Engineering Inc. - March/April 2015 - (Page 48)

Business Insights Engineer Your Business as Well as Your Projects Successfully managing your A/E business requires technical knowhow as well as a broad awareness of today's best multidisciplinary business practices. Firm leaders must know the rules of management and finance and how they work in the real world-from reading income statements to making complicated investment decisions to managing both employee and client expectations. Effective navigation of business challenges in the current economy also requires: * Understanding the intricacies of human relations and related legal elements * Creating and managing client relationships and expectations * Managing risk and drafting/adapting contracts * Knowing the fundamentals of business development * Understanding ownership transition and employee satisfaction ACEC's benchmark education program course, The Business of Design Consulting, is a unique playbook for building leadership and managing your firm. The program will be held March 18-21 in Dallas, Texas. It will feature an expert and experienced faculty of industry practitioners, who will cover contemporary best practices and critical operational management techniques. Attendees will learn specific skills and techniques to help them manage change and build success in Engineer Your Business performance management, strategic planas Smartly as you ning and growth, finance, leadership, owner- Engineer Your Projects ship transition, contracts and risk management, marketing and more. For more information, visit www.acec. org/calendar and click the "Business of Design Consulting - Dallas 2015" link. March 18-21, 2015 * Dallas TX normally impose, including for undesired outcomes that could occur even when the design professional meets the standard of care, and with no compensation. This is an obvious attempt to reallocate risk and responsibility to design professionals for things over which they have no control. The Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC) recognizes that owners are pressuring engineers to include some form of indemnification of the owner. That is why EJCDC's E-500: Agreement Between Owner and Engineer for Professional Services includes specific language that the engineer indemnifies the owner against claims caused by the "negligent act or omission" of the engineer. In most cases this would be covered by the engineer's professional liability policy, and it extends the engineer's liability only slightly beyond what the law already imposes. E-500 similarly provides cross-indemnification by the owner for the engineer's benefit. To review E-500: Agreement Between Owner and Engineer for Professional Services and the full array of EJCDC documents, visit www.acec.org/publications/books-and-contracts and click the "Contracts" link. The Business of Design Consulting A management intensive program for developing A/E firm leaders Earn 22.5 PDHs! Indemnification Clauses In Engineering Contracts More engineers are being asked-and often required-to sign contracts that may unfairly make them indemnify their client (and possibly others) against losses the client might suffer on the project. The indemnification clause can be so broadly worded that it could be applied to any loss the client may suffer, whether or not it is attributable to the engineer's activities. Trade associations and professional societies have long condemned such clauses because they impose liability on design professionals beyond their proper responsibility, involve exposure in considerable excess of what the law would normally require, and the risk involved is likely not covered under the design professionals' insurance. If owners seek additional protection, the most reasonable course is for them to obtain additional or special insurance. Instead, the strategy by many is to subject the design professional, by contract, to greater responsibilities than the law would 48 ENGINEERING INC. MARCH / APRIL 2015 CASE White Paper on Standard of Care The CASE Guidelines Committee's white paper on Standard of Care is now available. Many engineers who are licensed and practice in many states know that what is customary in one state may not be so in another. Codes and standards are becoming more standardized and national in nature, leading to more uniformity and perhaps a higher level of engineering skills across the country. Gone may be the days when an engineer can say, "We don't do that around here." As a result, a good understanding of your legal responsibilities is more important than ever. This important white paper addresses the legal implications of state codes and standards and highlights how their differences can affect engineers practicing in more than one state. It also discusses how to reconcile these differences. To download the white paper, visit www.acec.org/case/news/ publications and click the "Standard of Care White Paper" link. ACEC's Business Resources and Education Department provides comprehensive and accessible business management education for engineering company principals and their staffs. Visit ACEC's online educational events calendar at www.acec.org/calendar/index.cfm or bookstore at www.acec.org/bookstore, or call 202-347-7474, ext. 324, for further information. http://www.acec.org/publications/books-and-contracts http://www.acec.org/calendar http://www.acec.org/calendar http://www.acec.org/case/news/publications http://www.acec.org/case/news/publications http://www.acec.org/calendar/index.cfm http://www.acec.org/bookstore

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Engineering Inc. - March/April 2015

Engineering Inc. - March/April 2015
Contents
From ACEC to You
Market Watch
Legislative Action
Senator Orrin Hatch
Engineer-Elect
Breaking the Mold
App to Order
Making a Quality-of-Life Difference
Leading the Pac
2015 Annual Convention Preview
Guest Column
Business Insights
Members in the News
Mergers and Acquisitions

Engineering Inc. - March/April 2015