Contract - March 2016 - 30

Strategic Services as a Tide to Lift All Boats
by Evelyn M. Lee, AIA

Evelyn M. Lee, AIA, writes
a regular column for Contract
on business practices in design
and professional development.
Lee is a senior strategist at
MKThink, the ideas company
for the built environment
based in San Francisco,
and holds graduate degrees
in architecture, public
administration, and business
administration. Lee has served
on the AIA national board
of directors and, in 2014,
she received the AIA Young
Architects Award. Her website
is evelynlee.com.

Upon meeting a new colleague in the design
profession, or even reuniting with an old friend
to talk shop, I often find myself having a recurring
conversation about strategic services. I enjoy
the discussion because it is often an opportunity
to dispel rumors related to this type of consulting
work as well as a chance to explain why I believe
more firms should consider adding strategic
services as a line of business. In this month's column,
I answer the most common questions, and address
the subsequent myths, about the applicability
of having a strategic group or studio within a firm.

We do not have any workplace clients, so is it
beneficial to have a strategy group or studio?
Rather than focusing solely within one project sector
or industry, having strategic services within a firm
allows that segment of the practice to have a great
impact across market sectors. The implementation
of strategic services gives a firm the potential to
further existing client relationships. It also provides
a relatively low-risk opportunity to test the waters
in other potential growth markets that the firm may
be considering. Within the San Francisco Bay area,
where I am located, many large firms have just
begun to develop a workplace strategy group
or expand upon an existing one. MKThink designs
workplace interiors as well, but the majority of the
firm's strategic projects are in the education market,
with a unique focus on school districts and higher
education. Also, the firm is growing its municipal
offering through a strategic project and is currently
making scenario recommendations for how
a county can better provide health and human
services to its constituents. This diversification
can serve a firm well when economic fluctuations
impact particular market sectors.

Why are you sharing all of this information?
Let me be honest here. I am not necessarily giving
away trade secrets. My passion for sharing what
I do in strategy, and encouraging other firms to follow
suit, stems from the belief that the profession
needs to continue to evolve in order to stay relevant.
Strategic services, and the wide breadth of different
project types that they actually entail, are a means
to ensure that we all stay afloat even when
our clients are not spending on improving their
Must a firm be large to be able to deliver
capital assets.
strategic services?
With that being said, what strategic
In my experience with MKThink, the firm has
services can offer is unique and new enough,
always provided strategic services to its clients over
from an architecture and design firm perspective,
the past decade, and has done so whether the firm
that pipeline development for our strategy offerings
size was seven or 40 employees. The ability to offer
strategic services is not at all dependent on firm size. can take two to three times longer than a typical
design and construction project. This is primarily
Smaller, more nimble firms, without a lot of internal
because it takes a few more meetings and
politics, are often able to initiate this line of service
discussions to introduce the strategic offerings
quicker than medium or large firms.
and to find the right opportunity to engage the client
before they even consider whether or not they need
Then how does the firm have the necessary
to build at all. If more firms offer similar services,
overhead to support strategy?
and if firms that are currently offering strategic
Strategic services are, as the term clearly states,
services continue to innovate, the client acquisition
a service that is provided on behalf of clients.
costs will be considerably reduced.
While strategy studios are often thought of as the
In the end, I share this information because,
research arm or center of a firm, the profit margin
as the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats,
related to the projects provided by the strategic
and I would love to see our profession continue
team is consistently larger than the margins
to thrive well into the future. c
associated with the typical architecture and design
services that the firm provides. In fact, in strained
economic conditions, when actual construction
is less, the strategy group and its associated
projects may help to carry a firm.

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PHOTOGRAPHY: CARL BOWER

COLUMNIST

http://www.evelynlee.com http://www.contractdesign.com

Contract - March 2016

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