RBI has extended $15,000 worth of scholarships to 12 local business professionals to attend a new workshop series aimed to help them cultivate their companies. The seminars will explain the first-of-its-kind RBI study that identified 12 actions a firm in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry must take to attain and retain competitive advantage despite uncertain market conditions and an influx of international competitors.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Rice University Building Institute ( RBI ) has teamed up with seven nonprofit professional organizations to help Houston businesses grow by offering local firms unprecedented access to the conclusions of a three-year research project.
RBI has extended $15,000 worth of scholarships to 12 local business professionals to attend a new workshop series aimed to help them cultivate their companies. The seminars will explain the first-of-its-kind RBI study that identified 12 actions a firm in the architecture, engineering and construction ( AEC ) industry must take to attain and retain competitive advantage despite uncertain market conditions and an influx of international competitors.
"When we surveyed local AEC industry leaders about what keeps them up at night, their responses were overwhelmingly focused," said Joe M. Powell, executive director of RBI. "The paramount concern of firm leaders is their ability to maintain a high level of competitiveness."
The seminars will groom participants to become the next generation of global market leaders by exploring the critical performance characteristics of the world's most competitive companies. During the seminars, Powell will present and explain each of the 12 strategies that will drive the 21st century's most successful firms.
Among the strategies are inspiring with vision, leading with values, attaining competitive focus, capturing category ownership, using persistent branding, creating marketing breakthroughs, exploiting competitive intelligence, launching a competitive culture, establishing customer intimacy, acquiring and nurturing high-impact people, developing a culture of obsessive improvement and formulating new strategic alliances.
The scholarship recipients were identified by their professional organizations as AEC industry up-and-comers. About 55 other industry leaders will attend as well.
One of the scholarship recipients, who also was named "Young Architect of the Year" by the American Institute of Architects ( AIA ) Houston, said this research comes at an ideal time for his industry.
"With the real estate bubble burst, this is an important time to be able to differentiate," said Camilo Parra, principal of Parra Design Group. "I'm looking forward to developing my leadership skills, learning how to grow my business and sharing experiences with others in my field."
The seven nonprofit professional organizations and their selected scholarship recipients are.
Associated Builders and Contractors: Matt Daniel of Skanska USA and Diego Cabrales of TIC-The Industrial Company
Associated General Contractors: Harold Younger Jr.
AIA: Parra and Brian Malarkey of Kirksey Architects
American Subcontractors Association: Andrew Harman of Texas Metal Equipment Company
Council of Engineering Companies: David Johnston Jr. of Brown and Gay Engineers Inc. and Rich Squire of URS Corporation
Society for Marketing Professional Services: Carrie Stallwitz of Witz!PR and Nick Dwyer of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
Texas Society of Professional Engineers: Alan Hirshman of Dannenbaum Engineering Co. and Nathan Adams of AEI Engineering Inc.
Beginning this month, the half-day seminars will take place at Rice once a month for four months.
Rice’s research on competitiveness has produced two valuable outcomes: The new workshop series designed to teach the 12 strategies and the publication of the findings by John Wiley & Son in a new book, "The New Competitiveness in Design and Construction: 12 Strategies That Will Drive the 21st Century’s Most Successful Firms."
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RICE UNIVERSITY
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