Future Firm Leaders

The owners and founders of a large structural engineering firm plus a handful of others were generating a disproportionate share of the firm's business. Looking ahead to retirement, the owners want to develop more rainmakers among the young ranks of the organization. Harding & Company ran a six-month development program for a group of these young, high-potential engineers. Most have greatly increased their sales and several have been promoted to partner and been given greater responsibility in the organization.

Winning "Beauty Contests"

An international engineering firm specializing in large infrastructure projects competed for business in many "beauty contest" presentations each year, during which its engineers were judged more on their presentation than on their engineering capabilities. To increase their effectiveness at these events, Harding & Company trained a cadre of internal presentation coaches who could be dispatched on short notice to regional offices when there was an impending beauty contest. The firm's win rate on presentations for major projects became the best in the industry.

Sustaining a Staff in a Down Market

A large product design firm had grown rapidly in the long recovery of the 1990s, capturing much of the best design engineering talent by winning the most interesting projects. Management knew that it would only be able to retain this staff by continuing to get the best projects in the following downturn. The quickest way to do that was from old clients with whom the firm's engineers had work. Unfortunately, the engineers had lost touch with many of these people. Harding & Company showed the engineers how to rekindle these relationships and win new projects. In the process, it helped build a sales culture within the firm. The firm faired much better in the recession than did its competitors, only making slight cutbacks in its staff, while others were closing offices.

Turnaround by Generating Leads

A well-known AE firm had grown to 400 professionals only to see revenues slide when the economy went into recession. The president of the firm wanted the management team to lead a turnaround by getting out into the market place to generate leads. Yet few on the team had been deeply involved in lead generation in the past. Harding & Company was asked to coach the team over six months to help them build the skills and discipline needed to generate more leads. The number of leads rose steadily during and after the program.