As he recalls, UMKC never turned down an engineer wanting to come in and teach a night class. “I find that the people who do engineering every day,” he noted, “have much broader experience than someone who’s been teaching 25 years in that discipline.” He thinks that the firms should encourage their people to start teaching as adjuncts.

The Firm and its Future

Steve Hofmeister cited a book called Impact 2020 by PSMJ Resources. One of the book’s premises is that midsize firms—say, 50 to 500 engineers—are going to be challenged by boutique firms at one end of the spectrum and large, international firms at the other.

“We’ve seen that for sure,” said Charlie LePage, “in the past couple of years especially.” He observed that there are now many more contenders bidding on a given project. As a centralized Midwest firm in a potentially shrinking market, sustainability is an issue. “We don’t have a large marketing department to spend a lot of those billable hours chasing work.”

That resource limitation, Mike Fenske noted, is inspiring large firms to buy smaller ones to add to their labor staff, especially since large public firms have incentives imposed by Wall Street to increase revenue.

The philosophy has always been “grow or die,” said John Skubal. As a result, he expects to see more consolidation of the midsize firms. He also expects to see firms expanding their markets to other regions. “You’re going to have to go to where there is more work.”

“The opposite view,” said Jim Lewis of Black & Veatch, “is that sometimes we lose to those midsize firms because our overhead is too high.” This is especially true in a local market for telecom or power delivery.

Steve Hofmeister saw the discussion confirming his initial premise. The small firms have the agility and the low overhead to capture small projects. The large firms have the ability, the mass of people, and the great corporate knowledge to do the large projects. “The people in the middle are just kind of stuck between the two,” he said.

“I think there is a sweet spot for the middle firms,” countered Joe Marsh. It might entail working across three or four states and establishing a regional presence. As to the market for midsize firms, he added, “I do think it’s going to continue to be very dynamic.”

“I think it’s going to ebb and flow,” said Kevin Honomichl of the engineering marketplace. One adjustment to that dynamic, he believes, is partnerships between firms on given projects. “Instead of just looking at each other as strict competitors, it makes sense to team up on some projects and give a customer a better solution and a great value.”

Joe Marsh argued that all firms, regardless of size, should continue to investigate how they might grow as a company. “So if you can find ways that are not totally out of what you’re competent in,” said Marsh, “and grow the marketplace in a way that’s related, I think it’s good.”

Said Steve Hofmeister in the way of summary, “I’ve been reading the obituaries of the midsize firms since
1983 or 1984, and they’re still here.”