Representing the top 20% of participants in PSMJ’s annual A/E Financial Performance Benchmark Survey, 66 exceptional firms made it onto the exclusive list this year. In a panel discussion with firm leaders whose firms that have made this list a number of years in a row, all shared an important secret central to their firm's success. 

Set targets related to profit
Founded in 1922, the 140-person multi- disciplinary design firm BWBR, with offices in St. Paul, MN, and Madison, WI, helps create innovative, efficient, intuitive environments by providing clients with comprehensive solutions to complex needs.

BWBR President and CEO, Pete Smith, AIA, who has been with the company for more than 27 years, attributes the firm’s remarkable 93-year longevity and continued success to its culturally ingrained, business-centered mentality. The firm supports this mentality by emphasizing technological advancement,institutionalized employee training, and clear target-setting.

As standard practice, BWBR also sets ambitious profit targets for each project. Unlike other design firms, BWBR takes a profit from the gross fee, not the net. After paying consultants, the remainder of the fee is divided by BWBR’s overhead rate—providing their project managers a net fee with which to work.

Culturally ingrained at BWBR—and a skill supported and praised by BWBR leadership— is the ability to do more with less. This helps ensure profit on every project. “We aim high, and then we have a number of cushions inside our numbers, so when we do the math and close out the job, we end up on top. We also culturally train people to work with a little bit less in their hand,” says Smith.

When in doubt, narrow your focus
Formerly WD Transportation, a division of WD Partners, Carpenter Marty Transportation (CMTran) was founded in 2013 by Kevin Carpenter and Bill Marty. Now in its second year with 24 employees, CMTran provides bridge, right-of-way, roadway, survey, and traffic design services.

Carpenter Marty Transportation’s Founding Principal, Kevin Carpenter, attributes his young firm’s success to specialization, a sound, firm-wide communications strategy, and a thorough hiring process.

When part of WD Transportation, a much larger, international architectural and engineering firm, Carpenter found that it was difficult to market to small municipalities and rural county governments. Now that he’s specialized in his own firm, he’s found marketing to these types of clients to be much easier.

“They [the smaller municipalities and governments] would see multiunit retail and ask ‘Why would we hire you to do a bridge?’”says Carpenter. “When we split off, it was easy to market to those clients because it’s all we do. It made it easy from a business development standpoint to market and sell services. There was no gray area; these are the only kind of projects we do.”

This narrowed focus, along with providing CMTran a built-in differentiator, had another bright side, too: It made their clients trust them more.

“If you give us a project, our people live and work in and know the state standards because that’s all they do. We won’t ship your project to California or Denver. The clients want to hear that. They want to know who they’re working with. They’re getting the A-Team because that’s all we have is the A-Team. There’s no B-Team. From a marketing standpoint, that’s easy to sell to a client.”

Establish a strong seller-doer model
Hart & Hickman, PC  is an environmental consulting firm serving clients throughout the Southeast U.S. Its team of engineers, geologists, scientists, and regulatory specialists provide technical expertise to clients to reduce environmental liability and costs based on project-specific needs and objectives.

Now in its 20th year, the 50-person environmental consulting firm Hart & Hickman has enjoyed tremendous post-recession success. The firm distinguishes itself by having a rigorous recruiting program,strong team incentivization policies, and a highly utilized senior-level staff.

Principal Bruce Hickman, P.E., believes one of the firm’s most atypical differentiators is its strong emphasis on the seller-doer model. “I’m 50-60% utilized on projects and clients,” says Hickman, “and my partners are up to 90% committed to projects. With six owners, two founders, two minority shareholders, and two new shareholders, we don’t have any figureheads. I think that’s something that makes us different. We all serve on projects.”

In addition to all members of the top management working on projects, everyone—from senior level staff to administrative assistants—are responsible for business development and relationship building. In fact, relationship building is built in to the job descriptions of every available position at Hart & Hickman. “Our entry-level position includes the clause, ‘You’re going to learn to develop relationships with your peers’ and then the next level is, ‘You’re going to learn to develop relationships with your vendors,’ and then it progresses,” says Hickman. “So, it starts at the earliest levels. Eventually, developing this peer network becomes financially rewarding for everyone.”

Consider ownership transition in strategic planning
Founded in 1989, Brown Engineers, LLC, a 14-person firm headquartered in Little Rock, AR, specializes in electrical, mechanical, and automation engineering.Though still a relatively young company, Brown Engineering is already looking to the future. With PSMJ facilitating, Brown engaged in firm-wide strategic planning, the result of which was alignment of principals’ goals and the decision that the firm should grow.

Part of the principals’ goals was to start thinking about ownership transition. "We decided we wanted to tackle a very slow internal transaction,” says Dee Brown , P.E., Co-Founder & Principal. “Through that process with PSMJ, we came out all on the same page, pulling in the same direction.

Want to learn more about how this year's COE members have been gotten where they are today, check out PSMJ's  recently released complimentary ebook Here's How They Did It! Becoming Part Of PSMJ's Circle of Excellence.