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Staying at the front of the wave
Staying at the front of the wave
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<p><strong>Staying at the front of the wave</strong> <br />
By Judith Nitsch, P.E., LEED AP, CPSM</p>
<p>Civil engineers guided by a crystal ball to figure out the next best thing … sounds like utopia. But without a crystal ball, how can we figure out what that next best thing is for growing our firms? Where is the wave going to be? How is it going to curl and break? Then again, who has a map to the beach?</p>
<p>Some firms are successful and happy plugging along doing what they’ve always done — figuratively sitting on the beach and watching the surf — others want to give staff increasing challenges and opportunities — go out in the surf and ride waves skillfully. The firms in the latter group know that they have to grow to succeed. I should know; our firm falls into this category.</p>
<p>We want to expand our services, get new clients, and increase staff by continuing to attract the gifted talent our clients have come to know and depend upon over the past 18 years. Such growth requires a plan with strategies, tactics, timelines, champions, and the discipline to execute it.</p>
<p><a name="OLE_LINK2" id="OLE_LINK2"></a><a name="OLE_LINK1" id="OLE_LINK1">Nitsch Engineering</a> has had a strategic plan since 1993. Until then, we primarily did private-sector projects, but that market tanked. Needing a new course of action, we decided to capitalize on the fact that we qualified as a Women-owned Business Enterprise (WBE). (At the time, the firm was called Judith Nitsch Engineering.) Our WBE status contributed to 300 percent growth in 1993 and in 1994; this was laudable performance but not in the market we desired. We wanted to position the firm to be prepared for private work once that market rebounded. So our 1993 plan focused on being the “WBE of choice” for current opportunities and positioning the firm for private-sector real estate development projects in the future.</p>
<p><strong>Riding the wave</strong></p>
<p>To get in front of the wave, first we had to figure out where that wave was going to be. We knew that having continual growth when we worked in the cyclical real estate development market was difficult. We also knew we didn’t want to have to lay off staff in a recession, so we had to figure out how to keep the growth momentum going. <br />
One goal was to figure out who to chase: clients or projects … and which ones? We knew that the architects who did private-sector projects were the ones we needed to get to know, and we needed to figure out how to get them to know our firm. We commissioned a research study by a master’s of business administration student team regarding how higher education clients chose their civil engineering and land surveying consultants. Using that information, we targeted the architects who practiced in that market. We figured out how to capitalize on the scopes of services we were doing on public projects; we aimed for scopes that would help position us for the work we really wanted.</p>
<p>By 2003, the public sector boom was ending and private sector work had come … and gone. We were in another recession. However, our firm was well positioned for this opportunity. We continually updated our planning, from strategic plans to marketing plans to ownership transition plans. Our champions were psyched to see how their efforts brought in results. Sometimes it took a few years to see the returns, but they definitely were happening.</p>
<p>It’s now 2007. A third of our staff regularly attends our quarterly strategic planning update meetings. We continued to work on the private-sector focus of our 1993 strategic plan and subsequent marketing plans. As a result, our WBE work dropped from 90 percent of revenue to 12 percent. Half of our projects are in the private sector. We grew revenues 18 percent per year for each of the last two years and increased profitability. We grew the firm to 65 employees. Because of our ownership transition plan, we now have eight shareholders. Sure, we had some glitches, and we dropped some initiatives and added others as circumstances dictated. But overall, the plans have helped us avoid the troughs that troubled our competitors.</p>
<p>Having a strategic plan, and working that plan, are the keys to avoiding a “wipe out” of your firm in a recession. More importantly, it’s the key to keeping your staff excited about the work they’re doing and the project opportunities the firm receives, while also attracting good engineers.</p>
<p>Published in CE News, March 2007</p>
Published in CE News, March 2007<br />
by Judith Nitsch, PE, LEED AP, CPSM, President
2007-03-01
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2013-05-18
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