Word on the Street

Checking in on This Year’s Movers and Shakers; 9 Reasons Why Some Strategic Plans Change Firms and Others Change Nothing

From True Believers to Deal Signers; Strategic Planning’s Unfinished Business

The Perfect AE Firm?; 4 Strategic Planning Traps Right Under Your Nose

27 Takeaways from The CEO Symposium; How Each Kind of CEO Can Help (Or Hurt) Strategic Planning

The AI Trilogy I Never Meant to Write; Return of the King; A CEO Isn’t Supposed to Have All the Answers

Three Years In: What We Got Right (And Wrong) About AI in the AE Industry; The Four Personality Types CEOs Have to Convince

All Roads Lead to Claude; Let the CEO Be the CEO

What You Don’t See About Your Business Gets Priced First; You Got There Early. Now What?

Inside the Mind of the CEO: AI Anxiety; Are You Ready to Grow Through Acquisition?

Twenty Thoughts on Twenty Years

Beyond the Tipping Point—What’s Next for the AE Industry; The Sell-or-Wait Debate

Boring CEOs Are the Best?!; Strategy in the Noise

Going Back to Miami

What’s on the Minds of the Industry’s Top CEOs? The Lonely Chair (Part 2)

Change of the Guard; The Lonely Chair (Part 1)

ZenaTech Receives the AE Industry’s 2026 Most Prolific and Proficient Acquirer Award; What AE Firm Leaders Should Do With Their Mistakes

500 (Part 2); The Hard Part Starts After the Planning Retreat

500 (Part 1); What AE Firms Can Learn From Everyone Else

Ten Movers and Shakers to Watch in 2026; Hell Week

2026 Will Be the 13th Year of the AE Industry’s “Golden Age”; Sometimes Being Penny-Wise Is Pound-Wise

You Cannot Be Serious!; Turning the C-Suite Into a Collaborative Engine—Without Stepping on Toes

Let’s Talk about the Biggest Change This Year in AE M&A; Looking Forward Requires a Rearview Mirror

Wise Words from a Year of Podcasts with ENR 500 CEOs; You Scoped It Right—But Then the Real Story Emerges

A Week in the Life of a CEO; Capitalization and Strategic Planning

The Privilege of Making Tough Decisions; 2025 Thanksgiving Leftovers 

Checking in on the 2025 Movers and Shakers; 9 Reasons Why Your Heir Is Not Apparent

The Four Failures to Getting Your Firm Fired; 10 Ways to Celebrate Both the Business and the Work as You Grow

From the “Great Recapitalization” to the “Great Consolidation”; When Everything Happens All at Once—How to Survive the Avalanche

Deep in the Heart of Texas

The Opportunities for AE Firms in Today’s Tax Environment; Close Out 2025 the Right Way

CEO Mission Impossible: The (Surprising?) Results; Six Deadly Mistakes of Strategic Planning—And How to Avoid Them

What Are the Best Post-Transaction KPIs?; Building the Digital Backbone

Announcing the 2025 Best Post-Transaction Performance Award Recipients; Counting What Counts

Mission Impossible for the CEO: What Would You Do?; Who Owns Your People?

M&A, Texas Style; Marketing Leadership by Firm Size

Best Post-Transaction Performance Award Application Window Closes Soon; Who Does What—And When? Leadership Structures by Firm Size

There Is a Town in North Ontario; Develop Financial Fluency in Your Next Leaders

Lessons Learned From 300 Transactions; 5 Ways to Connect Your Firm-Wide Strategic Plan With Business Unit Plans

One Big Beautiful Map (Of Industry Consolidation); Guard Your Time Like a Leader

Summer Check-in on M&A Predictions; Finding the Goldilocks Zone: Balancing Between Organic and Acquisitive Growth

Six Signals from Six Months: Lessons Learned from AE M&A in H1 2025; How Owners Choose Their Exit

Best Post-Transaction Performance Award Application Window Opens Today; 5 Skills Leaders Don’t Need Today— But Will Absolutely Need Tomorrow

After the OBBBA: What You Need to Know Now

Mid-Year Industry Assessment: Despite Uncertainty, Things Are Still Looking Up

A Subtle Shift Is Taking Place in Large-Firm Deal-Making; How to Build a Growth Plan for Your AE Firm in These Uncertain Times

Leaving Las Vegas; Leaving Las Vegas—Friday Recap

It Oughta Be Easy, Oughta Be Simple Enough; How to Prepare Your Protégés to Take Over

Ardurra Group: Advancing Industry M&A Best Practices; What if the Floodgates Actually Open? Would You Be Ready?

Reflections From a Busy Q2; How to Build a Brand From the Inside Out (Without the Cringe)

You Might Be Playing the Endgame If…; Is Your C-Suite Balancing Brains and Boots?

In a Strange Place: Confidence and Uncertainty; 7 Ways to Build Consistent Culture Across Your Multi-Office Firm

We Belong Together; “Should We Open an Office There?” A Down-To-Earth Guide to Geographic Expansion

Fork in the Road; What’s the Best Org Structure for Your Firm?

The Godspeed of Trust; 6 Ways to Lead Through the Fog of Uncertainty

Nineteen Who Made Us

Western States M&A by the Numbers (Part 2); 6 Things Non-AE CEOs Can Teach You About Strategy (And Why It’s Worth Listening In)

Western States M&A by the Numbers; How Many People Should Be On Your Strategic Planning Committee? Well, It Depends

Three Perfect Days in Miami—Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday Recap

Application Window for M&A Best Practices Award Opens Today; Is Your Target Market Starting to Soften?

After the Love Is Gone: Scenes From Failed Integrations; Vision Matters: But AE Firms Are (Still) Getting It Wrong

Sellers, Avoid These 7 Deadly Sins; Is Your AE Firm Coming Down with Something? A Cold-Season Diagnosis for Your Business

A Tipping Point in 2025; Break Silos and Build Bridges in a Rapidly Changing 2025

300; How to Give Feedback That Actually Lands (Instead of Blowing Up in Your Face)

For the Times They Are a Changin’?; Don’t Know Where to Grow Next? Use the “3C” Filter 

Ten Movers and Shakers to Watch in 2025; 7 Steps for Adapting to Rapid Change Under the Trump Administration

The Recipient of This Year’s Most Prolific and Proficient Acquirer Award Is…

Eight Predictions for 2025; 10 Ways to Make 2025 One for the Books

Behind the Buyers in the “Big 3”; Transitioning Doesn’t Have to Mean Vanishing

Shakeup in the Southeast; Thank the Pilgrims for These Eight Lessons

Five Things I’ve Come to Learn; Closing 2024 and Opening 2025

Checking in on the 2024 M&A Movers and Shakers; Stop It! Tactic-Only Thinking Is Sinking Your Strategy

The Holy Grail of Acquisitions; 7 Ways to Find the Faint Line Between Right and Wrong

I Heard the News Today, Oh Boy; Got a Tough Problem? Go Antique Shopping

Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now, We’ve Got the Groove

The Death of CEO Succession Planning as We Know It; Why Future Leaders Struggle to Let Go

Lessons Learned From the Best Post-Transaction Performance Awards; Bad Communication Is Holding Good Firms Back

Announcing the 2024 Best Post-Transaction Performance Awards Recipients; Collaboration? Ha! The Dirty Truth Behind AE Firm Silos and Turf Wars

Jargon Is Hurting, Not Helping; What Happens When Your Do and Don’t Share Financial Performance Information

I Would Have Appreciated a Heads Up About the Scorpions; Strategic Business Plans vs. Growth Plans—They Are Different Animals

The AE Industry Muscles Its Way Into 2025; From Oversight to Insight: Building a High-Impact Board of Directors

What’s Up With Texas Consolidation?; Sometimes You Just Need to Let Go

AI for the AE CEO in Houston (October) and Nashville (November); The Vanishing Act: Why Mid-Level Talent Is Scarce in AE Firms and How to Build It Back From Within

14 Lessons from 250 Transactions; The Power of Responsibility

Mid-Year M&A Round Up and the 250 Milestone; The Silent Voices of Employee Surveys

Early Findings From the 2024 Best Post-Transaction Performance Award Applications; The Art of Transition—Mastering Client Relationships and Sales

Breathe Out, So I Can Breathe You In; The Leadership Paradox: Are You Your Own Worst Enemy?

Best Post-Transaction Performance Award Application Window Opens Today; From Blueprints to Beach Chairs—10 Ways to Maximize Your Vacation Time

The Most Perilous Decision for the Loneliest CEO (Part 2); What AI Deployment Could Look Like in Your Firm (Part 3)

The Most Perilous Decision for the Loneliest CEO; What AI Deployment Could Look Like in Your Firm (Part 2)

10 Things I’ve Learned About CEOs; What AI Deployment Could Look Like in Your Firm (Part 1)

Creating “Get To,” Not “Have To,” Jobs; We Stink at Change Management—and We Need to Change That

Viva Las Vegas!

The (Almost) Mid-Year M&A Update; What Does It Take to Get Young Professionals to Break the 40-Hour Barrier?

Trinity Consultants—Advancing Industry M&A Best Practices; 7 Reasons Why Strategic Plans Work—and 7 Reasons They Fail

Seven Takeaways from the ACEC National Convention; Soft Skills in the Digital Age

On Capitalization, Taylor Swift, and Industry Leadership; Lead the Charge Against Fear and Resistance to AI in Your AE Firm

The All-Pervasive Nature of Private Equity; Fumbled Leadership Handoffs

Mid-Year Industry Pulse—Onward and Upward; Bringing the Outside World In: Learning From Other Industries

By the Time You’ve Read This…; Dry Those Tears, Gen X…I Didn’t Forget You Like Everyone Else Has

Old Enough to Vote, 18 Years of Learning (Part 1); Old Enough to Vote, 18 Years of Learning (Part 2)