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Alignment by Design: Publisher: PSMJ Resources, Inc. Date Published: September 2026 Number of Pages: 188 Format: Paperback Price: $47
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Growth doesn't explain why some firms win. Alignment does.
Two A/E firms can look nearly identical on paper — same size, same backlog, same markets — and still perform completely differently over time. Why?
For decades, the industry has answered that question with the same story: get bigger, get faster, get more backlog. But revenue growth, headcount, and utilization are outcomes, not the drivers behind them. When leaders chase those numbers directly, they often build firms that look successful on the outside while the internal systems holding it together quietly lose coherence.
The real driver is internal alignment — and now there's research to prove it.
Drawing on original doctoral research into high-performing architecture and engineering firms, Michael W. Matthews set out to answer a different question: not what unsuccessful firms do wrong, but what the most consistently successful firms actually have in common. Using survey data, in-depth interviews, and structured analysis, the research found no significant correlation between profitability and the metrics most firms obsess over — size, growth rate, turnover, cash flow. What did separate top performers was how well five core systems worked together:
- Values, Mission, and Vision: identity that shapes decisions, not language on a website.
- Governance: partnership norms and accountability, in any legal structure.
- Organizational Structure: teams built for collaboration, not just hierarchy.
- Leadership : transformational, relational, and developmental in practice.
- Culture: the clan-based pattern that showed up again and again in top-tier firms.
This book shows how these five components reinforce — or undermine — one another, and gives leaders a research-grounded framework for diagnosing where their own firm stands.
Inside, you'll find:
- A research-backed challenge to conventional metrics. Why size, growth, and backlog fail to predict which firms sustain performance — and what actually does.
- A five-component diagnostic framework you can use with your leadership team to surface where your firm is aligned, and where it's quietly working against itself.
- A composite, transcript-style conversation with successful firm leaders (Appendix A) that puts the framework into real leadership language — not just theory.
- Practical guidance for leaders navigating growth, ownership transition, M&A integration, and succession, where misalignment shows up fastest and costs the most.
Whether you're a managing principal, a next-gen leader stepping into ownership, an HR leader shaping culture, or a board member advising on strategy, Alignment by Design gives you a shared language for the conversations your leadership team senses it needs to have but doesn't yet know how to start.
This isn't a formula to copy. It's a mirror — and a map.
About the Author
Mike W. Matthews, P.E., FACEC, is a Senior Consultant and Mergers & Acquisitions Advisor with PSMJ, where he advises architecture, engineering, and consulting firms on strategic growth, ownership transition, mergers and acquisitions, organizational alignment, and leadership.
He served for nearly 20 years as CEO of an A/E firm, growing the firm from approximately $4 million to more than $40 million in annual revenue while completing multiple acquisitions before its successful sale to a $3.7 billion global organization. He subsequently served as CFO of a 120-person technology services firm and culminated his C-suite career as President and COO of a 320-person geotechnical, environmental, and testing firm. These leadership roles provided firsthand experience with the strategic, financial, operational, and cultural challenges of organizational growth.
At PSMJ, Mike advises firms on buy-side acquisition strategy, strategic growth planning, ownership transition, executive leadership, and post-acquisition integration. His approach combines practical executive experience with research-based methodologies to help leadership teams align strategy, governance, organizational structure, leadership, and culture in support of sustainable growth.
Mike earned a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership from Regent University. His doctoral research examined the organizational factors that contribute to enduring success in professional services firms, providing the foundation for PSMJ’s Strategic Growth Planning methodology and its proprietary organizational assessment tools.
An ACEC Fellow, Mike has taught graduate-level business courses, presented at numerous industry conferences, and continues to advise executive leadership teams across the AEC industry on strategy, growth, mergers and acquisitions, and organizational leadership.