Creating Wealth: Principles - SMPS Marketer Article

Synopsis
Creating Wealth: Principles and Practices for Design Firms

Creating Wealth
By Randle Pollock, FSMPS, Editor
February, 2000

"In the long run, men hit only what they aim at."
--- Henry David Thoreau

Over a diverse and distinguished career, Ellen Flynn-Heapes has built a reputation as one of the pre-eminent consultants to the design and construction industry. Her focus, indeed her passion, has been both risky and pioneering - for it addressed competitive and organizational strategy, a subject new and even threatening to the field. With evangelical zeal, this 25 - year veteran-long active in SMPS - has expanded the traditional discourse about marketing professional services to include broader about marketing professional services to handedly, she has educated the industry on the merits of thinking and planning strategically. Backed by an MBA and experience gained at HOK and SOM, she has framed the issues, coined the terms, and articulated what no one else has quite as eloquently.

Her new book on wealth creation, the first published by her Alexandria, VA-based consulting business, is not unlike the author. Smart, savvy, and seasoned, filled with wit, wisdom, and wonderful language, the book makes on think long and hard. It is an impressing treatise on a seduction subject about which everyone can find something extraordinarily inspiring (save, perhaps, Karl Marx).

As she admits in her opening line, Wealth is a great thing." And though this is hardly the dense economic tome its title may suggest, the book contains powerful messages to consider, reconsider, and act on. While the book may be simply read and savored, it is also designed as a workbook to be used at company retreats and strategic planning sessions.

At the heart of Creating Wealth is this thesis: "You must become masterful at something…that you build to a high level of worth." On virtually every page, she hammers o this theme. In the beginning she nails the hallowed paradigms the industry has long embraced; for example, that "bigger is better" or that diversification hedges bets. Then, describing the trends and transformations underway in the industry, she elucidates the drivers of the economy, including supply and demand, product life cycle, Porter's U-Curve, and value migration.

At this point her argument really begins to soar. She describes the most essential wealth-creating principles: clarity of focus, a willing client base, systematic innovation, and credibility. Arguing that these four principles apply to various types of firms in different ways, she explains each one, providing numerous real-life examples from well-known firms and respected practitioners.

Most vivid and illuminating is the presentation of the "Sparks Framework for Value Creation, "her own model that outlines six cultural patterns representing specific value-generating business designs: The "Einstein" firm built around the creation of new ideas and technology-such practices as Frank Gehry's Buckminster Fuller's, and Santiago Calatrava's. The "Niche Experts" who are dedicated to specific project or service type, such as HOK Sport, Duany Plater-Zyberk (new urbanism). RJA (fire protection), and Wiss Janney Elstner (forensics). The "Market Partners" who lead in a major market, like ADP Marshall (in microelectronics) and CDM and Montgomery Watson (in water and wastewater). The "Community Leaders" who aim for a big role in their city's deals 9and every city has at least one). The "Orchestrators" who deliver large, complex projects with sophisticated management systems (like Bechtel, Heery). And the "Builders" who specialize in volume roll-outs, such as BSW International and Black & Veatch.

Especially valuable to the reader and company retreat participants are workbook questions that provide rich source of discussion and thought on such subjects as marketing, project delivery, human resources, finance, and leadership.

In all, Creating Wealth blends practical value with personal inspiration, professional guidance with solid strategic thinking. If wealth is your goal, this book will be a sound investment. If the joy of reading is your pleasure, this book surely will not disappoint. Almost as a bonus, this proves to be an easy read. It distills many disparate subjects into one potent point: Prosperity can be achieved by mastering something.

Synopsis Creating Wealth: Principles and Practices for Design Firms

Synopsis
Creating Wealth: Principles and Practices for Design Firms