Hey, it’s Collin. Welcome to Engineering Echelons, a newsletter full of ideas and insights to help engineers excel at management.

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week.

• New and noteworthy news

• A management perspective to consider

• Leadership insights to delve into

• And more…

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Alright, let’s get into it.

Noteworthy Headlines

Market volatility flatlines gains (ENR)

Highlights:

• Marginal revenue gains among the top 250 contractors could signal a deepening change of tide in a construction industry plagued by unpredictable and rapid fluctuations in costs of materials, labor, and equipment.

MEP design revenue eked up for MEP Giants (CSE)

Highlights:

• The 2025 MEP Giants generated $15.02B in MEP and fire protection design revenue—up 2.6% from last year.

• The 2025 MEP Giants experienced a sharp 25.65% drop in MEP and fire protection engineering staff.

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Management Perspective

In the AEC world of professional services, there are two types of firms: design firms and service firms.

The difference lies in what the company prioritizes above all else.

A design firm approaches everything through the lens of high design. What gets in magazines? What wins awards? What garners admiration from peers in the profession?

A service firm is completely oriented around the client’s needs. What can they do to provide value? What is the client asking for? How will the client operate their facility?

Both have pros and cons.

A design firm is probably more innovative than a service firm and has a more attractive portfolio of work.

A service firm probably has stronger client relationships, which lead to repeat clients and lower marketing costs.

Being purely a design firm or service firm puts you on shaky ground—it’s much better to blend the two for a balance that works for your firm.

My personal tilt is to be a service firm that uses design as one of the ways to serve the client.

As a leader, you need to understand where your firm falls on this design vs. service spectrum. Doing so allows you to better focus on the client while also having an eye towards innovation.

Businesses that thrive over the long term do so by getting the day-to-day things right (service) without losing sight of new technologies and innovations (design).

Management Insights

Charlie Munger on the difference between good businesses and bad businesses:

“The difference between a good business and a bad business is that good businesses throw up one easy decision after another. The bad businesses throw up painful decisions time after time.”

—

Will Larson on high-performing teams:

“Fundamentally, I believe that sustained productivity comes from high-performing teams, and that disassembling a high-performing team leads to a significant loss of productivity, even if the members are fully retained. In this worldview, high-performing teams are sacred, and I’m quite hesitant to disassemble them.”

—

Dan Sullivan on teamwork:

“If you’re going to apply higher levels of teamwork in your life, you’ll need to relinquish control over how things get done.”

Management Resource

Turbulent times call for a new people strategy (BCG)

This article pushes leaders to rethink how they approach organizational performance through the lens of human capital.

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• Let me know if you’ve found something worth sharing.

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Looking forward to hearing from you. See you next time.

Collin

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