Features Overview
Principal’s MasterClass
What does it mean to lead an A+D practice today? And what does it take to be a firm leader? Who is part of the team leading the firm? What are the leadership team roles? What processes and tools do we need? Get into the mindset of success with business consultant and leadership coach, Elisabeth Sporer, AIA CIC.
In this informative presentation, I will discuss the skills an A+D practice leader needs to master—from knowing who they are with its limits and opportunities; to building and leading BRAND / FINANCE / OPERATIONS / DESIGN teams; to stewarding firm culture; and to staying on top of best practices.
Profit Motive & The Business of Design – The A+D Leader’s 101 of Firm Financial Management
Who deals with the money, and how? This session focuses on how finance, metrics and performance influence an A+D practice’s wellbeing and its success moving forward, as well as an A+D firm culture and its bottom line. Staying fit is an ongoing goal, and a long-haul effort that focuses on all aspects—physical, mental, emotional, and even, creative – to the extent that mental fitness is integrated in my work with clients particularly around the area of financial fitness which is critical to their success.
Why? Staying in shape financially is sustainable in the long-term and makes an A+D practice—particularly small and midsize firms, but certainly large firms as well—more resilient to internal and external pressures.
Watch Recording Here
Case Studies at the Intersection of Purpose, Profit & Portfolio
What are the “profiles of success” for A+D business? How are purpose, profit and portfolio interconnected? Why is a good business strategy dependent on financial health?
I have been asking myself these questions for more than two decades – as a member of firm leadership teams, as a founder of my own firm, and as a consultant to A+D firms. And I have to say that leadership and strategic planning consistently come up as the areas that present the best opportunity for making an impact in an A+D practice.
Join me for an AIAU presentation [recorded at AIASF] rooted in case studies, best practices grounded in financial health and the lessons of entrepreneurship. Drawing from my extensive experience helping A+D clients successfully navigate the various phases of their business’s life cycles - from growth and expansion to restructuring, succession planning and ownership transition
Watch Recording Here
Metamorphosis: Legacy, Transformation & The Business of Design
SO|arch presents Ownership Transition Event on AIA SF platform
What is the life cycle of an architecture and design practice? Why, and how do architecture and design firms evolve? How do firm leaders and owners navigate transformation, and keep the firm spirit alive during periods of transition?
Join me and my guests—Dong Kim, AIA [DIALOG] from the San Francisco Bay Area; Amanda Behnke, AIA [HGW] from San Diego, California; Jill Neubauer, AIA [Jill Neubauer Architects] from Falmouth, Massachusetts.
In this candid and enlightening conversation, we discuss milestones, pinch points and opportunities from a variety of perspectives—respectively, as a firm leader-turned business strategy consultant and leadership coach; an owner who led the merger of his small firm with a large cross-border A+E firm; a new principal at a cross-market midsized sector practice; and the founder of a nearly 30-year-old residential design studio.
We discuss ownership structures, and strategies around succession planning and leadership transitions.
Principals’ MasterClass
SO|arch presents Pathway to A+D Firm Leadership Event on AIA SF platform
What does it mean to lead an A+D practice today? And what does it take to be a firm leader? Who is part of the team leading the firm? What are the leadership team roles? What processes and tools do we need? Get into the mindset of success with me.
In this informative presentation, I discuss the skills an A+D practice leader needs to master—from knowing who they are with its limits and opportunities; to building and leading BRAND / FINANCE / OPERATIONS / DESIGN teams; to stewarding firm culture; and to staying on top of best practices.
I elaborate why personality tests matter, how to assemble BRAND / FINANCE / OPERATIONS / DESIGN teams [with individual’s roles and best practices on processes/tools] and how to create strategies around leadership transitions.
Topics include:
• LEADERSHIP: know who you are & know the Big 4
• BRAND: create a plan that tells your story and resonates
• FINANCE: achieve financial health through financial management
• OPERATIONS: create an optimized organism of staff, systems and processes
• DESIGN + PRACTICE: attract, retain, and develop talent
THINK-TIME TUESDAYS - Inside the A+D Studio
SO|arch presents BRAND / FINANCES / OPERATIONS / PRACTICE + DESIGN Events on AIA LA platform:
AIAU recordings available online here to earn LUs
What makes a successful A+D practice?
Find out by taking a break from your daily grind and getting into active thinking mode with business strategy consultant, leadership coach, architect and SO|arch founder, Elisabeth Sporer, AIA, CIC.
Elisabeth works with A+D firms — from emerging studios to established practices and legacy firms — to create business plans based on the "Four Basics" of BRAND / OPERATIONS / FINANCE / DESIGN. Holistic in approach, viable and succinct, these business plans address a variety of goals — from long-terms ones like overall growth, market sector expansion, firm leadership restructure, succession planning or ownership transition, to short-term ones like strengthening leadership teams, establishing financial performance goals, establishing efficient operational processes, defining the firm’s financial processes and accounting procedures / software, or adding talent.
Through interactive sessions — rooted in case studies, best practices and the lessons of entrepreneurship — participants learn how to strengthen, and synergize, the "Four Pillars" of your business [BRAND / OPERATIONS / FINANCE / DESIGN]. By giving themselves time to actively, and deliberately, think on all aspects of their business, and their firm's unique DNA, participants can realize an A+D practice where purpose, portfolio and profit meaningfully converge.
SERIES DETAIL BELOW:
TTT1 BRAND
Story-selling & The Freestyle Practice
Who gets the work, and how? The first session [of four] focuses under the umbrella term BRAND focuses on how brand is tied to BD (business development), marketing and PR (public relations).
Once elusive-sounding concepts, perhaps even taboo topics, in A+D, "brand" and "marketing" have not only become part of the industry's lexicon, but can also be key influencers, along with BD (business development), of a successful practice. Think-Time Tuesday host, and business strategy consultant, Elisabeth Sporer, AIA CIC, engages in a dialogue with her guest, brand strategist and creative consultant Lisa Boquiren who unboxes each element through case studies and an interactive segment.
TTT2 OPERATIONS
Leadership & Where the Buck Stops
Who builds, manages, and supports the team and how? The second session under the umbrella term of OPERATIONS is centered on business strategy, culture and firm management - a presentation on the business of running an A+D firm.
Elisabeth provides an overview of firm profiles and firm structures, as well as leadership styles and firm cultures, then presents select SO|arch case studies in conversation with her clients:
• Building teams with Michelle Gayle Hill (Spatializing) and Rob Zirkle (brick)
• Improving overall performance for small and midsized firms with Cathy Merrill (Merrill Morris Partners)
• Leveraging niche services with Dong Kim (DIALOG)
TTT3 FINANCE
Profit Motive & The Business of Design
Who deals with the money, and how? This session focuses on how finance, metrics and performance influence an A+D practice’s wellbeing and its success moving forward, as well as the firm culture and its bottom line.
Elisabeth provides an overview about the metrics behind the business of design and how A+D founders and leaders can achieve and maintain fiscal health for their businesses - from basic best practices to advanced systems that can help measure, predict and manage their firm’s performance. A presentation will show & tell the Key Performance Indicators [KPIs] an A+D firm needs to monitor [operating profit rate / utilization rate & target utilization / payroll multiplier & net effective multiplier / overhead & break-even rate] and discuss best practices of monitoring cash flow, AR, backlog volume and proposals pending.
Then in conversation with her clients, Elisabeth presents case studies that founders and leaders of small studios and midsized firms in particular will find useful:
Transitioning to professional systems for midsized firms with Julia Campbell [Quezada Architecture]
Optimizing basic systems for small firms with Khal Khaireddin [K2A]
TTT3+ FINANCE [The Project Manager Edition]
Profit Motive & The Business of Design — Unpacking KPIs
Who manages the projects and how? This session focuses on how the approach to utilization, project metrics and team performance influence an A+D practice’s wellbeing and its success moving forward, as well as the firm culture and its bottom line.
Join me for the “Project Manager Edition” a follow-up session to the TTT3 presentation on the metrics behind the business of design. Elisabeth provides an overview of what metrics a project manager needs to measure and how to influence the bottom line. This spans key performance indicators [KPIs] from staff utilization and billing forecasting to work and resource planning tied to financial performance. In interactive mode Elisabeth creates awareness on how these KPIs relate to the essential duties of a PM and show case studies of tools and best practices.
TTT4 Design & Practice
The Art of Collaboration & Getting Things Done
Who does the work and how? What does collaboration really mean? This session focuses on how A+D founders and leaders create their own culture with impactful design, and how this is nurtured by design teams, leadership styles, new ways of working, and even, ownership transitions.
Join me for TTT4 event of the Think-Time Tuesdays series—a presentation on design culture that energizes the business of design. Elisabeth provides an overview of the influencing factors of an office culture from the founder’s values and its impact on client and project selection to the way staff is hired, trained and mentored and how projects are executed in a hybrid work environment.
Then Elisabeth is joined in conversation by Los Angeles-based A+D firm leaders Karin Liljegren [Omgvining], Georgina Huljich [P-A-T-T-T-E-R-N-S], Stephanie Ragle [office42], and Monika Haefelfinger [XTEN], who share stories that other founders and leaders of small studios and midsized firms in particular will find useful, on these topics:
· Applied values: Design culture manifested in client selection and project work
· Design teams: Growing the firm
· New ways of working: Collaboration in hybrid mode
· Leadership: Training, mentoring, and ownership transitions
TTT4+ DESIGN & PRACTICE [The Project Architect Edition]
The Art of Collaboration & Getting Things Done – Unpacking Culture
Who oversees the teams and how? What does collaboration really mean? This session focuses on how topics like thoughtful work and task planning, accurate job descriptions, leadership styles and team building influence an A+D practice’s wellbeing and its success moving forward, as well as the firm culture and its bottom line.
Join me for the “Project Architect Edition” a follow-up session to a 2021 presentation on design culture that energizes the business of design. Elisabeth provides an overview of what a project architect needs to focus on to influence the office culture. This spans from job descriptions to the way staff is hired, trained and mentored to the way job responsibilities and deadlines are communicated and how projects are executed in a hybrid work environment. In interactive mode Elisabeth creates awareness on how these factors relate to the essential duties of a PA and show case studies of tools and best practices.
What are the “profiles of success” for A+D business? How are purpose, profit and portfolio interconnected? Why is a good business strategy dependent on financial health?
Business strategy consultant, architect and SO|arch founder Elisabeth Sporer shares best practices grounded in financial health. Drawing from her extensive experience helping clients successfully navigate the various phases of their business’s life cycles - from growth and expansion to restructuring, succession planning and ownership transition - Elisabeth presented hybrid case studies showing financial blueprints to address immediate needs, such as balancing a short-term impact plan with an annual strategic plan; creating leadership strategies to keep employees engaged while managing costs and cash flow, and navigating the long-haul through a 5 to 10-year business plan.
The presentation better equipps sole proprietors, boutique studio founders, and leaders and managers at mid-size and large firms alike to be responsive in the near-term, but also, proactive, and future-facing in their pursuit of peak performance for their businesses.
Ownership Transition in the Entrepreneurial Era of Gen X
Panel Discussion about Ownership Transition at AIA EB
From going solo midcareer, to moving up the ranks to strategically merging with another firm - how are entrepreneurial firm owners leading their architecture practice? Are they delivering traditional design services, or are they exploring other venues in professional services to meet and exceed their client’s needs?
In this panel conversation moderated by Elisabeth, Lisa Wai [principal of Shelterwerk], Abraham Jayson [principal of Jayson], and Dong Kim [principal of Byrens Kim Design Works] offered insights about their trajectories from designers to owners, about how their firms respond to changing skills, talents, interests, and perceptions, the culture [and values] of their organizations and their position on diversity and inclusion.
The panel also discussed how technology enables a digital [at points virtual] practice; how leadership coaching & mentorship replenish the pipeline for design and architecture talent; and the role of small firms and small businesses as incubators for design innovation, intercultural intelligence, equitable practices, and resilience.
The Free Solo Practice
Entrepreneurship & Roadmaps to Future Practice
Panel Discussion about A+D Firm Entrepreneurship at AIA SF
Small businesses form the backbone of communities, an integral part of a vibrant business ecosystem. How do locally-based firms help shape the regional economy, culture and society? What does it take to be an entrepreneur? How do local entrepreneurs benefit their communities and activate the urban fabric?
In this panel conversation moderated by Elisabeth, Matthew Bowles [co-founder of AMLGM], Tiffany Redding [co-founder of Fog Projects], and Rob Zirkle [founder of brick.inc] offered insights on the role of entrepreneurial firms as incubators for design innovation, critical thinking and social justice in San Francisco and beyond.
The panel – who have in common big firm experience – shared their motivations for working outside a corporate structure, from the need for creative expression and experimentation to a desire for life-work balance and meaningful social impact as well as the realities, risks, rewards and responsibilities of having a locally-owned business.
The panel also discussed how technology enables a digital practice; leadership, mentorship and the pipeline for design and architecture talent; and how small firms are helping to re-imagine architecture practice.
Unlearning the Metric System:
International Perspectives on Re-thinking the Practice
Panel Discussion about International Practice at AIA SF
This candid, cross-generational conversation on shared experiences, challenges overcome and lessons learned appealed to anyone with an entrepreneurial approach, a success mindset and a pioneering spirit.
The panel shared best practices for each career stage including, licensure, advanced education, networking, communication skills, community involvement, advocacy, mentorship, leadership coaching and others.
Hong Kong-born Bill Hung, Senegal native Aby Mariani, and Iranian-born Suzan Borazjani offered insights about their paths to the profession and how their international backgrounds shape their perspectives and how they practice, as well as the realities, risk and rewards of a career in design and architecture today, particularly for immigrants and expat practitioners in the San Francisco Bay Area.
German-American Elisabeth Sporer [founder of SO|arch], an architect, business strategy consultant and leadership coach moderated.
High Performing Mentorship Groups
AIASF Mentorship Committee Presents
One of the extracurricular activities I’m proud to be part of was the AIA SF’s mentorship program where I was the “senior level professional” of a group of 6 international professionals. My client work puts me in the thick of the business of design, so I saw my role for the yearlong program as helping designers, architects and leaders successfully bridge theory into practice. The profession has evolved – some might even say, stalled and stuck in the past – and I think “diversity” is no longer about a checklist on RFQ’s but a mandate for culture shift.
Who better than to help hit the re-set button and imagine a new paradigm than young professionals? Together we ventured on an open-minded, curious and inventive journey and visited topics and point-of-views relevant for all design professionals seen through the lens of an international background.
I was moderating a panel discussion. Julia Weatherspoon [Architectural Designer at SmithGroup] , Manuel Torres [Project Designer at John Lum Architecture], Marcel Snodgrass [Project Manager at David Baker Architecture], and Bill Hung [Project Manager at Halyard] offered insights on the role of mentorship in their career and how AIASF’s mentorship program related to their overall experience. The panelists – who all have in common the experience of being in a mentorship group - shared new insights they gained, inspirations that were ignited and new friendships were forged during that year. The panel also discussed how collaboration of professionals of different experience levels outside the firms they are working for offered a platform for thinking outside the box and allowed for high-energy entrepreneurial approaches to ongoing challenges.