PSMJ Podcasts Presents

Join Karl Wohler as he invites all your questions—LIVE. What are the industry norms for valuation and deal structure? What are the critical milestones in the M&A process? Can a sale process facilitate retirement exits while allowing some shareholders to remain in the ownership group and maintaining a path to ownership for key employees? Spend a half hour with PSMJ’s Karl Wohler and start to get some answer to your M&A questions.

Design firms understand that their success depends on strong client relationships. But how many A/E/C firms use their resources to focus on their client experience (CX) strategy? And how well are firms implementing and measuring their CX initiatives and aligning these efforts with their strategic plans? Ryan Suydam, Chief Experience Officer of Client Savvy, talks with A/E/C professionals and offers insight on how design firms can look at CX that is not “one more thing,” but rather an integrated approach that organically drives employee adoption and results in increased loyalty, client acquisitions (and referrals), and sustainable growth.

Business metrics and strategic planning are areas that most A/E Project Managers dread, possibly avoid, and may even ignore. Yet, the creation and use of effective metrics to influence business strategy is one of the most important ways PMs can help firms bring about crucial strategic success. Joshua Plenert, author of Strategic Excellence in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Industries - How AEC Firms Can Develop and Execute Strategy Using Lean Six Sigma, talks with A/E/C professionals and offers insight on how they can apply the leadership of Shingo and the scientific thinking of Lean Six Sigma to create, execute, and communicate critical business metrics. With Shingo and Lean Six Sigma as critical backdrops, Plenert addresses some of the mistakes and apprehensions caused by ineffective and detrimental metrics. You will also learn the purpose of Business Metrics, how to develop and effectively execute good metrics, and how to avoid some of the common mistakes associated with metrics.

This is great opportunity to learn how A/E’s top firms engage employees, use recognition to impact performance, and how career development helps retain star performers. The author 1,001 Ways to Engage Employees, Recognizing & Engaging Employees for Dummies and 1,501 Ways to Reward Employees takes audience questions about 2019’s secrets top managers use to get the best out of their employees.

Effectively executed A/E contracts ensure overall business success and continuity of the firm. The management of these contracts, therefore, is very important and helps determine the degree of success or failure of the enterprise. Yet most firms do not have a dedicated person assigned to the business process called contract administration. Should they?

Join PSMJ performance improvement guru Brian Flynn, P.E., BCEE, author of Maximizing Engineering Firm Profits—Profit Fundamentals for this 60-minute podcast and learn how SUM does not replace the P&L statement, but instead provides managers a powerful, three-pronged tool for operating a profitable firm in 2019.

U.S. and Canadian GDP has been growing steadily since The Great Recession. And 2019 continues the trend as the economy is going strong. Since 2003, PSMJ has asked A/E firm leaders every three months about their outlook for over 50 A/E markets and submarkets. Join PSMJ’s David Burstein for this 30-minute podcast and learn: • More about what PSMJ’s most recent Quarterly Market Forecast tells us about proposal activity and backlog trends in various sectors and geographic regions in North America. • Why business in the A/E sector is brisk and why it will continue (at least for a while). • Why the housing market is the best early indicator of what will happen in most other A/E market sectors. • How to be part of the PSMJ’s Quarterly Market Forecast.

Peter C. Atherton, P.E., author of "Reversing Burnout, How to Immediately Engage Top Talent and Grow! A Blueprint for Professionals and Business Owners" This is great opportunity to learn how A/E’s top firms are facing tremendous changes—in their workforces, workplaces, markets, and technology—and coming up effective and profitable. The author of Reversing Burnout, How to Immediately Engage Top Talent and Grow! A Blueprint for Professionals and Business Owners takes audience questions about 2019’s secrets to achieving a culture that encourages true engagement and sustainable performance within a tempo of accelerating change. Peter invites you to ask about ways leaders can better engage staff, make top performers better navigators of achievement, and other key takeaways for success. Join us as Peter talks candidly and opens your mind to better combat burnout and increase performance. About the Presenter: Peter Atherton, P.E., is an A/E industry insider having spent more than 24 years as a successful professional, principal, major owner, and member of the board of directors for a high-achieving engineering consulting firm. Pete is now the President and Founder of ActionsProve, LLC (www.actionsprove.com), author of Reversing Burnout. How to Immediately Engage Top Talent and Grow! A Blueprint for Professionals and Business Owners, and the creator of the I.M.P.A.C.T. process. Pete works with A/E firms to grow and advance their success through strategic planning implementation, executive coaching, performance-based employee engagement, and corporate impact design.

The Gallup Organization reports that the percentage of engaged employees nationwide is just 32 percent. The rest are uninvolved, unenthused, and uncommitted to their jobs, their managers, and the organizations they work for. Join Bob Nelson, PhD, the world’s leading authority on recognizing, engaging & retaining employees today for this 60-minute podcast and learn: - Top drivers of employee engagement - Ways to provide employee recognition that most impacts performance - The role of career development in retaining today’s employees - What successful managers at top organizations do to get the best out of their employees About the presenter: Dr. Bob Nelson is considered the world’s leading expert on employee recognition, motivation, engagement and rewards. He is president of Nelson Motivation Inc., a management training and consulting company located in San Diego, California that specializes in helping organizations improve their management practices, programs and systems.

It seems all Boomer executives and Gen Xer managers are trying to successfully work with Millennials and other, even younger A/E professionals. But how best to break down generational stereotypes and counter-productive myths to create more productive work environments? Using a buzzer-beater format, RMF Engineering’s Tim Griffin and generational expert Larry Cahill unpack the generation myths of the current A/E industry conundrum. Through real-life experience and practical tips, they lay out what how the industry is dealing with offices filled with the experienced and the newly minted professional who need to work together. In this podcast, you will learn: - What firm leaders can do to bridge the gap between the generations - How to develop future leaders now, for tomorrow - Ways to deliver a training and mentoring culture - Keys to make delegation work — where young people can work and be trusted to take on relevant responsibilities About Your Presenters: J. Tim Griffin P.E., MBA, LEED AP is a partner and executive vice president with RMF Engineering, Inc., a national engineering consulting firm operating throughout the United States with projects across the globe. He is a licensed professional engineer and certified energy manager. Larry Cahill, CPEA, has over 40 years of professional consulting experience including working with Booz, Allen & Hamilton and Exxon Research and Engineering. His roles have included junior consultant, project manager, technical director, managing principal, vice president, and chief operating officer. Cahill has authored several books and has written over 80 journal publications.