
• Connect with George Valdes on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Chris Morgan on LinkedIn 
• Check out Monograph
• Check out Section Cut
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph 

Does this sound familiar? You need to bring in more clients to your practice to increase your revenue, but you don’t know if the money and time you spend on marketing will bring the right results. That’s where performance marketing comes in. It’s a measurable, concrete way to drive new business to your practice. Performance marketing is a comprehensive term for marketing and advertising where you only pay when a certain action occurs. You set a budget and know exactly what you’ll get for that price. In this Section Cut interview, Hope Trory, founder of HOPEWORKSDESIGN, outlines the steps you need to take to build a performance marketing strategy and enjoy the benefits.

Interview Takeaways

• Invest in data-driven marketing
• Be proactive and save time
• Know your acronyms
• Calculate LTV
• Find out your CAC
• Generate brand awareness
• Increase website traffic and retarget
• Increase engagement and conduct lead generation
• Choose your digital channels
• Create, then measure
• Only pay for the actions you want
• Be confident in your ROI

Show Links

• Check out HOPEWORKSDESIGN 
• Connect with Hope Trory on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Connect with Joann Lui on LinkedIn or Twitter
• Check out Monograph
• Check out Section Cut
• Follow Monograph on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Listen and read more about Monograph