Staying Small Successfully or Rethinking the East Asian Miracle

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

Author: Frank A Stasiowski

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.

Table of Contents:

	Foreword	xi
	Acknowledgments	xiii
	Introduction	1
	New Opportunities for Success	1
	We're in an Industry Sea Change	2
	Identify Your Smarts	2
	Develop Leaders in Your Firm	3
	Be Proud of Who You Are	3
	Reference	3
Chapter 1	Planning and Strategy	5
	The Need for Vision	6
	Defining a Vision	7
	The Concise Written Vision	9
	Elements of a Plan	9
	Conducting a Planning Meeting	34
	Repeat the Process Periodically	37
	Success Challenges	43
	References	43
Chapter 2	Focusing Your Practice	45
	Advantages of Focusing the Practice	46
	Steps to Focusing	46
	Success Challenges	86
	References	86
Chapter 3	Strategic Alliances	87
	The Unique Rewards of Strategic Alliances	89
	Communication Is the Key	93
	Framing a Strategic Alliance	93
	Success Challenges	94
	Reference	94
Chapter 4	Servicing the Client	95
	Service versus Design	98
	Little Things That Count Big	99
	Responsiveness	105
	Project Management	105
	Quality Control	119
	Quality Control for the Actual Work	126
	Innovate Even Normal Activities	134
	Success Challenges	136
	References	136
Chapter 5	Personnel	137
	Hiring	137
	Controlling Your Ego	138
	How to Attract Top People	139
	Develop Top Performers from Within	141
	Announce Positions Within	146
	Delegate!	146
	Probation Period	151
	Fire Incompetents	151
	Employment Contracts	152
	Success Challenges	157
	References	157
Chapter 6	Compensation	159
	Motivating Design Professionals	159
	Benefits	163
	Timing Pay Raises	164
	Incentive Compensation	165
	Career Tracking	171
	Creating an Atmosphere of Achievement	171
	Success Challenges	173
	Reference	173
Chapter 7	Managing the Bottom Line	175
	Simplified Financial Planning	177
	Budgeting	177
	Key Financial Measures	184
	Profit Is Everything	192
	Sharing Financial Information	201
	Success Challenges	201
Chapter 8	Information Technology	203
	Developing Your Strategic Information Technology Plan	206
	Understand Your Systems	208
	Standard Issues	209
	Computer-Aided Drafting and Design (CADD)	212
	Virtual Reality	217
	Using Your Computer as a Presentation Tool	219
	Collaborative Computing	220
	From Internet to Extranet	222
	Internet/Intranet Strategies	223
	Implementation Issues	225
	Success Challenges	226
	References	226
Chapter 9	Growth	227
	Benefits of Small Firms	227
	Defining Your Growth	229
	When to Grow	229
	Ways to Grow	230
	Growth Rate	232
	Stages of Growth	232
	Risks Inherent in Growth	234
	Success Challenges	234
Chapter 10	The Psychology of Winning	237
	Ownership Transition	238
	Competing with Your Peers	239
	Success Challenges	244
Chapter 11	Do's and Don'ts of Success	247
	Do's	247
	Don'ts	261
	A Final Word	268
	Success Challenges	268
Appendix A	Buy/Sell Agreements	271
Appendix B	Preparing Your Marketing Plan: Techniques and What to Include	301
Appendix C	Is Your Cover Letter Making a Difference?	305
	Recommended Reading	309
	Index	311

Books about: Echo Chamber or Where Have All the Leaders Gone

Rethinking the East Asian Miracle

Author: Joseph E Stiglitz

This volume provides highly illuminating, analytic perspectives on key facets of the East Asian economies. It discusses weaknesses in the financial sector, corporate governance, exchange rate and trade policies, regulatory capability, and proposes remedies. Rethinking the East Asian Miracle is an indispensable book for all those with an interest in East Asia's prospects in the early decades of the new century.