Implementing Strategic Plans that Deliver Results with Chad Clinehens

Chad Clinehens: 00:00:00

And I think it's really important that aspiring

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leaders understand the business, being good at engineering or

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architecture or environmental consulting. Those are all very,

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obviously very important for the business to grow and thrive. But

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understanding the business is what ultimately allows you to

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create the opportunity and for it to have longevity.

Matt Waller: 00:00:27

Excellence, professionalism, innovation, and

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collegiality. These are the values the Sam M. Walton College

Matt Waller: 00:00:33

of Business explores in education, business and the

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lives of people we meet every day. I'm Matt Waller, Dean of

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the Walton College, and welcome to the be epic podcast. I have

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with me today. Chad Clinehens, President and CEO of Zweig

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group. Thank you so much for joining me today, Chad.

Chad Clinehens: 00:00:52

Thank you, Matt. It's an honor and privilege to

Chad Clinehens: 00:00:54

be here.

Matt Waller: 00:00:55

Well, Chad, you, I want to start with you. And then

Matt Waller: 00:00:58

we'll talk about Zweig Group. But you started here at the

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University studying civil engineering, you got your

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bachelor's degree in civil engineering. And then you went

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and got your MBA here. But during the time that you were

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getting your MBA, at least you were already a civil engineer

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with a civil engineering firm here in town. And and then you

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went to Garver in Little Rock, and really, you were there for

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13 years. Would you tell us just a little bit about Garver and

Matt Waller: 00:01:32

what you did there?

Chad Clinehens: 00:01:33

Yeah. So Garver was really the mark of my, the

Chad Clinehens: 00:01:37

beginning of my engineering career, I did intern at a firm

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here in Fayetteville, and actually it was that experience

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and a civil engineer who worked there who also got his MBA here

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that helped inspire me to go straight through and but once I

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had the the MBA, I was able to go full time into starting, I

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would say the residency which is similar to a I would say

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something a doctor does, there's four years to get a professional

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engineers license, which is very important in consulting

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engineering, so I moved to Little Rock after graduating the

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Walton College, started my career with Garver, and almost

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immediately wanted to put my MBA to work and got frustrated,

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because it was difficult to do. But but realize that as an

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engineer, you have to really build your practice, learn how

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the business works, how clients purchase services, and, and so I

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was in what I would say full time design work for probably

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about three years, then spent some time over in the Tulsa

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office and transferred over there to work with that team.

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And just as soon as I could, and I pushed pretty hard. Once I got

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my professional engineers license, I was able to get into

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business development. And that was really just at the time cold

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calling new or potential clients for Garver. And that is what got

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my foot into the door in the door of the what I would say the

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business side of the of the business. And, you know,

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typically in engineering firms, and we see this a lot at Zweig

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Group or what we say AEC firms, which is architecture,

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engineering, construction, or consulting, that that industry

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is that, you know, they're run by people who have degrees in

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the profession or the type of service they're delivering. And

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so the business side is a small part of the business. And you

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don't really get there until you've been around for a really

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long time and have a lot of experience. But as I said, my my

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interest in getting on the business side, really guided my

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career. And so I moved into business development, and then

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ultimately marketing strategy. And it was just something that I

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had a really developed I would say a love for and the CEO at

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the time of Garver, Brock Johnson, could see that passion

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that drive in me, so relocated me to the corporate office of

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Little Rock in 2006. And I took over chief marketing officer

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position. And then ultimately, the chief strategy officer

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position. And it was that time period in 2006 to 2013, where we

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launched our first what I would say, really significant

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strategic plan for the company. And that was transformational

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for the growth. And I led a rebranding and restructuring of

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the organization. And several other of the I would say the key

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initiatives that really, I would say created the change there

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that that ultimately led them at the time, 200 staff members that

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they had grown over 86 years. And now, since 2006, they're now

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up to 1200, I believe plus employees. And it's the power of

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a strategic plan, which is what ultimately led me to join Zweig

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group. And is something now I do on a daily basis. And in fact,

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recently, last year started teaching Strategic Management

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here at the Walton College, as part of being able to put what

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we see and how we help firms into practice. And then sharing

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that with students is kind of bringing the content alive.

Matt Waller: 00:05:34

I want to talk about Zweig group as well.

Matt Waller: 00:05:37

You're president and CEO, and have been for almost seven

Matt Waller: 00:05:40

years. But before we do you mentioned strategic planning.

Matt Waller: 00:05:44

And I've been around strategic planning a lot in my life, I've

Matt Waller: 00:05:49

seen it work well, I've seen it not work well. What I mean by

Matt Waller: 00:05:53

that is sometimes, you know, strategic planning is viewed as

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a task that you accomplish. And then you move on to the next

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thing. You know, some people because they've experienced that

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become cynical about it. But good strategic planning can make

Matt Waller: 00:06:13

a huge difference. Would you mind speaking to it a little

Chad Clinehens: 00:06:15

Oh, absolutely. You have to hope that, that your

Chad Clinehens: 00:06:15

bit?

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clients haven't seen the stat that 70% of strategic plans are,

Chad Clinehens: 00:06:22

are viewed as a failure. And I think the reason behind that is

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because so many leaders look at it as a check the box activity,

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especially in this space, where professional services, there's

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not the understanding, and I'm not sure if respect is the right

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word, but but really understanding of the business

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and how important and transformational strategic plan

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can be. So they go to some conference and they hear you

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need to have a strategic plan. And so they hire somebody or, or

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they attempt to step themselves through it and then get

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frustrated, because when they go back to work, many of them go

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back to work designing infrastructure, designing homes,

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working on a, you know, a construction project, and

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because they are working in the business versus on it and then

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we talked about that a lot last week, we had we hosted a CEO

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roundtable in Napa Valley, so we had CEOs from all over the

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country gathered there. And we talked a lot about working in

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the business versus working on it and and events like that,

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where you get together and talk about the business. You're

Chad Clinehens: 00:07:29

working on it. And it's important. It's an important

Chad Clinehens: 00:07:33

aspect. At Zweig group, I would say that we are wildly

Chad Clinehens: 00:07:36

successful in strategic planning, because we do

Chad Clinehens: 00:07:39

emphasize the importance of implementation. And actually, I

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would say our plans are fairly simple, in that they're clear,

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there's not too many objectives. They're rooted in what we say is

Chad Clinehens: 00:07:51

data and stories. So real data we've gathered, what their

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clients are doing, what their employees are thinking and how

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they're feeling. And we look at their financials, we look at

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every aspect of the organization. And we put that

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together with in the story side is case studies. What have we

Chad Clinehens: 00:08:09

seen work in this industry? What doesn't work in this industry,

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we are not reading the latest management fad book, you know,

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on strategic planning and using buzzwords, we are really focused

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on, again, the case studies of things that work and helping

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firms design a plan that they can actually go out and execute.

Matt Waller: 00:08:30

You know, in my experience with strategic

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planning, I've seen them that where they've been so

Matt Waller: 00:08:35

complicated in so many pages, it was hard to get your head

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around. But I've also seen strategic plans where there's

Matt Waller: 00:08:46

nothing strategy strategic about it, it's a plan. It's a plan for

Matt Waller: 00:08:51

the future, but it's not strategic.

Chad Clinehens: 00:08:53

Right.

Matt Waller: 00:08:53

How do you get clients to differentiate between

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those?

Chad Clinehens: 00:08:58

So for us, we really talk a lot about the

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importance of growth and the importance of building value in

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the company. And so really tying it to something that everybody

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benefits from and, and what every but what does every

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business need to do needs to grow. And so especially in this

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industry, and especially right now, where it is the busiest I

Chad Clinehens: 00:09:22

think if you pulled anybody and we do on a daily basis, it's the

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busiest it's ever been in history, at least going as far

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back as we've been doing research and before us. There

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wasn't really a lot of research being done on the end.

Matt Waller: 00:09:38

Is that true across all three architecture,

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engineering and construction?

Chad Clinehens: 00:09:42

I would say so, engineering is especially I

Chad Clinehens: 00:09:46

would almost say overheated right now, the demand for

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especially infrastructure. Some of that's being driven by the

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government, and then also what's coming down the pipeline with

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the infrastructure jobs act, which we see hitting later this

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year. So already demand is unprecedented. We've got work

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weeks that are longer than they've ever been, then you go

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to your organization with a strategic plan and say, We want

Chad Clinehens: 00:10:13

to grow this thing faster than we've been growing and into the

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average employee, that means more work. But what we say is

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growth solves problems. And growth creates the opportunity

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gives you the resources, to hire people, to actually, again

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solving those problems, but but bringing the resource to relieve

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the areas there that are overheated or give the project

Chad Clinehens: 00:10:38

manager that's overworked the resources he or she needs to to

Chad Clinehens: 00:10:43

have a better balance in their life.

Matt Waller: 00:10:45

Growth does solve problems, no question. A lot of

Matt Waller: 00:10:50

times people admit managers administrators want the

Matt Waller: 00:10:55

resources before the growth because they see the need they

Matt Waller: 00:11:01

want to prepare.

Chad Clinehens: 00:11:03

Right.

Matt Waller: 00:11:03

How do you integrate that into the overall

Matt Waller: 00:11:05

process those those trade offs like that?

Chad Clinehens: 00:11:08

We talk a lot about return on investment, and

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that there are certain things you have to prioritize

Chad Clinehens: 00:11:14

initially, almost that how do we create the spark? How do we

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where do we deploy resources initially, that then can can

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start producing returns, we say easy wins, you know, base hits,

Chad Clinehens: 00:11:26

whatever we can do to really jumpstart the growth, and then

Chad Clinehens: 00:11:29

people can see it. And you know, I'll say one thing that's really

Chad Clinehens: 00:11:33

important about the plans we put together. And it goes back to my

Chad Clinehens: 00:11:38

days at Garver is that strategic plans are largely a marketing

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campaign. You know, it's going to the company and saying,

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here's who we want to be in the future. And here's why that's

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exciting. And here's your role in that. And so when I say our

Chad Clinehens: 00:11:53

plans are simple, it's they're not the the 100 page book that I

Chad Clinehens: 00:11:57

think a lot of leaders think they're going to get this top

Chad Clinehens: 00:12:00

secret manual that they put in the safe, behind the painting

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behind their desk, you know, kind of hide it from everybody.

Chad Clinehens: 00:12:08

Whereas our plans are actually a presentation that's built, that

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we then deliver, that it is designed to be shared with the

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entire company. And we say, when you launch this, have a big

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party, have a champagne toast, send gifts to the all the

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employees, you do something to create a party atmosphere and

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say this is a celebration, we're going to do something amazing

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together. And this is what that looks like. And, and the most

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successful firms that we work with get that and they really

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integrate it into their business their day. And it's not

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something that sits on the shelf. It's something that they

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can talk about in every meeting, they can talk about an employee

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reviews, and every individual has a role. We say in driving

Chad Clinehens: 00:12:53

growth of the organization, every single person.

Matt Waller: 00:12:58

How did you become interested and knowledgeable

Matt Waller: 00:13:01

about strategic planning your I know you have when you were at

Matt Waller: 00:13:04

Garver, you did a lot of strategic planning for them. And

Matt Waller: 00:13:07

you were the chief strategy officer. But you have there's

Matt Waller: 00:13:12

lots of nuance to it, like your idea of having a party, making

Matt Waller: 00:13:16

sure everyone knows they're engaged in the strategic plan

Matt Waller: 00:13:19

and in executing strategic plan. That's a lot of nuance. And I've

Matt Waller: 00:13:24

heard you talk about it before. How did you learn all this?

Chad Clinehens: 00:13:29

That's a good question. For me in my career,

Chad Clinehens: 00:13:32

the intersection of marketing, marketing strategy and just

Chad Clinehens: 00:13:37

strategy of the company is so it's amazing how intertwined it

Chad Clinehens: 00:13:42

is. And and so that was kind of a natural path, I just business

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development, which was me going out and meeting new clients and

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trying to secure contracts and the excitement of we got a new

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client. In fact, early on in my career, we set a goal in our

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small regional office in Tulsa to win five new clients a year

Chad Clinehens: 00:14:03

well, well we won eight. And I realized then that, you know,

Chad Clinehens: 00:14:08

the strategic plan, the idea that we're going to grow this

Chad Clinehens: 00:14:13

office, wrapped around a marketing campaign is very

Chad Clinehens: 00:14:17

effective. And so then when I got into more of the marketing

Chad Clinehens: 00:14:22

strategy, it just happened to intersect. That following year

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with our visionary leader Brock Johnson, his desire to really

Chad Clinehens: 00:14:32

change the course of the company and been in business at that

Chad Clinehens: 00:14:35

time, I believe, 86 years. And straight line growth. Great

Chad Clinehens: 00:14:39

company did good work for their clients, but it was let's turn

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this into a growing organization. Let's do a

Chad Clinehens: 00:14:44

strategic plan. And we just kind of figured it out. But but one

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thing me pushing really hard on the campaign behind it, which we

Chad Clinehens: 00:14:54

called it Mission Possible, was the catchy phrase and I credit

Chad Clinehens: 00:14:59

Brock Johnson for coming up with that. But But talking about

Chad Clinehens: 00:15:02

mission possible. For five years, it was a, we're gonna

Chad Clinehens: 00:15:06

double the size of the company in five years. Interestingly,

Chad Clinehens: 00:15:10

launched in 2006. Well, what happened in 2008 recession that

Chad Clinehens: 00:15:15

really affected significantly, I would say the industry as a

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whole, but but especially the private sector, our company was

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not as affected. We did have some private, I would say

Chad Clinehens: 00:15:28

business lines, but we really quickly sent those folks that

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were in that in those business lines, to learn some new skills

Chad Clinehens: 00:15:39

to where we could reorient them around some sectors that did

Chad Clinehens: 00:15:42

have money. And I think it was the strategic plan, the fact

Chad Clinehens: 00:15:45

that we were so committed to growth, that is why we were so

Chad Clinehens: 00:15:48

quick to say, Well, hey, let's not lay off these, these two

Chad Clinehens: 00:15:51

teams of people. Engineers are hard to find, let's find

Chad Clinehens: 00:15:55

something for them to do, and invest in them.

Matt Waller: 00:15:58

So you clearly have a passion for strategic

Matt Waller: 00:16:04

planning. You've seen it work when you, I remember the first

Matt Waller: 00:16:08

time we had lunch together, you told me the story about your

Matt Waller: 00:16:12

work at Garver and the strategic planning. And so you've been

Matt Waller: 00:16:16

doing this for a long time, I can tell in multiple

Matt Waller: 00:16:21

conversations with you that you are a true believer in strategic

Matt Waller: 00:16:26

planning. And what are some of the most important variables you

Matt Waller: 00:16:33

think exists in having a successful strategic plan, but

Matt Waller: 00:16:37

also, what are some of the biggest hindrances to it?

Chad Clinehens: 00:16:42

So I would say one of the most important things

Chad Clinehens: 00:16:46

is for leaders to be able to confront the things that are

Chad Clinehens: 00:16:50

holding them back. So the strategic planning process is

Chad Clinehens: 00:16:53

very well, like I said, data research oriented, you know, we,

Chad Clinehens: 00:16:59

our processes last five, six months, maybe for some of the

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:04

more involved plans, we can do them sometimes quicker. But but

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:08

that process is, so much of that is research, getting to know the

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:12

company and really digging deep and finding out what are the

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:16

things that make this company special, what are the things

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:19

that holds them back? We talked about the SWOT analysis. And we

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:23

do that and we talked about that in, in our strategic management

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:27

class up here at the university too, it's very important that

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:30

the SWOT analysis, understanding the strengths, weaknesses,

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:33

opportunities, opportunities and threats, is critical. So the

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:38

leader being able to then I would say, do the hard things.

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:42

And there often are some hard things you have to do to create

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:45

that change to affect that change. And, and then also be

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:51

willing to put the right people on the team, you can't have

Chad Clinehens: 00:17:55

everybody in the room, you as a leader, you've got to pick. And

Chad Clinehens: 00:18:00

we recommend, you know, five, eight, hopefully no more than

Chad Clinehens: 00:18:04

10. Sometimes the group's a little bit bigger than that. But

Chad Clinehens: 00:18:07

people that you can get together that when everybody walks out of

Chad Clinehens: 00:18:10

that room, even though they may not be equally excited about

Chad Clinehens: 00:18:12

every aspect of the plan, or maybe not even agree with every

Chad Clinehens: 00:18:16

aspect, but chosen to be a part of that team, that they walk out

Chad Clinehens: 00:18:20

being ambassadors of the plan, they can sell it to anybody in

Chad Clinehens: 00:18:24

the company, and the company can see that they believe in it. And

Chad Clinehens: 00:18:29

that's what we say is the price of admission to the strategic

Chad Clinehens: 00:18:33

planning, War Room.

Matt Waller: 00:18:36

Having had I've taught at all different levels,

Matt Waller: 00:18:39

undergrad, grad, and all different levels of grad. One of

Matt Waller: 00:18:44

the things I've noticed, of course, my area is supply chain

Matt Waller: 00:18:47

management. And there's a component of strategic planning

Matt Waller: 00:18:51

in supply chain management. But I've noticed undergraduates many

Matt Waller: 00:18:54

times struggle with this, especially but our Executive MBA

Matt Waller: 00:19:02

students, which have on average 13 years of experience before

Matt Waller: 00:19:06

they get in the program. They're all over it. How do you get

Matt Waller: 00:19:11

undergraduate students to see the importance of this?

Chad Clinehens: 00:19:16

That's a great question. And one of the reasons

Chad Clinehens: 00:19:18

that I really enjoy teaching this class it it was the first

Chad Clinehens: 00:19:23

class I was invited to teach and happened to be an incredible fit

Chad Clinehens: 00:19:28

for what we do. But I tell the students, I say listen, what

Chad Clinehens: 00:19:32

we're going to talk about, you're going to read case

Chad Clinehens: 00:19:33

studies. And a lot of this stuff is going to feel like it's

Chad Clinehens: 00:19:36

focused on like, the executive level and you're thinking, oh,

Chad Clinehens: 00:19:40

this will be relevant to me when I'm 20 years in, I said, but

Chad Clinehens: 00:19:44

think about what this is. This is strategic management of your

Chad Clinehens: 00:19:50

life. And you can employ these fundamentals immediately,

Chad Clinehens: 00:19:55

gathering information on the environment, deciding what you

Chad Clinehens: 00:19:59

want to do. by setting a growth goal, whether that's your net

Chad Clinehens: 00:20:02

worth, or you know how you want to grow your career, thinking

Chad Clinehens: 00:20:08

about the money side of it, or the position side of it, and

Chad Clinehens: 00:20:12

really managing your life strategically. And so these

Chad Clinehens: 00:20:17

things that we're going to learn here are immediately applicable.

Chad Clinehens: 00:20:21

And also just understanding how any company or business you get

Chad Clinehens: 00:20:25

in works is a powerful perspective. And don't segment

Chad Clinehens: 00:20:32

this knowledge off, you know, is okay, well, this is great. And

Chad Clinehens: 00:20:37

maybe someday I'll be a part of a strategic planning team. It's

Chad Clinehens: 00:20:42

so powerful for you today, to think about it beyond just the

Chad Clinehens: 00:20:47

context of a career but your life.

Matt Waller: 00:20:51

Let's talk about Zweig group a little bit. Tell

Matt Waller: 00:20:54

us a little bit about Zweig group. What makes Zweig group

Matt Waller: 00:20:58

notable?

Chad Clinehens: 00:20:59

Well, I would say that we're one of the first

Chad Clinehens: 00:21:02

companies that does what we do in this industry, and started by

Chad Clinehens: 00:21:08

Mark Zweig now 35 years ago in Boston. And it's interesting, if

Chad Clinehens: 00:21:13

you look at where companies are located that do this kind of

Chad Clinehens: 00:21:18

thing. There's many of them are in Boston, and you can look at

Chad Clinehens: 00:21:22

it, many companies that were formed out of former Zweig Group

Chad Clinehens: 00:21:28

employees. But what really makes Zweig group unique is that wide

Chad Clinehens: 00:21:34

of a perspective, 35 years. And so Mark Zweig built his career

Chad Clinehens: 00:21:38

working with 1000s of companies, and the stories that Mark Zweig

Chad Clinehens: 00:21:43

tells then I'm able to adopt, and the stories that I have from

Chad Clinehens: 00:21:47

Garver and from other companies that I've worked with here at

Chad Clinehens: 00:21:50

Zweig Group, others are able to adopt. And so those those

Chad Clinehens: 00:21:55

stories are case studies. And you can see what, okay, maybe

Chad Clinehens: 00:21:58

something that did work in 97 doesn't work in, in, you know,

Chad Clinehens: 00:22:02

2023, or it might

Matt Waller: 00:22:04

Right

Chad Clinehens: 00:22:04

Right, something that I would say also makes us

Chad Clinehens: 00:22:07

unique is that we are data researchers and analysts. And,

Chad Clinehens: 00:22:13

and so we've got this 35 years of data, and we've seen how it

Chad Clinehens: 00:22:16

changes. And we know what's going on in the industry real

Chad Clinehens: 00:22:20

time. And we use that to drive our content. We're not just

Chad Clinehens: 00:22:24

trying to make stuff up, we're getting people excited and

Chad Clinehens: 00:22:27

making up new buzzwords.

Matt Waller: 00:22:29

Many times people don't know about it, unless

Matt Waller: 00:22:33

they're in the industry itself.

Chad Clinehens: 00:22:36

Right.

Matt Waller: 00:22:37

Although Mark's name is widely known, he's he's

Matt Waller: 00:22:41

a good marketer, too.

Chad Clinehens: 00:22:42

Indeed,

Matt Waller: 00:22:43

I know you, you also do a lot of other things

Matt Waller: 00:22:46

beyond strategic planning. You all are engaged in mergers and

Matt Waller: 00:22:52

acquisitions, and all kinds of consulting, tell us a little bit

Matt Waller: 00:22:58

about how m&a works and the AAC industry and is there a lot of

Matt Waller: 00:23:04

activity currently in that area?

Chad Clinehens: 00:23:06

it is a red hot area right now of the business

Chad Clinehens: 00:23:12

of the industry, private equity has really come into the

Chad Clinehens: 00:23:17

industry very strongly in the last several years, that's

Chad Clinehens: 00:23:20

really changed the game. And, and so consolidation is

Chad Clinehens: 00:23:25

happening. There's also you know, when you look at

Chad Clinehens: 00:23:29

transition of a company, you have founder starts a company,

Chad Clinehens: 00:23:33

then they get close to retirement, they either have to

Chad Clinehens: 00:23:35

have people inside the company that can buy him or her out, or

Chad Clinehens: 00:23:41

some group of, of leaders, or they've got to find some other

Chad Clinehens: 00:23:46

way to transition it. And so so they're leaders that have waited

Chad Clinehens: 00:23:50

too late, which is it's very common. You know, you've got to

Chad Clinehens: 00:23:53

be thinking what you're going to do with your business 10, a

Chad Clinehens: 00:23:56

minimum of 10 years out, but but we get calls from leaders and

Chad Clinehens: 00:24:00

they say, hey, I'm thinking about transitioning out in five

Chad Clinehens: 00:24:04

years, what do I need to do? We're like, well, we gotta get

Chad Clinehens: 00:24:06

to work real quickly.

Matt Waller: 00:24:10

Chad, tell us a little bit about which areas of

Matt Waller: 00:24:14

the business you focus on. And really, what is the core of your

Matt Waller: 00:24:19

business?

Chad Clinehens: 00:24:20

Well, that's a great question. The short answer

Chad Clinehens: 00:24:24

is we focus on all of the areas of the business. So every

Chad Clinehens: 00:24:29

aspect, we talked about ownership transition, we can go

Chad Clinehens: 00:24:34

in and help build recruiting programs, we can help a company

Chad Clinehens: 00:24:37

buy other companies or sell their company. Of course, we've

Chad Clinehens: 00:24:41

talked a lot about strategic planning. We can help them

Chad Clinehens: 00:24:44

rebrand their company. So every single aspect of the business

Chad Clinehens: 00:24:48

but but what's interesting about that, and it's neat, to be able

Chad Clinehens: 00:24:52

to do that and to be that kind of a resource for the industry.

Chad Clinehens: 00:24:57

It also presents a challenge for us if there's so much that we

Chad Clinehens: 00:25:00

focus on, right. And, and so we to get good at those areas, we

Chad Clinehens: 00:25:08

just make sure we've got good leadership, and they really have

Chad Clinehens: 00:25:10

some autonomy in almost building a mini business inside our

Chad Clinehens: 00:25:15

business. And so the ability to connect to people and find those

Chad Clinehens: 00:25:21

experts out in the industry that can then come and present, what

Chad Clinehens: 00:25:24

we would say is a practical and applicable approach to these

Chad Clinehens: 00:25:31

things, when there's a lot of misinformation is a neat thing

Chad Clinehens: 00:25:35

to be able to do. But it's also not easy, you know, as figuring

Chad Clinehens: 00:25:39

out, okay, where should we be on this particular topic? And, and

Chad Clinehens: 00:25:47

then, you know, deciding all of the sudden that that wasn't in

Chad Clinehens: 00:25:51

our strategic plan, we didn't start necessarily this year

Chad Clinehens: 00:25:54

saying, hey, AI is gonna be a super hot topic that all of a

Chad Clinehens: 00:25:57

sudden, in May is just gonna, like, light the industry up.

Chad Clinehens: 00:26:02

That's essentially what's been happening. And there's been

Chad Clinehens: 00:26:04

others that have been looking at this earlier than that, but it

Chad Clinehens: 00:26:07

really has become a hot topic. And so for us to be able to then

Chad Clinehens: 00:26:14

add that part into our what I would say our cadre of expertise

Chad Clinehens: 00:26:20

is a neat thing that also presents a challenge.

Matt Waller: 00:26:22

Chad, you have a lot of experience here at the

Matt Waller: 00:26:25

university, both as a student two time student, two time alum,

Matt Waller: 00:26:31

your names on the sidewalk twice, you're teaching here,

Matt Waller: 00:26:34

you've worked in the area, what advice would you want on a

Matt Waller: 00:26:39

billboard? If all the students could see this billboard every

Matt Waller: 00:26:43

day walking around campus? What would you have on the billboard?

Chad Clinehens: 00:26:46

What I would say is the the answer is that I of

Matt Waller: 00:26:46

Chad, we've talked about all kinds of things

Matt Waller: 00:26:53

course, love my profession, of engineering, but the

Matt Waller: 00:26:57

intersection of that, and business and the arts and all of

Matt Waller: 00:27:01

the different colleges that we have here on campus, I think

Matt Waller: 00:27:04

students have got to understand, you don't just get a business

Matt Waller: 00:27:08

degree and just go to business and you don't just get an

Matt Waller: 00:27:10

engineering degree, and just do engineering, that the

Matt Waller: 00:27:13

intersection of arts and business and engineering and all

Matt Waller: 00:27:17

of the different things that you can learn up here on campus,

Matt Waller: 00:27:22

have an application to your life and to really find something

Matt Waller: 00:27:28

that you will enjoy doing. And then realize that you're not

Matt Waller: 00:27:33

limiting yourself. But I think we do need to promote more what

Matt Waller: 00:27:39

we do all of us, you know, what a career looks like in whatever

Matt Waller: 00:27:43

it is. And of course, I'm a huge believer in and proponent of

Matt Waller: 00:27:49

STEM and, and the professions that are related to engineering

Matt Waller: 00:27:55

because the world needs that. But just as much we need the

Matt Waller: 00:28:00

business executives, we need the artist, we need everybody else

Matt Waller: 00:28:04

that helps kind of make this world go round.

Matt Waller: 00:28:10

regarding your background and Zweig group, including strategic

Matt Waller: 00:28:15

planning. So I'm really interested what is the mission

Matt Waller: 00:28:19

of Zweig group?

Chad Clinehens: 00:28:21

The mission of Zweig group is simply to elevate

Chad Clinehens: 00:28:24

the industry. And if you go back to the founding of Zweig group

Chad Clinehens: 00:28:31

by Mark Zweig it was to bring business acumen and to help AEC

Chad Clinehens: 00:28:38

firms grow, understand the business, drive performance,

Chad Clinehens: 00:28:44

create opportunity. And in 2018, we rolled out what I would say

Chad Clinehens: 00:28:49

is a refined version of that to simply elevate the industry. And

Chad Clinehens: 00:28:54

we use the quote from John F. Kennedy, a rising tide lifts all

Chad Clinehens: 00:28:57

ships, so every company, we can help, maybe drive greater

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:04

growth, drive greater profits, create more resources for their

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:08

people, so they live better lives. That then as a part of

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:12

that rising tides of every company that we can impact.

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:16

Because there's multiple aspects of of why we need to elevate the

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:19

industry. We need more kids to be interested in what a career

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:24

is, and can be in this industry. We need the rest of the public

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:30

to understand the impact that Architects, Engineers, the

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:33

construction industry has on the world around them. And so all of

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:37

that led to this this big idea, I call it of elevate the

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:42

industry and it's been something that really people have gotten

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:46

around our clients like it they they like the simplicity of it.

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:50

They like the rallying cry behind elevate the industry and

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:54

especially when they're really trying to find how can they get

Chad Clinehens: 00:29:58

more staff and and knowing that we need to inspire the younger

Chad Clinehens: 00:30:02

generation to choose a career here. That is something that I

Chad Clinehens: 00:30:08

think is going to be timeless for us. And we, we talk about

Chad Clinehens: 00:30:11

missions being somewhat timeless for companies, you know, the

Chad Clinehens: 00:30:13

vision changes along the way. But the mission is timeless and

Chad Clinehens: 00:30:17

so elevate the industry is a is an exciting for me and the rest

Chad Clinehens: 00:30:21

of our company, a way to bring us together and get us to

Chad Clinehens: 00:30:26

understand and get excited about. We're making a big impact

Chad Clinehens: 00:30:30

here. And we're elevating individuals, firms and then

Chad Clinehens: 00:30:34

ultimately the industry.

Matt Waller: 00:30:37

Chad, thank you so much for taking time to visit

Matt Waller: 00:30:39

with us today. I really appreciate it.

Chad Clinehens: 00:30:41

Thank you, Matt. Appreciate it.

Matt Waller: 00:30:43

On behalf of the Sam M. Walton College of

Matt Waller: 00:30:45

Business, I want to thank everyone for spending time with

Matt Waller: 00:30:48

us for another engaging conversation. You can subscribe

Matt Waller: 00:30:52

by going to your favorite podcast service and searching.