Staying Small Successfully: A Guide for Architects, Engineers, and Design Professionals

Book Description

Making smaller A/E/C firms more productive and more profitable

Want to do big things with a small company? This no-nonsense guide shows leaders of smaller architecture, engineering, and design firms how to compete successfully against larger organizations without becoming one of them. It demonstrates how a smaller firm can position itself to bring more value to its clients, operate over a larger geographical area, and develop a strategic plan for increasing revenues and profits.

Featuring new chapters on forming strategic alliances and maximizing the benefits of information technology, this new edition presents updated case studies of more than fifty small design firms. These firms have achieved remarkable success and handled large contracts with limited staff, and the case studies illustrate how they learned to:

Anticipate client needs and meet them in advance
Narrow the target market and expand the client base
Leverage core competencies to create powerful marketing tools
Establish strategic partnerships
Survive and thrive during an economic downturn

Read Staying Small Successfully, Second Edition and follow its recommendations one step at a time. Your company will stay small, but your business, your revenues, and your profits will soar.

Customer Reviews:

Mostly Sagely Advice for Architects and Designers.......2006-08-24

Clearly, this book is well worth the price for anyone involved in the management or administration of architectural and design firms. The content is comprehensive, relevant and well-written. Numerous examples and lists as well as an extensive appendix make it very easy to apply concepts. The technical aspects of the book are particularly useful and lucid, especially concerning legal and financial topics. Other sections on planning, marketing and managing growth also offer much information and many insights. Overall, the book certainly stays on track about business by focusing on practice management versus project management. Philosophizing about architecture and design and its place in society is kept to a minimum--a welcome relief from many books on this subject.

The sections on human resource topics such as personnel and compensation tend to be slightly oversimplified in the advice offered. The basic information is perfectly adequate. However, a few of the recommendations may not be as universally appropriate as they appear. The information technology section is helpful, but understandably dated since its publication in 2001, at least so far as Internet-based tools are concerned.

Aside from a couple of rather expensive and ponderous AIA publications, few good resources are available on how to manage the business of architecture and design. The book is the best value and most concise option available. Every firm should have a copy in its library.

Excellent and concise.......2006-05-08

I've found this book a valuable resource in developing a growth and strategic plan for my architectural firm. It is a short book and doesn't waste time in getting right to the point. However, I would like it to elaborate on a few items since my firm is young and I'm inexperienced in business. For those firm principals of small firms that have been in business for many years and are experiencing any trouble with the A/E business, this is a must read. My only complaint is that the section on Information Technology is not current enough. However, any hard copy of a book of this type would have trouble keeping up with the changing technology environment. Take time over a weekend or holiday to read this book!

J. L. Elliott.......2006-05-06

As they said in the Wendy's commercial "Where's the beef?". Don't waste your money or time on this one.

Much broader than Architects, Engineers & Design Firms.......2002-03-17

This is one of those rare books that offers more than what the cover reveals. Being a fan of Wiley as a business publisher I was first attracted while searching for books on business strategy. This is a bit of a sleeper to me. My business has nothing to do with the target market yet I can safely rate this as a five star based on the excellent content that works in most business environments.

I like the way the author begins his introduction by taking the reader on a separate pathway that helps shape their personal destiny. His view on breaking from tradition and how being different means being visible aims right at one of the great weaknesses of many professional businesses. He slaps the reader with the realization that they must stand apart from the crowd to be seen in today's frantic world.

Then he leads you into the planning and strategy chapter where he imparts the need for a defined vision in writing as part of your plan. From there he focuses on servicing the client, hiring right, paying right and not trying to grow too fast. Hence the title --- `Staying Small Successfully.'

This is excellent sage advice for just about any business I can think of and goes far beyond its intended market. I'm in the online content delivery business and I consider the insight and wisdom within perfect for my business.

With a few minor changes this could be reissued as 'Growing Your Small Business Successfully.'

A good guide for engineering and design firms.......1999-07-08

I stumbled across this book while at a client's office. They had never read it, and what a shame! There are few books written for those that market engineering and design firms. The book tends to talk more about architects than I had expected, but still applies well to designers and engineers. The basic principles are sound and helpful. As an owner of a marketing consulting company, I use the book periodically to get insights on growth, planning, compensation and other issues dealing with the challenges this niche business presents. I highly recommend it.

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Aaron Siskind: Pleasures and terrors
Carl Chiarenza
Manufacturer: Little, Brown in association with Center for Creative Photography
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Equipment | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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William Eggleston's Guide

ASIN: 0821215221

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Aaron Siskind: Pleasures and Terrors
Carl Chiarenza
Manufacturer: Little Brown / New York Graphic Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JV7OO0

Book Description

The two most critical issues for business today, according to CEO's Barrett has worked with, are: "How to tap the deepest levels of creativity and the highest levels of productivity of our employees." In a world where competition has become global, successful companies are learning to build competitive advantage through their human capital. In the 21st Century, even that will not be enough. Success will also hinge on whether, in the eyes of the employees and society-at-large, the organization is a trusted member of the community and a good global citizen. Developing a values-driven approach to business is quickly becoming essential for financial success. Who you are and what you stand for are becoming just as important as what you sell.

"More than simply a majestic vision, Richard Barrett's book brilliantly describes the ways and means for business leaders to create the compassionate and viable future we urgently need on our beautiful planet."
-Godric E.S. Bader, F.R.S.A., Life President, Scott Bader Commonwealth Ltd.

"If every corporate executive bought this book and assigned it for in-house management development courses, the world would become a better place."
-Hazel Henderson, author, Building a Win-Win World and Creating Alternative Futures

"As we approach the new Millennium the world seeks clear thinkers with visionary concepts to help unravel the challenges before us. Richard Barrett's inspiring new book Liberating the Corporate Soul weaves a rich tapestry balancing heart and soul with a practical down-to-earth corporate vision for the future."
-Craig and Patricia Neal, Co-Founders, Heartland Institute

"Liberating the Corporate Soul presents a convincing rationale for making ethical and socially responsible behavior the best foundation for building and maintaining a high performance, globally successful business."
-Robert W. MacGregor, President, Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility

"Liberating the Corporate Soul gives a powerful set of tools for organizational transformation. I highly recommend it."
-Ann Svendsen, Consultant and author of The Stakeholder Strategy: Profiting from Collaborative Business Relationships

"Practical advice to tap the source of creativity and innovation which every business seeks."
-Ron Nahser, President and CEO of The Nahser Agency/Advertising, Chicago

"The bold, practical blueprint we need for moving business to the next evolutionary level. Sweeping, brilliant a sense of the grandeur of the new paradigm of business."
-Martin Rutte, President Livelihood, co-author Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work

"Liberating the Corporate Soul is a must read for leaders who want to shape a government built on values, innovation, and greater efficiency."
-Jody Zall Kusek, Director of Strategic Planning and Performance Management, U.S. Department of the Interior

"Liberating the Corporate Soul achieves the impossible: it integrates the intangibles of ethics, vision, and consciousness into a tangible measurement system."
-Marcello Palazzi, Bsc, Msc, MBA, Co-Founder and Chair, Progressio Foundation, The Netherlands

"Liberating the Corporate Soul provides a paradigm shifting look at how business leaders can harness the creative potential of their staff and their organizations. The author concisely develops and explains several tools that will enable managers to create an organizational foundation that will foster alignment, accountability and strategic focus."
-Tad McKeon, MBA, CPA, CQM, 1997 Senior Examiner, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, co-author, Transforming Home Care: Quality, Cost and Data Management

"This book has captured the true challenge of business today: nurturing values-based organizations to which employees and other stakeholders commit. It is also an excellent guide to achieving this goal which is proving to be the most important success factor of our times."
-Margareta Barchan, CEO and President, CELEMI, Sweden

"This book breaks new ground in helping business leaders take responsibility for the whole. It encourages us to build a better world through business."
-George E. McCown, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, McCown, De Leeuw & Co., Chairman, World Business Academy

"If you want to install in your company a climate of trust, harmony, creativity and vision . . . If you accept to be honest about your own values and ethics . . . Jump on this book, it is one of the best I know, linking a new vision with concrete and effective tools helping you to revitalize and reenchant your enterprise."
-Marc Luyckx, Forward Studies Unit European Commission, Brussels

· This book is a process blueprint for building a visionary organization with a values-driven approach
· Based on tested models and tools developed internationally on how work, values and leadership will change in the 21st century
· Originated from work within the World Bank where the author was Values Coordinator and Founder of the World Bank Spiritual Unfoldment Society and a member of the Institutional Change and strategy Dept. at the World Bank.

Customer Reviews:

The missing piece of the jigsaw.......2007-07-18

At last a practical way to review and analyse the culture of an organisation and track its development.

Every CEO should read this.......2005-02-16

What are organisations for? This book enables the reader to understand the root causes of current imbalances in the world economy/ecology and know what they can do (within their reach) to make a difference.

A synthesis of the works of Stephen Covey, Jim Collins and other great corporate alchemists.

The process of building a visionary organization.......2001-03-25

"This book has been such a journey. I started out with two ideas. The first idea was that organizational transformation must look and feel a lot like personal transformation. The second idea was that the values held by successful companies must be similar to the values held by successful individuals. These two ideas led me on a journey of discovery that gladdened my heart...This book...provides a road map and tools for those who want to travel the same path" (from the Foreward).

In this context, Richard Barrett, in Chapter 11, shows a comprehensive framework for building a visionary organization. Here, he defines a visionary organization as a long-living, successful organization that cares about its employees, its customers, the local community, the environment, and a society at large. According to him, visionary organizations take social responsibility very seriously, and they display six important characteristics:

1. They have strong, positive, values-driven cultures.

2. They make a lasting commitment to learning and self-renewal.

3. They are continually adapting themselves based on feedback from internal and external environments.

4. They make strategic alliances with internal and external partners, customers, and suppliers.

5. They are willing to take risk and experiment.

6. They have a balanced values-based approach to measuring performance that includes such factors as corporate survival (financial results), corporate fitness (efficiency, productivity, and quality), collaboration with suppliers and customers, continuous learning and self-development (corporate evolution), organizational cohesion and employee fulfillment (corporate culture), and corporate contribution to the local community and society.

Hence, he develops a three-phase process for building a visionary organization: (1) preparation, (2) implementation, and (3) maintaining an evolutionary culture.

Finally, during the process of building a visionary organization, he writes that "the critical factors in successful transformations are (a) the management team's commitment to modeling the new values and behaviors; (b) integrating the new values into the structural incentives of the human resource processes of the organization; (c) building psychological ownership by involving employees in defining the missiom, vision, and values and the Balanced Needs Scorecard objectives and targets; (d) helping employees to think like owners; and (e) assigning responsibilities and developing structural mechanisms to support innovation, learning, and cultural renewal."

Highly recommended.

A Quantum Leap in Compassionate Corporate Transformation.......1998-12-11

In his visionary and hopeful book, Global Mind Change, The Promise of the 21st Century (1990), futurist Willis Harman observed that we are in the midst of the greatest social shift since the Middle Ages, a change in the actual belief structure of Western society. As the dominant institution in society, Willis felt business had an obligation and the potential to lead this shift. In Creative Work: The Constructive Role of Business in a Transforming Society (1990), he provided some benchmarks of new paradigm business and examples of a handful of leading companies.

Richard Barrett is clearly an inspired central figure in empowering the business world to take its place as an evolutionary and transformational force. Through his consulting practice, speaking engagements and now his powerful new book, Liberating the Corporate Soul, Richard presents the business world a gift of immense proportions providing a clear understanding of how to liberate the untapped creative brilliance, deep compassion and universal love that has been trapped within the prisons of old paradigm business models.

He challenges business leaders to "create strategic goals that call for quantum increases in performance that promote transformational thinking." "These improvements are achieved", he says, "only by taking a systems approach-a shift in basic assumptions that create a new way of being and doing - evolution". "Not doing things differently, but doing different things." Not shifting things around a table but creating a new table. "When individuals are asked to participate in transformational thinking they tap into their intuition and creativity. This type of thinking can only be maintained in corporate cultures that are built around trust, employee involvement and openness."

He cites the research of Collins and Porras whose book, Built to Last, proves that "contrary to business school doctrine, maximizing shareholder wealth and profits are not the dominant driving forces in most long lasting successful companies. Throughout the history of most visionary companies a core ideology existed that transcended purely economic considerations."

Quoting mystic poet Kahil Gibran, who said "work is love made visible", he goes on to say that "the challenge for companies in the twenty-first century is to create a work environment that encourages personal fulfillment-taking care of employees' physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs....to live out their passions and provide them with opportunities for service". According to a 1995 Newsweek article, 58% of Americans feel the need to experience spiritual growth. "What better place", Richard asks, "than through your work?

Building on the work of humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow, he finds that "most companies are stuck in the lower levels of consciousness he has identified as survival, relationship or self-esteem consciousness."

Barrett has developed the Balanced Need Scorecard and other powerful laser-like measuring tools to help organizations determine if the values they espouse are being embraced and lived. In the end, he believes "companies either operate from the fears of the ego or the love of the soul". Richard defines evolutionary leaders as "people who hold a vision and courageously pursue that vision in such a way that it resonates with the souls of people".

As the editor of an online publication that explores new paradigms in business and other disciplines, I would not risk entering the 21st century without reading, digesting and implementing the ideas contained in Liberating the Corporate Soul. Those companies that do will have a strategic advantage over those that don't. More importantly, it is unlikely that corporations will survive without creating transformational cultures that nurture and liberate.

A superb approach to blending values with the bottom line.......1998-12-02

New Book Provides Road Map and Tools For Building Visionary, Values-Based Businesses

(Washington, D.C. - December 1, 1998) You don't have to look far these days to witness the growing trend in business to nurture the corporate "soul." Once muttered in hushed tones of self-conscious reserve, soft-sounding words like "values" and "meaning" and "spirituality" are becoming as bold and common in the corporate lexicon as hard-nosed phrases like "bottom-line" and "return on investment." Until recently, though, the two vocabularies have struggled to come together in any cohesive, systematic process for guiding the strategies and actions of corporate America.

In a new book entitled Liberating the Corporate Soul (Butterworth-Heinemann publishers), author and business consultant, Richard Barrett, bridges that gap with an approach to organizational planning that will warm the hearts of human resources, corporate affairs and financial people alike.

The book begins with a review of Barrett's central thesis that "who you are and what you stand for are becoming just as important as what you sell." Next, Barrett describes his Corporate Transformation ToolsSM which is a set of measurement instruments for "auditing" individual and organizational values. Finally, the book provides a framework for using those tools to build a visionary, values-based organization.

Barrett's model is based partly on the landmark work of Abraham Maslow who defined the human "hierarchy of needs" on four main levels - security, relationship, self-esteem, and self-actualization. "Maslow himself concluded, however, that self-actualized individuals were actually motivated by higher states of consciousness, including spiritual needs," says Barrett. "But he never fully delineated what those states were."

Liberating the Corporate Soul expands on Maslow's work with a detailed explanation of Barrett's Seven Levels of Organizational Consciousness (survival, relationship, self-esteem, transformation, organization, community, and society) and Seven Levels of Leadership Consciousness (authoritarian, paternalist, manager, facilitator, collaborator, partner/servant, wisdom/visionary). According to Barrett, one level isn't necessarily superior to another. "All are relevant. It's really more a question of balance," he says. "However, it is at the higher levels of consciousness that organizations are meeting spiritual needs that focus more on the common good than individual self-interest."

The book's message and methodology are receiving acclaim from noted business leaders and authors throughout the world. Martin Rutte, co-author of the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work calls Barrett's book "the bold, practical blueprint we need for moving business to the next evolutionary level. Sweeping, brilliant, a sense of the grandeur of the new paradigm of business." Marcello Palazzi, Co-Founder and Chair of the Progessio Foundation in The Netherlands says that "Liberating the Corporate Soul achieves the impossible: it integrates the intangibles of ethics, vision, and consciousness into a tangible measurement system."

Barrett began his search for a mechanism that would align an organization's actions and decisions with individual and social values when he was employed at the World Bank. In the early 1990s, he set out on a personal mission to move values to the top of the bank's business agenda. Through a series of determined steps - including the formation of the "Spiritual Unfoldment Society" at the bank - he managed to fulfill his mission and simultaneously formulate his values-based organizational development system.

Today, Barrett is head of his own consulting firm, Richard Barrett and Associates, LLC, and he is using his values-based system in working with organizations throughout the world. He is quick to point out that all of the organizations with which he works have values. The question is whether those values resonate internally with employees searching for deeper meaning in their work lives, as well as externally with a society increasingly favoring businesses that exhibit advanced levels of social consciousness.

The book cites revealing data from several research studies to support Barrett's claim of shifting trends in employee and social attitudes. The Cone/Roper Marketing Trends Report shows that 76% of consumers in 1997 said they would switch to brands associated with a good cause if price and quality were equal. That figure is up from 66% in 1993. On the employee front, a study conducted by Students for Responsible Business with 2,100 students at 50 graduate business programs found that 50% said they would accept a lower salary to work for a "very socially responsible" company. Perhaps more revealing, 43% claimed they would not work for a company that was not socially responsible.

Data like that is not being lost on some of the country's leading business figures. In his book, Barrett quotes Levi Strauss CEO, Robert Haas, as stating "In the next century, a company will stand or fall on its values."

None of the enthusiasm for this growing trend is much of a surprise to Barrett. "People naturally feel better about themselves and their companies when they see a clear sense of values, vision and compassion driving management decisions and actions," he says. And there's good news in that for the people watching the bottom line, because those positive feelings will translate into greater loyalty, stronger performance, and higher profits. It's a win-win outcome all the way around."

Liberating the Corporate Soul is now on sale at major bookstores across the country.

Book Description

A sales associate is the first line of defense and this book focuses on techniques you can use to identify and prevent loss.

Customer Reviews:

Good Tips on Customer Service for Anyone in Sales.......2005-10-14

While Building a Continuing Relationship is tailored towards those in retail, anyone in outside sales can benefit from the book's tips in handling customer complaints.

The booklet's main theme is using the acronym "THANKS" in addressing customer complaints:

T - Thank the customer. By doing this, the customer is put at
ease and shows appreciation for his business.
H - Hearing the problem. Allow the customer to fully state the
and be prepared to be a good listener.
A - Apologize. By apoligizing for the customer being upset, you
are not accepting blame but instead are acknowledging the
customer's displeasure.
K - Know a solution. Find out what solution best satisfies the
customer.
S - Solve the problem. Resolve the complaint not to get rid of a
nuisance. Instead, take action to retain the loyalty and
trust of a valued customer.

In summary, a good and brief reminder of the importance of taking care of the customer in the sales process.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Los Angeles Business Journal, published by Thomson Gale on February 19, 2007. The length of the article is 1195 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: LAX hotels, city making their cases: court likely next stop for fight over living wage law.(LABOR)
Author: Howard Fine
Publication: Los Angeles Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 19, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 29 Issue: 8 Page: 1(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The case for indexing of social security benefits for changes in wage levels

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The case for indexing of social security benefits for changes in wage levels
Robert J Myers
Manufacturer: Temple University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Social Security | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006YP7IU

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District of Columbia minimum wage cases
Felix Frankfurter
Manufacturer: Chas. P. Young Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0008BW6R6

District of Columbia minimum wage cases: Jesse C. Adkins, et al., constituting the minimum wage board of the District of Columbia, appellants, vs. the ... vs. Willie A. Lyons. Brief for appellants

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District of Columbia minimum wage cases: Jesse C. Adkins, et al., constituting the minimum wage board of the District of Columbia, appellants, vs. the ... vs. Willie A. Lyons. Brief for appellants
Felix Frankfurter
Manufacturer: Steinberg press, inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0008729FE

Living wages,: The case for a new minimum wage act, (Fabian Society)

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Living wages,: The case for a new minimum wage act, (Fabian Society)
G. D. H Cole
Manufacturer: New Fabian Research Bureau
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00085BWI6

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