by Jennifer Ng
At the ASLA lecture presented on Thursday, 9/15, James Lord (Surfacedesign), Jeanette Hill (DES), Rene Bihan (SWA), and Sara Peschel (Ground works) discussed their firms’ business development strategies and project values. James took the audience through Surfacedesign’s progression through the years and demonstrated how relationships and word of mouth can be a powerful ally. Jeanette showed a series of projects across the arc of her career. Her projects were tied together by her passion for connecting people to each other and helping them find ownership in their community.
To contrast Jeanette and James, Rene discussed business development more globally as it relates to SWA’s 59 year history and inter-generational leadership. He offered business development advice to people at all levels in the profession, from entry level to the 30+ year principal. To round out Rene, Sara offered advice to the start ups. Having co-founded GWO 4 years ago, she offered a fresh perspective on starting out and providing excellence at all levels.
The lecture ended with a panel discussion and a lively Q/A from the audience. Questions covered the full arc: from staying relevant in a changing field, to involving staff in proposal efforts, to bridging the gap between effective marketing/relationship building and where you want to be, to discussing the delicate dance of taking risks and having enough time to deliver on those risks, to balancing office growth with bigger project gains, and fantasizing about the dream projects that the business development efforts would lead to. The conversation was captivating and took a meandering quality that kept us all invested in the discussion until the AIA turned the lights off on us!
