Managing a Branch Office

Abstract

Today's engineering and architectural design firms are faced with an increasing challenge: satisfying the aggressive entrepreneurial spirit of their young engineers. Firms are growing due to the pressures of rehabilitating and expanding an aged infrastructure and satisfying the needs for facilities in the burgeoning growth areas of the country. With this growth come scores of young graduate engineers armed with the basic technical knowledge, but also preconditioned with all the marketing and managerial savvy of the new era—the new market. Or at least they think they are, and in five to ten years if you haven't developed and satisfied those creative juices in the star performers, they will be working for someone else or themselves. This growth, coupled with the market's demand for regional services, provides excellent opportunities for these young engineers. Firms are opening regional offices and acquiring other organizations at a record pace, and each one offers an opportunity to satisfy a young engineer's need to run his own show but do so within the framework of your organization. This presentation examines the hows and whys of regional office and subsidiary management by the home office in such a way as to promote and challenge while maintaining the corporate image, quality, and name, and not stifling the entrepreneurial spirit. If you are properly managing your remote operations, you are keeping those managers happy and productive contributors to your organization.