Past Winner Stories
Williams Creek Consulting
www.williamscreek.net
During its first three years the firm spent approximately 80% of its time educating its prospects, clients, other design team members and local regulatory personnel on the benefits of its three-tier approach to ecological engineering and only 20% of its time in actual design. Consequently, its operating margin was low when benchmarked against its traditional design-focused peers.
Despite razor thin margins the company continued to grow, taking on ever more significant projects, adding personnel and expanding its geographic reach. Due to key local clients' trust in Williams Creek's ability to perform and the owners' aggressive “failure is not an option” approach, the company is beginning to see both financial and project success.
The organization inspires and challenges its clients and local regulatory authorities to continuously think about new and more socially responsible ways to complete projects. Instead of broadening its service capabilities to match current client understanding and acceptance, Williams Creek maintains its focus on ecological engineering. The skills learned from starting a company in a business environment unfamiliar with its services and reluctant to accept change will serve Williams Creek well as it expands across the nation and into the international market.
As its traditional peers begin to accept and practice sustainable design, Williams Creek stays on the cutting edge with pioneering ecological engineering solutions, continuously improving internal practices while aggressively pursuing its business development strategy.
Williams Creek’s owners recognize that to maintain a truly unique firm it must recruit and retain top conservation-minded talent, develop strong financial controls, commit to the disciplines of sales and marketing, and provide a working environment that rewards excellence. It has assembled a talented team rivaled by only the best and most established firms.
While many firms in the architectural and engineering industry have gone through significant contraction and elimination due to the harsh downturn in the housing sector, Williams Creek has been relatively unaffected due to its strong financial controls and an unrelenting commitment to sales and marketing. Significant investments of time and money have helped insulate it from the downturn and reflect the owners' commitment to increasing its team’s financial intelligence through training and technology.
In order to systematically grow the top line, Williams Creek's professional business development staff competes for the trust and increased business of existing clients and prospects in almost all sectors of the industry. Its strong financial controls and business development practices allow the company to reward its team through a profit-based bonus program unique to the industry. This program has been, and will continue to be Williams Creek's primary recruitment and retention tool.
Williams Creek has relentlessly positioned itself to become the market leader in delivering creative and innovative green design to the architectural and engineering industry. It has become a national corporation with more than 20 professionals completing sustainable design projects for public and private clients coast to coast. In the future it will pursue the same strategy that has fueled its growth and helped make it one of the most recognized ecological engineering firms in the industry.
In 2002, Williams Creek Consulting, an ecological engineering and consulting firm based in Indianapolis, didn’t just create a business, it had to create a market for its services as well. When it first started, “green” was far from mainstream and Al Gore had yet to receive an Oscar. Sustainable design, a fairly recent approach to development and infrastructure projects in the U.S., was basically non¬existent in the Midwest outside of Chicago.
During its first three years the firm spent approximately 80% of its time educating its prospects, clients, other design team members and local regulatory personnel on the benefits of its three-tier approach to ecological engineering and only 20% of its time in actual design. Consequently, its operating margin was low when benchmarked against its traditional design-focused peers.
Despite razor thin margins the company continued to grow, taking on ever more significant projects, adding personnel and expanding its geographic reach. Due to key local clients' trust in Williams Creek's ability to perform and the owners' aggressive “failure is not an option” approach, the company is beginning to see both financial and project success.
The organization inspires and challenges its clients and local regulatory authorities to continuously think about new and more socially responsible ways to complete projects. Instead of broadening its service capabilities to match current client understanding and acceptance, Williams Creek maintains its focus on ecological engineering. The skills learned from starting a company in a business environment unfamiliar with its services and reluctant to accept change will serve Williams Creek well as it expands across the nation and into the international market.
As its traditional peers begin to accept and practice sustainable design, Williams Creek stays on the cutting edge with pioneering ecological engineering solutions, continuously improving internal practices while aggressively pursuing its business development strategy.
Williams Creek’s owners recognize that to maintain a truly unique firm it must recruit and retain top conservation-minded talent, develop strong financial controls, commit to the disciplines of sales and marketing, and provide a working environment that rewards excellence. It has assembled a talented team rivaled by only the best and most established firms.
While many firms in the architectural and engineering industry have gone through significant contraction and elimination due to the harsh downturn in the housing sector, Williams Creek has been relatively unaffected due to its strong financial controls and an unrelenting commitment to sales and marketing. Significant investments of time and money have helped insulate it from the downturn and reflect the owners' commitment to increasing its team’s financial intelligence through training and technology.
In order to systematically grow the top line, Williams Creek's professional business development staff competes for the trust and increased business of existing clients and prospects in almost all sectors of the industry. Its strong financial controls and business development practices allow the company to reward its team through a profit-based bonus program unique to the industry. This program has been, and will continue to be Williams Creek's primary recruitment and retention tool.
Williams Creek has relentlessly positioned itself to become the market leader in delivering creative and innovative green design to the architectural and engineering industry. It has become a national corporation with more than 20 professionals completing sustainable design projects for public and private clients coast to coast. In the future it will pursue the same strategy that has fueled its growth and helped make it one of the most recognized ecological engineering firms in the industry.