Lecture by Stuart Grant at The Manchester School of Architecture on 28th October 2008
Lecture brief:
What is a limited liability partnership? Medium sized practices used to be 50 and under. Now they are 100 or so. What has brought about this change? Will it continue? What are the advantages of remaining in one office? Who runs the office and how? Will the office survive as it is if there is a recession?
About the Lecturer:
Pozzoni LLP, Woodville House, 2 Woodville Road, Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 2FH Tel: 0161 928 7848
Web: http://www.pozzoni-group.co.uk/
We are...
- An innovative and forward thinking architectural practice
- Experienced across a wide range of both private and public sector markets
- A team of over 90 and are professional, well qualified and experienced individuals
- 'Quality Assured under BSEN ISO 9001:2000, since July 1996
- IIP recognized by the Training and Enterprise Board as 'Investors in People' since September 1998
- An equal opportunities employer
- A Construction Line Member - registration No 8858
- Proud of our level of repeat business averaging just over 76% year on year
- Committed to Partnering and Framework Agreements
- Working on projects throughout the UK
Lecture powerpoint presentation
Lecture Review:
Grant qualified in 1984 and is now a partner at Pozzoni. Pozzoni are a limited liability partnership, employ 84 staff and are ranked in the Architects’ Journal’s top 100 practices. The RIBA states that a small practice employs up to five persons, a medium sized practice up to 49 persons, and large practice is over fifty persons. Therefore, their introduction as a medium sized practice is a little bit of a misnomer, but is an indication of the state of the architectural industry today. They are the largest independent practice in the Northwest. They are ISO 9001 certified (quality management system), an Investor in People, registered with Construction Line and listed in Building magazines ‘Good Employer Guide’. They pride themselves on their diverse portfolio of work which is mix of public (60%) and private (40%), and new (75%) and refurbishments (25%). Their sectors include retail, offices, industrial, leisure (they are national design leader), hospitality, education, community housing, private housing, care and retirement, and mixed use. Pozzoni LLP were the architects on The Peele care home in Wythenshawe which is adjacent to the site I shall be using for my studio design project.
The recession of 1990 to 1994 was the worst since the Second World War; 31% of practices saw a 10-20% drop in fee levels, 8% of architects were unemployed, average earnings fell by 3% to £23k, sole principal earnings fell by 16%, and 24% of architects were underemployed, but conversely central government architects’ earnings rose by 8%.
Experience has taught Grant that recessions come in 10-15 year cycles and business strategies for surviving the financial slowdown include investing in your systems, having variety and diversity in your portfolio, develop repeat business from clients, have financial contingencies, market yourselves to raise the value of your work, and develop ‘peripheral’ vision.
The current downturn is due to the lack of credit, rather than inflation that has resulted in their being less opportunities for private developers. The client is at greater risk, projects have a longer gestation period, which results in lower fees and more speculative work for architects. The client can take longer to pay.
There are opportunities for architects, if they market themselves strongly and diversify across public and private sectors. Strategies should include following key markets (i.e. building schools for the future and healthcare) and look abroad for work. It is a good time to invest in training and improve office efficiency.
Grant’s personal professional highlights are as follows:
- Wining a commission or award
- Doing a great presentation
- See the building take place
- Seeing happy clients
- Making a profit
- Hiring good people
- Getting good feedback
- Productive meetings
- Seeing the benefit of Revit
- Seeing the practice grow
Whilst his lows are as below:
- Losing a job
- Making a mistake
- Being made redundant
- Seeing architects undervalue themselves
- Unhappy clients
- An employee leaves
- Seeing design and build effect quality
- Not being in control
Designing and Managing Projects
Grants states that a business plan with clear aims and objectives is critical to success, architects should have strategies and action plans linked to objectives (SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely). They should request ideas and input from their staff, communicate their plan and share their vision. The company should develop a collective understanding and ownership, and receive feedback on their progress. The company should create a marketing strategy that monitors repeat business, provides client and staff feedback, builds a reputation and analyses different sectors of the market.
Customer care is a major business issue; it is a balancing act of doing the job requirement against the style of delivery. Remember that everyone is a customer. Actively train, educate and develop staff and clients alike. Create collective and individual awareness and improve people skills and communication.
Grant went on to demonstrate strategies for balancing and programming resources, quality management and organisational structure, which were demonstrated using spreadsheets that mapped each member of staff against each project. He stated that the company will shortly be investing in new software to improve their efficiency and ability to predict future resource issues.
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