The Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) College of Fellows recently released a report outlining results of a survey that “calls out” the major issues of the day (and looks retrospectively at how previous predictions fared.)
The results: These are the big areas of concern/change affecting the AEC industry, especially from a marketing perspective:
In order to obtain knowledgeable and insightful observations, the Fellows?were asked to look to the future and identify some challenges in the A/E/C?industry over the next seven to 10?years.
Much like the Looking Back questions in the survey, there was a variety of?responses. However, also like that section, many of the responses could be?grouped by similar topics. The most popular challenges that were identified?together with their number of citations included:
- Staffing/Pending Talent Shortage/Attracting Talent (21)
- Intergenerational Workforce/Leadership Transition (11)
- Squeeze on Profitability/Commoditization (11)
- Adapting to Changes in Technology (11)
- Funding/Repairing Aging Infrastructure (8)
- Mergers & Acquisitions and Impact on Smaller Firms (6)
- Regaining Marketing Budget/Resources After Recession (5)
- Global Competition (4)
- Building Face-to-Face Relationships in a Digital World (4)
- Developing Seller-Doers (3)
- Diversity ? Women & Minorities (3)
The talent shortage/staffing issue is interesting and significant, especially because the industry has just survived a jolting and career-damaging recession.
