Next Week’s Online Classes: ESOPs, High-Performance Teams, and Risk Management Plans

ACEC News / Education

September 16, 2021

Next Week’s Online Classes: ESOPs, High-Performance Teams, and Risk Management Plans

ESOPs and Ownership Transition: Pros & Cons 
Tuesday, September 21, 1:30-3:00 PM Eastern

Employee stock ownership plans have been used by the owners of A|E firms for over forty years as both a partial buyout technique as well as a total buyout strategy. This program will discuss the myths, misperceptions and realities of using an ESOP as a buyer of stock.

Robert Massengill, managing director of Pilot Hill Advisors LLC, will discuss ESOP fundamentals and the pros and cons of the strategy:

Ownership structure
Valuation
Funding
Transaction mechanics
On-going requirements
Benefits of Using the ESOP

Click here to register.

Building a High-Performance Leadership Team
Wednesday, September 22, 1:30-2:30 PM Eastern

Engineering firms have been historically entrepreneurial endeavors led and managed by a handful of people— often the only owners of the firm. These companies tend to recruit and attract people who are expert in working in the business, but not necessarily on it. While great technically, these people are rarely interested and inclined to be leaders. 

Successful firms, those that are around long enough to require a change in leadership, become stuck unless they have been developing a pipeline of staff with the appetite, risk profile, and behaviors to be leaders. 

Join Mark Goodale as he walks you through what it takes to develop a high-performance leadership team with the folks you already have.

You will learn:

How to build trust and develop an ownership mindset in your firm;
How to navigate difficult conversations with your peers; and
The five behavior sets vital to collaborative leadership.

Click here to register.

Developing a Risk Management Plan 
Thursday, September 23, 1:30-3:00 PM (Eastern)

A proactive Risk Management Plan is an essential element of loss prevention and a key ingredient of financial success for a design firm. When a Risk Management Plan is integrated into a firm’s culture and embraced by its leadership, it makes a significant positive impact on business performance and longevity. 

In this online class, Diane Mika, vice president/director of risk management education at Berkley Design Professional, will share strategies and tools to help you develop an effective plan that contemplates the entire project cycle: from client selection to project inception and through project close-out.

The program will address:

• The importance of having a Risk Management Plan
• How to distinguish between two broad types of risk for design professionals and identify the four parts of the risk management model
• The purpose and composition of a Risk Management Team
• The seven components of an effective Risk Management Plan:
• Project/client selection
• Team capabilities
• Contract review and negotiation
• Contract education for the design team
• Communication and documentation
• Project and quality management
• Staff training and development

Click here to register.

All comments to blog posts will be moderated by ACEC staff.