About
COLUMN
10.
CASE STUDY
Value You Can Feel: How The Primestone Group’s Core Values Shape the Client Experience
11.
CASE STUDY
When Values Impart Value: How Culture Creates a Competitive Edge at Lowe Engineers
CEO’S MESSAGE
The Value Imperative: Powering Business Growth with Impact
Marci D. Thompson, DES
She is committed to ensuring the strategic direction for growth and relevancy amidst a continually evolving A/E/C industry.
In every strategic conversation I've had over the past year, whether with firm principals, chapter leaders, or industry alliance partners, there's one concept that continues to surface: value is the driver of growth.
Not revenue. Not scale. Not market share.
Value.
Growth that lasts, growth that matters, comes from a clear articulation and consistent delivery of value. That's the throughline across high-performing firms and resilient organizations.
When I think about SMPS's role in this industry, I see us as champions of that value mindset. We equip marketers and business developers with insight and tools to translate technical expertise into client impact. We help firms not just grow but grow with intention and integrity.
Growth is not just about doing more; it's about doing what matters.
In an industry where timelines tighten, and competition rises, we can't afford to confuse activity with advancement. Business growth requires strategic clarity:
- What do we do that no one else does quite like us?
- Where are we most relevant, and where are we most needed?
- How can we scale our strengths rather than stretch our limits?
When value leads, growth follows.
Whether you're entering a new market, deepening client relationships, or expanding service lines, growth hinges on a firm's ability to deliver value before it's requested and beyond what's expected.Recent data from ENR's 2025 Top Owners Review shows a 9.3% increase in construction-in-progress value across top firms, reinforcing that long-term growth stems from firms who consistently deliver client-aligned value, even amidst economic volatility.
This approach aligns with a broader business trend. As Harvard Business Review noted in "A Growth Strategy that Creates and Protects Value," leaders today must "invest in value creation that is hard to copy and essential to your stakeholders." It's not about chasing short-term wins; it's about cultivating sustainable differentiation.
This is where marketing takes center stage. Not as a support function, but as a growth engine. Marketing identifies opportunity, tells the story of impact, and reinforces value through every channel and touchpoint. It's not soft. It's strategic.
At SMPS, we're advancing this narrative every day. We're not just supporting business growth; we're helping redefine what growth looks like in our space: growth that reflects impact, growth that centers people, and growth that is resilient, not reactive.
As leaders, our greatest responsibility is to ensure that our organizations are creating value, not just extracting it. When we commit to that, growth becomes not just possible, but inevitable.
Let's keep leading forward, rooted in value and driven by impact.
Marci D. Thompson, DES