This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Project Delivery and Practice Management Member Conversations .
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As I read blogger comments about the top challenges for the profession I can't help but to see that there is a common thread that links them all, and it is rarely acknowledged in the observations cited. For instance, the issue of the laying off of the elder practitioners who have the ability to mentor the new generation, or the lack of education within firms for the young practitioners. This phenomenon, along with most any other issue that is commonly cited, is directly related to the flawed business model of professional practice that is almost universally used. Until the business model is fixed all of the issues mentioned in these blogs will continue, and will only seemingly change due to economic cycles and specific market characteristics.
Scott Simpson's article, while a little protracted and vague when predicting the long term future, is, I think, accurate in identifying three issues which I hope I have properly interpreted. First, architects simply must find a way to be compensated based on what their service/product is worth to the client, not based on what it costs to produce. Second, there must be a consolidation in order to make this transition. And third, eventually the consolidation will look much like the "Beck" model, with firms both designing and producing the product. The rest of the article essentially describes what the resulting details of such a practice might look like. The fact is that in an environmet where such firms such compete against each other would create many efficiencies that Scott did not mention, and that no one could even begin to imagine today. Free market competition and profit motive are strong trasformational forces that will create opportunity for innovation by creating a market for innovation. In the business model used today there is no market for innovation, there is a market for man-hours. The greatest insult to a thinking man is to measure his value by his time, yet we not only submit to it, we encourage it.
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Alan Burcope AIA, MBA, LEED AP
VP Project Development
HBE Corporation
Saint Louis MO
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