Posts filed under ‘Civil Engineering Companies’
3rd Annual “Best Civil Engineering Firm Logo” Contest
THE BEST LOGOS ARE WORTH MILLIONS OF DOLLARS…OR RECOGNITION FROM CIVILENGINEERINGCENTRAL.COM!
WE ARE EXCITED TO BRING TO YOU THE 3rd ANNUAL
THE GIST
- All nominated logos (tag lines should be included if you have one) must be from civil engineering firms who operate within the United States.
- If the logo has a story behind it, we would like to know about it.
- Logo nominations can be submitted via:
EMAIL: info@CivilEngineeringCentral.com
DIRECT TWEET: http://twitter.com/civilengineers
LINKEDIN: By responding directly to our announcements you see on any LinkedIn groups
CRITERIA
Logos will be judged on a sliding scale based on the following criteria:
- Does the logo make an immediate impact by grabbing one’s attention right off the bat?
- Is the logo memorable? Is it uniquely applicable to what the firm does – enough so that it will positively embed itself in the memory of clients, employees, peers, etc?
- Is the logo appealing to the eye?
- Does the logo accurately represent the company and its services?
- Does the nominated logo accurately represent the firm’s corporate and employment branding initiatives?
RETURNING JUDGES
- Ron Worth
Chief Executive Officer
Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS)
www.smps.org
- Dusty Burchnall
Owner
2 Fish
www.2fish.com
- Matt Barcus
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
- Carol Metzner
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
WINNER
Contest winner will be notified by CivilEngineeringCentral.com during the week of October 30th, 2011. Winner will receive:
- Corporate logo prominently displayed on CivilEngineeringCentral.com‘s December 2011 e-Newsletter (13,000+ distribution).
- One month as sponsor on ourLinkedIn Groupe-update, “The LinkedIngineer.” This e-update goes out twice a month to all 5,300 (and growing!) members of the Civil Engineering Central Group on LinkedIn.
- 10 free job postings on CivilEngineeringCentral.com + Featured Employer upgrade.
- Bragging rights until next year
DEADLINE
All entries must be received by October 31, 2011
NOTE
Gist, Criteria, Judges, Prizes & Deadline are subject to change without notice as determined by A/E/P Central, LLC, home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
Is Your Civil Engineering Firm Getting Squeezed?
Matt Barcus
President, Precision Executive Search, Inc
Managing Partner, CivilEngineeringCentral.com
View Matt’s profile & connect with him on LinkedIn
Last week I decided to reach out to a client that I had not spoken to in a few months. They are a very respectable mid-sized consulting civil engineering firm with a couple hundred employees spread over 7 or 8 offices. I had successfully completed a search earlier this year for them, but I knew they were having some cash flow problems based upon the current economic conditions. That said, I thought I would check in and see if they were seeing any light at the end of the tunnel . In checking in with the president, things were looking a little more rosier on some fronts and he was confident they would pull through this leeeeennnnnggggttttthhhhhyyyyyyy downturn with a strong team still in place and without getting knocked around the way many of his competitors have (not only is he a good engineer, but he is a better business man). In any event, we were talking shop and he began to educate me on their most recent hurdle – getting squeezed!
Now – the company has spent many years brewing up the perfect balance of public and private clients. On the private side, they are 25% commercial/25% industrial, and on the public side they are 25% transportation, 25% other government. Because of their diverse client base, they have been able to fight through these difficult times with a just a few bruises; but now they are getting squeezed…by municipalities, cities, and even by their main DOT client; a client that has recognized them as one of their top, if not THE top consultant for them over the past 15 years.
I know, I know, what do I mean by “squeezed?”
Well first of all, the DOT, as well as other government clients, have been cancelling contracts and absorbing much of the work that they had previously awarded…and started! So I get that; its happening in many different parts of the country, and I get the rhyme and reason behind it…I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I get it. So that is one way they are getting squeezed.
But now the state DOT is requiring that any prime consultant who bids for a project must have, not 2 or 3…not 4 or 5…but 6+ sub-consultants tied to the contract. Most states require civil engineering consultants to spread the wealth by teaming with DBE’s, MBE’s, etc. to help them get a piece of the action. But for a mid-sized company who is too big to chase the small stuff, and not large enough to go after the $100M projects, how can they expect to grow or expand, or even maintain for that matter with those types of restrictions? I will tell you, knowing this organization as well as I do, they will end up making lemonade out of the lemons that have been dealt to them, but my question to you is…
Is this fair? Is your civil engineering firm getting squeezed as well?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
Are you making others feel like they are on the outside, looking in?
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Ten Haken
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Strategies and Toolkit for the Sales-Engineering Interface
Connect With Babette On Linkedin 
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
There’s an art to building and maintaining client relationships. It’s more important than ever before. Clients are becoming more difficult to “win” and their loyalty is more elusive. And the definition of “client” encompasses those individuals within the workplace, your subcontractors and the companies who have contracted your products, services and capabilities.
There’s no room for elitism in client relationships. Your clients, subcontractors, co-workers and boss may admire your skill set and communication acumen. However, they did not hire you so they can worship you. They hired you for What’s In It For Me (WIFM): what you bring to the table and how you build their revenue stream.
Your “wow” solution or creative design allows people to appreciate you for understanding their needs. They assess your ability at communicating and asking good questions. They are delighted in your facility in translating these needs to the various technical disciplines involved in the project. And they will laud you and your company for producing output that not only solves their initial problem, but perhaps moves their company further along competitively as well.
So don’t ruin the momentum you, and your company, have created by “wearing” an attitude that communicates you are “too cool” for your clients. Or worse, that your clients are “too ignorant” for you to truly impart the sum total of your amazing skill set. Or that the language and principles of engineering and architecture are too far beyond the capacity of your clients (mere mortals) to understand. Oh, please. This is not the differentiator you want to establish no matter how good you are, how educated you are or how wonderful your solutions are. There’s someone to replace you right around the corner.
That’s not to say, alternatively, you should be your clients’ best friend, either. There is a fine line to maintaining professionalism while being accessible to the full range of your clients’ needs. Developing the extra set (or two) of professional “antenna” which allow you to assess the context of business decision making is crucial to building and maintaining client relationships. And while professionalism may extend into playing golf, providing tickets to events, and invitations to company social events, you still need to remember that you are hired by your clients (and your company, for that matter) to provide solutions, not companionship.
When it comes down to it, your client base doesn’t owe you anything after they pay their last invoice to your company. No matter how much they fawned over you during the course of the project. Regardless of whether or not they made you feel invincible and infallible during the course of the project. Repeat business isn’t guaranteed. And the context of the next project with this same client may not afford you anywhere near the same degree of familiarity as you encountered during the previous project.
Think about it.
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
Civil Engineering 2.0 – How Do You Measure Up?
Matt Barcus
President, Precision Executive Search, Inc
Managing Partner, CivilEngineeringCentral.com
View Matt’s profile & connect with him on LinkedIn
At the risk of beating a dead horse, I wanted to discuss the topic of the utilization of social networking and Web 2.0 tools when it comes to the civil engineering industry. We have discussed this topic on a number of occasions not only here within our blog, but on our LinkedIn discussion board…but from what I have seen out there, the conversation is worth continuing.
Chances are, if you are reading this blog it is as a result of learning about it via Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, so I get it that you get it. But the question remains, does your company or your employer or those associations you are a member of get it?
With the modern era of the internet beginning in the early 90′s, it was greeted with excitement and skepticism. As many organizations jumped on the bandwagon, many sat back and waited…and waited…and waited. As we sit here now, approaching the year 2011, if you don’t have a website you lack credibility. Eventually most folks caught on to this concept and it is very rare to find a company that does not have a website. As web 2.0 technologies mature, how much longer can your company afford to sit on its laurels before it’s too late?
Failure of civil engineering organizations to embrace social networking tools will not have a crippling impact on the way they do business, but it will impact them in some way, shape, or form. I’ve taken the liberty to do some exploring on the internet of some great examples of how organizations within and surrounding the civil engineering community are taking advantage of web 2.0 tools. Let’s take a look:
PUBLIC ENTITIES
Washington Department of Transportation:
- Twitter- with over 10,000 followers, WashDOT is able to advertise all sorts of job openings, including civil engineering jobs; they are able to tweet lane closures and construction projects that will effect traffic; they are able to provide project updates and meetings to the public.
- Facebook – same idea as Twitter – it’s about keeping the public informed
- YouTube – videos showing emergency response, civil engineering planning and design plans for upcoming highway projects, and bridge demolition video
Texas Department of Transportation:
- Facebook - with over 2600 followers of TxDot’s Facebook page they are able to advertise open civil engineering and construction jobs, discuss politics, traffic congestion and post videos and photos of events that effect transportation across the state
- Twitter – each TxDOT District has their own Twitter account as a tool to share information with employees, vendors, residents, and the travelers.
- YouTube – dozens of videos showing how concrete barriers save lives, what the statewide long range plan looks like, and proposed highway concept plans, just to name a few.
- Podcasts – weekly podcasts are produced and posted on their site on a wide variety of topics
PRIVATE CONSULTING
Ulteig:
- LinkedIn – to help promote the company and advertise civil engineering job openings
- Facebook – to promote press releases regarding employee promotions, company awards, project wins, etc. They also are able to post videos that specifically relate to their company – like their spot on the CBS Evening News.
- Twitter – to promote company news
- YouTube - Ulteig has their own company YouTube Channel
Pennoni
- Facebook & Twitter- used as a marketing tool promoting news articles, press releases, promotions, and video featuring Pennoni and Pennoni employees
- YouTube - Used as an avenue to post all news video relating to Pennoni projects or associates
- LinkedIn- Used again as an avenue for free PR, but also provides an avenue for other LI members to learn more about the folks within their organization. They also have their own group where current Pennoni employees can network, collaborate, and share ideas!
ASSOCIATIONS
NSPE
- Facebook - used as an avenue to promote upcoming events, to share photos from events, to promote membership and share informative videos.
- Twitter – used to share jobs from their job board, to promote upcoming events, and to share interesting and relevant articles
- YouTube - Interviews with NSPE members and engineers discussing the relevant issues and topics that NSPE members want to know about.
- LinkedIn - used as a way to further develop their NSPE brand and as an avenue for discussion of relevant topics among group members.
SAME
- Facebook – Used to promote news items, events, membership drives, etc.
- Twitter – Same as Facebook, also able to retweet news worthy items from the industry or from other local SAME chapter Twitter accounts.
- Blog – SAME’s “Bricks & Clicks” blog is yet another communication tool used as a potential discussion outlet for any newsworthy items relating to members
- LinkedIn – A great recruiting and networking tool that has over 4000 members!
Social networking tools are beyond the infancy stage. They are fantastic tools that are used for branding, recruiting, collaborating, SEO, advertising, promoting, marketing and communicating, and failure to recognize and act may leave you a step behind. If you can, take a team approach to implementing these tools with your organization; involve Marketing, Human Resources, and Technical Professionals…and most importantly, come up with a plan and stick to it. There are plenty of civil engineering organizations who had the right intentions, but have dropped the ball, tarnishing the validity of their internet presence and their ability to effectively use web 2.0 technology. If you are going to make the committment, do it right!
Don’t miss the boat folks, resistance is futile.
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
A/E Firms: The Younger Boss – Older Worker Situation
By Carol A. Metzner
President, The Metzner Group, LLC and
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
View Carol’s profile & connect with her on LinkedIn
An AARP report suggests that over 70% of us will work past normal retirement age. Many architects and engineers are delaying retirement or returning to work. We are seeing architectural and civil engineering companies confront the situation of “younger” boss overseeing the “older” worker. So what are some of the relationship pitfalls of a new boss who comes in and is younger than their staff?
Let’s address three younger boss and the older worker possible interactions and how to make them successful experiences:
- Experienced engineers and architects tell me that many “younger” supervisors are closed off to assessing project team successes. Many new, younger bosses think that older workers are difficult to manage and they can be resistant to change. They may have the - if it isn’t broke then don’t fix it- mentality. Younger bosses come in with enthusiasm, energy, arrogance and don’t want to be told how to do something by their staff. It is the “everyone wants to be heard, but nobody wants to listen” issue. Both supervisor and staff need to appreciate each other’s experience and talents. Open, honest, two-way conversation is a must in any relationship. Preconceived notions of each other has to be put aside.
- Younger managers may view managing older workers as that of “managing my parents.” How does a supervisor talk about building a career to an employee with 30 years of experience? How do they mentor these employees? As an employee you should discuss how you have been of value to the team. Are there areas you want to explore in your work – new technologies to learn? Did your past supervisor hold you back from further training? This could be a chance to have a new, clean slate in your work. Help your boss to understand how to work best together; what are your goals? Younger bosses need to help their staff to think out of the box. Perhaps you have some creative ideas to help staff to be more enthusiastic about their work. Are there new technologies you can suggest?
- Robin Throckmorton, co-author of “Bridging the Generation Gap” describes how younger bosses are more apt to assign a project and expect the employee to go off and complete it. If they communicate on the project they would prefer email to face meetings. Older staff like to have meetings to discuss the project, goals, status updates. Compromise. Many great leaders understand the importance of understanding how someone works/learns best and then fostering an environment that will allow for success.
For this blog, I have offered just these three examples of potential pitfalls in the younger boss – older worker situation. Good COMMUNICATION is a necessity in all supervisor – employee relationships; most especially in this kind! Keep in mind that stereotypes have to be left at the company front door on both sides. Older workers need to trust that upper management has their best interests in mind when they make supervisory changes and younger bosses need to respect the value that older workers bring to the team. Older workers’ insight and knowledge teamed with younger supervisors’ new ideas and techniques can be an unstoppable success!
Believe it or not, wisdom does come through experience. In my thirties, I was convinced I knew everything…now in my late forties I know I do!
What have you experienced in your office? Or, what stories have you heard?
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
Is your engineering firm too specialized to need a website?
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Burdick Ten Haken
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Internet Business Development Strategies for Manufacturers, Distributors and Service Companies
Connect With Babette On Linkedin
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
Does your engineering firm use any of the following excuses to rationalize why your website looks the way it does?
- Our clients and prospects need to call us so we can discuss their project. Project outcomes depend on client specifications. We don’t know what clients need until we start to work with them.
- We don’t have services you can just order on the internet. We deal with complex solutions.
- Once our clients and prospects see all the projects we have completed, they will understand we can do whatever it is they want us to do.
Oh give me a break. These excuses are nothing more than elitism which is being used to compensate for the fact that YOUR ENGINEERING FIRM CANNOT DESCRIBE, IN SIMPLE AND SUCCINCT TERMS, THE VALUE THEY BRING TO THEIR CLIENTS’ TABLES.
Yep, you just read it.
Considering we live in a world of elongated sales cycles and risky funding, your business development folks can’t get to everyone individually. So just where do you think new business is going to come from? Try your company footprint on the Internet, which starts with your website.
Let’s examine each one of these rationales and translate just what they mean.
1. Our clients and prospects need to call us so we can discuss their project. Project outcomes depend on client specifications. We don’t know what they need until we start to work with them.
What if a client or prospect doesn’t want to call you to have a long, elegant conversation about a project they may not be interested in inviting you to bid on, anyway? Considering most individuals within corporations have about 1 hour of face time per week to give to business development folks (and you know how many people are competing for this time) your website serves as your first “conversation” with them. If your website offers little content to justify their even considering sending you an email, let alone calling you, why would they want to work with you? Your website’s not making it easy for them to do business with you. You are forcing an extremely busy prospective client to do things your way. Which means your firm isn’t interested in working with them – their way.
2. We don’t have services you can just order on the internet. We deal with complex solutions. No kidding. You can’t just “dial an engineer.” However, as that extremely busy client or prospect, I want simple (not dumbed-down, but easily understood) solutions based on expertise and capabilities. I want to work with an engineering firm that makes my corporate life and decision making process a little bit easier. After all, it’s all about the client. Not about the engineering firm. As a prospective client, your website has 2-5 seconds to pique my interest and grab my attention with what you can deliver. If I feel I am reading a philosophical treatise that is simply talking in circles, well, I’ll hit the “back” button and go elsewhere, thank you.
3. Once our clients and prospects see all the projects we have completed, they will understand we can do whatever it is they want us to do. OK. We’ve ALL seen websites like this one. A big flashy home page (and flash can be a real no-no in terms of search engine optimization), and then the “Project List” or “Portfolio” or “Clients” tab. You are not dealing with children, so does your website look like a story-book? Also you are assuming that prospective clients know what they are looking at… which they may not. Your internal folks may have uploaded photos from your most complex designs as a means of “wowing” prospective clients.
All prospective clients see is a bunch of complex, flashy solutions which may or may not have any relation to their needs. The more complex the solution, the less simple it appears to work with your company. Oh, also, if you are wondering why your client base is a bunch of demanding divas eating up profitability, go back to your website and see what types of project photos you have uploaded. You may be marketing to just whom you are getting as clients.
Put yourself in the shoes of your customers and create a website which is sensitive to their time constraints, decision making algorithm and their need to determine capabilities and not outcomes. You may just shorten your sales cycles and learn a lot more about your capabilities in the process.
Think about it.
August 26, 2010 at 10:06 am Babette Ten Haken Leave a comment
Is Your Website Your Business Development Partner?
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Burdick Ten Haken
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Internet Business Development Strategies for Manufacturers, Distributors and Service Companies
Connect With Babette On Linkedin
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
Let’s face it. Most company websites are an embarrassment. Something you hope your current and prospective customers either will ignore or overlook. And still call you for an amazingly in-depth, insightful discussion that results in a request for proposal. Now that’s wishful thinking. Ever heard of the saying “one picture’s worth a thousand words?”
Others of you have a website that’s flashy. It’s got streaming this and that. It’s crammed full of announcements about product innovations. It’s your online portfolio that you hope will WOW a prospective customer. In fact, it’s so overwhelmingly full of pictorial and streaming verbiage that the visitor doesn’t know where to look first. Ever heard of the saying “one picture’s worth a thousand words?”
Most of you have ho-hum websites whose major function is to be “informational.” And that information is buried throughout the entire website, sort of like a scavenger hunt. And of course, an internal employee created the website because, well, engineers can do all things. (And they can, but why would they be assigned to such a task and take away from billable time to prove this point?). Or your website was created by some vendor who was nothing more than an order-taker. So the website was designed by committee, or by ego, and tells you what you already know. But it doesn’t tell your prospective customer anything relevant.
Who has time to hunt through your website content for what they are searching for in the first place? When’s the last time you read a website cover-to-cover, even if it had intuitive navigation?
Your website is your online persona. After a successful business development call – either in person or via phone or virtually – your customers and prospects are going to “check you out” …. online. And the feedback they receive from their efforts can make or break you – no matter how successful a presentation and relationship building strategy you may have.
1. They will Google your company name. What are they going to find? How well is your company managing its online persona? How well are you managing your online persona, for that matter?
A mediocre, out-of-date, information-flash-overload, or non-intuitive website can successfully demonstrate, in 2 to 5 seconds, that you are not who you seem to be and you are not in touch with your customers. How anticipatory is your website to the types of questions and issues that a current and/or prospective customer might have? Does your website provide answers to these questions in the same place, or all over the place? Does your website have links to links to links to pdfs?
Hey, would you want to use your website? One of my clients, whose building materials company caters to architects and civil engineers, realized some of his internal personnel were spending an average of 2 hours a day – each – guiding folks through their old website to the information they needed to find. And those were the customers/prospects who actually called in. Think about how many folks simply gave up and went elsewhere for business.
Do you have any idea how much 2 hours of these employee’s billable time cost that company? Until they achieved their new website which tripled their website traffic and contacts? Talk about the cost of doing business let alone the impact a poor website has on business development!
2. Oh, and what else will prospective clients find when they Google your company name? Will they find out about liens against your company, lawsuits, hazmat citations and other non-glorious information? Will they find kudos, honors and awards your company has received?
Will these prospective customers wonder how your company can win design awards yet have a mediocre, non-customer-centric website? Will customers compare what they read when they Google your company with the content and format of your website and find it similar or different to their customer experience?
3. They will Google you by name as well. What are they going to find? Because you need to manage your personal brand in conjunction with your professional brand as well. If you are on the roster of your religious institution, or have made donations to civic causes, participated in a mini marathon, well, that tells your prospective customers a little bit more about you. I don’t need to tell you that having a complete LinkedIn profile, including references, is essential. Your professional brand is linked to and complements the company for whom you work. Is your personal brand better than your company’s brand? Now that’s an interesting question.
You need to be able to tell your prospective customers and current clients to “check out my website” and “check out my LinkedIn profile.” Because they are going to do this anyway. Make this aspect part of your business development etiquette. And make sure your LinkedIn profile is updated and dynamic – even if your corporate website is not.
So how’s your company using the rules of engagement of today’s Internet to assist your business development efforts? Having a company website that walks your talk is mandatory.
A/E Firms: Social Media Guidelines & Online Identity Theft
By Carol A. Metzner
President, The Metzner Group, LLC and
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
View Carol’s profile & connect with her on LinkedIn
Ryan Link, AICP, wrote a smart article for the CivilEngineeringCentral.com summer issue. In his article: Social Networking Isn’t Just for Fun Anymore: How Emerging Media Is Changing The Way We Market and Do Business, Ryan offers interesting insights into the A/E industry’s past and future relationship with social networking. Please read and offer your thoughts!
According to a CE News survey, “most professionals use the Internet to perform their job. Specifically, 77 percent use the Internet to attend online education activities, 86 percent follow-up on articles they read, 98 percent research engineering-related topics, and 87 percent search for information about industry trends.” Yet, even with these high percentage stats, many architectural and civil engineering firms as well as industry related associations are just now writing social media policies and guidelines.
Firms and industry associations appear unable to identify which departments are responsible for handling the companies’ social media outlets. Should marketing teams oversee social media outlets? Should the human resources divisions? Social media such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook help brand your firms’/associations’ identity. As Ryan discusses in his article, it is potentially an important and cost effective outreach of marketing efforts, among many other outreach items. One thing is for sure, if an A/E firm/association does not take control of its social media identity and set guidelines for itself and its employees then individual employees will set their own guidelines. Guidelines set by individual employees may not be consistent with the firms own objectives or guidelines.
Let me offer some examples:
A national A/E firm has a group on LinkedIn created by and managed by an ex-employee. The individual worked for the company for less than 3 years and stole the employers identity! Having your firm’s identity on LinkedIn hijacked in this manner can lead to a plethora of undesirable results. I am aware that several national industry associations did not pay attention to social media only to find their online identities hijacked by architects and civil engineers who started and ran their own national association group in that associations name. A/E firms and associations who do not police the social networking forums run the risk that their online identity may be misused or worse used for nefarious purposes. When your firm’s identity is used on a social media site such use is an extension of your firm. You need to be very careful regarding who is authorized to set the standard – that defines your brand.
Most of us Google our names to see how we are portrayed in the online world. We need to do the same thing with our corporate identity. Remember that a third party’s first impression of your firm may be based on information found on Google and on many of the social networking sites. We want to be sure that the first impression is a good one. The Internet and social media outlets are here to stay.
Ryan suggests in his article, five questions firms/associations should consider before entering the world of emerging media. I recommend that you consider your answers to those five questions and to share those questions and answers with your management/marketing/human resources team. Help your firm take control of their image!
civil engineering jobs :: civil engineering resumes :: civil engineering blog :: civil engineering discussion
How are you providing value to your clients and your employer?
Featured Guest Blogger: Babette Burdick Ten Haken
Sales Aerobics for Engineers
Internet Business Development Strategies for Manufacturers, Distributors and Service Companies
Connect With Babette On Linkedin
Read The Sales Aerobics For Engineers Blog
No matter where you sit around the table, you can provide value to your employer and your clients by staying current with their (not your) area of expertise.
Understanding current industry-specific issues, including financial, sourcing, materials and materials management and legal factors, can provide you with a well-rounded perspective from which to make design and engineering recommendations. Staying current with your clients’ world view is your entire organization’s responsibility, not just the guys/gals at the top.
Because the buck stops everywhere these days.
Triggering events can provide the fulcrum for differentiating your company to current and prospective customers. Triggering events are events that tip the scales and force change within an industry. Like changes in the construction code or ratings for doors used in specific buildings. Like the use of nanotechnology in building materials. Like green initiatives in various states.
Waiting around for “someone else” in your organization to disperse this information to you is not an option. You are the “someone” who must prioritize information gathering to round out your project perspective. And where you get this information is just as important as the information itself.
Because customers who perceive vendors as commodities will always base their decisions on price. Let’s face it, in the absence of any other defining factor, what else is there?
So your ability to use triggering events to enhance the insights you provide for your customers becomes an all-or-nothing exercise in impacting their perception of the value you bring to their table.
And I’m not talking about bombarding your clients with constant tidbits from news feeds or industry magazines. I’m talking about your taking the time to review information from a variety of resources and PERCOLATE that information so it impacts how you synthesize your role to your customers.
You may change your perspective in terms of how you express yourself to your customers, your co-workers and your employer. Which in turn impacts how you view your role as a client resource and solutions provider.
Not all customers call you because they have a problem that needs to be solved. They simply may want to run an idea by you that may have nothing to do with your area of design expertise. They may want you to act as a sounding board on a business decision they need to make. In other words, they consider you a trusted resource. So how do you get there from where you currently are?
Do you have the type of information in your professional toolkit to serve your customers in this manner? And I am addressing everyone up and down the corporate food chain. It’s that important.
At this point you may be asking: “OK, so I am now going to enhance my business acumen and perspective with all this great information. Just where do you suggest I find it?” Good question. And I think you probably know some really good answers.
Here are some non-traditional clue cards. And I welcome your suggestions for additional sources of information.
- LinkedIn discussion groups are a tremendous way of keeping your ear to the rail. Engineering discussion groups are the pulse of industry. There are so many technical, regulatory, financial and philosophical discussions going on within these groups that – at the very least – reading the discussion threads is an education in itself. So if you are not already a member of various LinkedIn groups, join them. If you are already a member, check out the sub groups and new engineering groups that are constantly forming.
- And while you are participating in LinkedIn discussion threads, remember that your name and your company name are included in your signature with each thread post. Participating in LinkedIn discussions is a tremendous way of demonstrating expertise without “advertising” your company. Folks want to build their networks, especially with savvy people like you who provide great input to discussion threads. Don’t you think they will notice which company you work for, as well? And it works both ways. No matter where you sit around the table, you can provide your business development folks with the names of companies you feel may be prospective clients. I think they may find your input valuable.
- Signing up for RSS newsfeeds on various topics allows you to receive industry-specific or topic-specific articles on your desktop. Discuss your findings at work or post your own discussion on LinkedIn. You may be surprised at who responds and what you learn from the interchange.
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics is an additional resource that allows you to provide context to the financial environment of each state. This information is particularly relevant if you work for a company with out of state projects. This information also allows you to understand the issues that may be impacting subcontractors you may use for these out of state projects.
And don’t tell me you have no time to engage in these activities. The nature of what we call “work” and the context of where we gather and exchange information are in flux. The entire business development paradigm is changing.
Do you want to be on the outside looking in or an active participant in growing your value to your customers and your company?
Think about it.
How to Prevent Infrastructure Disaster?
By Carol A. Metzner
President, The Metzner Group, LLC and
Managing Partner, A/E/P Central, LLC home of CivilEngineeringCentral.com
This August will be the 3rd anniversary of the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis and the 5th anniversary of the New Orleans levee system failure. July brings with it the 19th year mark of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency walkway collapse. While we now understand how these events occurred, has the civil engineering industry implemented systems to help prevent future disasters? Has our government implemented systems to help?
Cutbacks in civil engineering staff across the US’s civil engineering companies and low bid contract awards from local, state and federal agencies cause some to question whether projects are being completed by the best talent available. As we discussed in a previous blog, some firms that previously hired the best engineering talent have now cut them in favor of less experienced, less expensive engineers. What effect, if any will this have on our future infrastructure?
This week it was reported that the Michigan Department of Transportation has been late on inspections on bridge reports. A state audit determined that about 10% of bridge inspections were overdue, some for 36 months or more. It was further reported that the Federal Highway Administration “ordered the state to complete hundreds of crucial bridge inspections by Dec. 31 or risk losing highway funding, a last-ditch punishment that MDOT says it will avoid.”
Similarly, Stamford, CT advocate news just announced “Hundreds of state bridges rated deficient.” Specifically: of the state’s 5,300 bridges, 10 percent, or 509, are structurally deficient and ranked in poor condition, according to the state Department of Transportation. Fifty-four percent are in fair condition, while 36 percent are in good condition.
The Monitor reporter Jared Janes wrote this week that lower than expected bids from contractors eager for work will allow the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission, in charge of the construction, to complete more than 40 additional miles to raise and rehabilitate Rio Grande levees.
Our government has implemented guidelines for engineering designs and mandated structural inspections. Private industry and public agencies struggle with budget cuts. How can we prevent infrastructure disasters with contract monies put on hold and experienced staff being caught in layoffs? What are your thoughts?
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