Category: Business Development
-
How to Start Service Productization in Your Design Company
If you’re running a small design firm and would like to increase your productivity, consider productizing your services. I just gave a presentation at the Business of Architecture Summit on service productization. I quoted Jorma Sipilä, a Finnish consultant, who wrote: “A service is productized when it can be licensed or its ownership can be…
-
Are We on the Road to Sustainable Construction?
By consuming resources and creating pollutants and wastes, the construction of buildings and infrastructure has a dramatic effect on the environment. According to a report by the Willmott Dixon Group, around half of all global energy usage can be attributed to the construction industry. Similarly, an estimated 60% of the total usage of raw materials,…
-
Making The Most Of Your Commercial Space
Wherever your business is located, space comes at a premium, and this means that you need to utilise every square foot that you have and put it to the best use possible. Typically, materials and equipment that you use most often will need to be easily accessible, while some of your permanent space may be…
-
Bid to Win in Professional Services
Answering requests for proposals (RFP) or requests for quotations (RFQ) is a recurring activity for many professional services providers. Many clients seem to think that buying professional services is no different than buying office supplies. Public sector organizations have to put projects out to tender, and large companies have procurement departments that try to get…
-
Co-creation in the German Real Estate Business – Interview with Pia Betton
I had the pleasure of interviewing Pia Betton, Partner and Director at Edenspiekermann AG. Pia’s company designs brand experiences and has offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, San Francisco, Singapore and Stuttgart. We talk about a recent meetup on digitalization and co-creation in the real estate business. Edenspiekermann organized the event with David Chipperfield Architects, and it…
-
Transforming an Unispiring Office Campus into an Innovation Village
SRV, a Finnish building contractor, hosted an interesting seminar on the future of offices and workplaces in Helsinki on June 2, 2015. In this podcast episode, you can hear the presentation by Mikko Kauppinen, Finance Director and Health Innovation Village Project Leader at GE Healthcare. Mikko tells a story of an uninspiring office campus that GE Healthcare…
-
Referral Marketing Is No Longer What You Think It Is
In a recent survey of professional services firms’ top priorities and initiatives in 2015, the Hinge Research Institute found that referral marketing is the top marketing initiative this year. However, referral marketing is no longer what it used to be. In a new guide, Rethinking Referral Marketing, Hinge explores the reasons for the shift, and how…
-
Strategies for Successful Partnering – AEC Business
I have helped several AEC firms in their efforts to partner up with each other. It is quite easy to imagine the benefits of partnering, but it is quite difficult to actually reap those benefits in real life. Experience has shown that different levels of partnerships have different success factors. There are three distinctive forms…
-
Your Ultimate Advantage in the Robotic Age
Last Friday I had the opportunity to attend the FLUX 2015 conference for game changers and innovators in Helsinki. It was a very inspiring and thought provoking event, packed with insight and information. In this post, I’ll share my notes on the first of the two presentations, Marty Neumeier‘s Metaskills. Marty Neumeier is a renowned author,…
-
Three Top Tips for Maintaining a Productive Construction Site
In terms of creating and maintaining productivity, building sites are much like any other workplace. As an employer, you want your staff members to labour as quickly, efficiently, and thoroughly as possible, all whilst maintaining the highest of standards and producing faultless work. This is a challenging task, it’s true, but it’s not an impossible…