Stu’s News with Trina’s Tips April 2010 Changing Client Working Relationships Traditionally, professionals meet with a client, do some listening to project goals and concerns, then go back to the office to work on the project. Later, we’ll return with some initial solutions, have meetings with clients to get their feedback, then head back to […]
Stu’s News with Trina’s Tips February 2010 Sustainability: What It’s Really All About This issue of Stu’s News will be a little different … actually a lot different. We – all of us in the “design professions” – are essentially, one way or another, “stewards of the environment.” What’s surfacing in the way of “sustainability” […]
Stu’s News with Trina’s Tips August 2009 Back to Basics #4: Walking the Talk During this past year, we’ve been asked to go into client organizations as a third party, to elicit feedback from several clients in each system … typically large municipalities. These clients all have multiple projects at any given time, with more on […]
Stu’s News with Trina’s Tips November 2009 Back to Basics #5: The Essence of Mandeville I recently was listening to a client whose firm does program management for many major federal clients – many of whom currently have surging budgets. He just participated as a member of a client selection committee for a major research […]
Stu’s News with Trina’s Tips May 2009 Back to Basics #3: The Trusted Advisor Many firms state a goal of being a “Trusted Advisor” to their clients. “Walking the Talk” is usually more difficult and energy consuming than “Talking the Talk.” But – it’s also where you arrive at the real essence of The Mandeville […]
Stu’s News with Trina’s Tips March 2009 Back to Basics #2 Do the Right Thing When we get feedback from a client, in which virtually everything we helped them learn and implement comes back with glowing results, it makes their feelings of success and our levels of professional satisfaction soar. The subject of this […]
Stu’s News with Trina’s Tips January 2009 Back to Basics #1: The Collateral Organization For the past 15 years or so, the marketplace has been reasonably strong. Firms maintained a level of service, and clients provided a flow of new work. Now, times are changing … and not just a little … and not just […]
Stu’s News with Trina’s Tips Winter 2008 The Surrogate CEO Engaging an outside professional to serve a key role in a firm is an uncommon, but often very effective tactic. In many instances, an outsider assumes the role as an interim step, until the firm’s internal leadership capability is established. A common application […]
Stu’s News with Trina’s Tips Fall 2008 Positive Thinking Franklin Delano Roosevelt may have been more insightful than even he may have realized when he issued one of his (more or less) famous statements… “The only thing to fear is fear itself.” In recent months, I’ve experienced many more friends and business colleagues who seem […]
Stu’s News with Trina’s Tips Summer 2008 Recession-Proofing Looking at the supply-demand model, the supply of people in our profession is diminishing. More are retiring than are entering our profession. Even if demand is less, most firms are still remaining busy. Paraphrasing the CEO of one firm… “Last year was the best year we’ve ever […]