President's Letter: A Tribute to Our Clients
Randle Pollock, FSMPS, SMPS National President and Principal, Walter P. Moore
Without clients, where would our firms be? Indeed, where would we be?

With those questions on my mind, and anticipating the obvious answers, I want to pay tribute to those who really make our existences—as firms, as professionals—truly possible. Without them, simply put, we would not be where we are, or have what we have, or do what we do. Without them, perish the thought, there would be no SMPS.

Every year, thousands and thousands of clients in the public and private sectors hire our firms. They entrust us with their projects—to design or build a school or a stadium, a hospital or a highway. Securing their trust and their business is (or should be) the ultimate goal of all marketing and business development professionals, in the final analysis, no matter what specific roles we play in our firms. It is not just about getting project publicity or administering a new CRM system or producing proposals or ad campaigns or staffing a trade show or doing a marketing plan or developing a direct-mail program or a new web site. These are all simply the means we employ to achieve our goals: securing the business of the clients we want. 

In appreciation for and in celebration of the great clients who make possible the success of our firms—and own success in those firms—we are conducting for the first time a "Client Appreciation Day" at our upcoming national conference, Build Business, in New York City, August 11-14, 2004, co-hosted by SMPS and PSMA. It is a long-overdue appreciation about which I am very excited.

In doing so, we wanted to recognize a single person—or entity—who would signify and embody what being a great client means. We know that great clients are essential to producing great work. We also know that as individuals, great clients uphold and champion exceptionally high standards of excellence, creativity, and vision. Who among so many good client candidates would that be?

The choice was easy. To receive SMPS's first-ever "Client of the Year Award," we decided there was no person on the planet more deserving than Edward A. Feiner, FAIA, Chief Architect, United States General Services Administration, Design Excellence Program. He is truly a client of the year—and perhaps of all time.

Based in Washington, DC, Ed Feiner is the national leader and manager of GSA's Design and Construction Program, with more than $12 billion work in progress in all 50 states—an enormous program that includes federal courthouses, federal office buildings, border stations, national laboratories, historic preservation and modernizations, Art in Architecture, the Fine Arts Program (New Deal Era), and special-scope projects developed under GSA's construction authority. He is responsible for more that 350 million square feet of inventory. In addition he supervises a direct report staff of 86 professionals in 5 divisions and has staff advisory authority for design and construction in 11 regional offices (with 350 professionals).

Ed Feiner will join us at Build Business on the morning of Friday, August 13, to receive the "Client of the Year Award" in person and to tell us more about his program. Following this event, and throughout that day, we will be honoring all the many clients who will be in attendance—and those who are not. I invite you all to join us for what will be an auspicious occasion where we pay tribute to clients in general and GSA's Ed Feiner in particular.

See you there!

About the President
Randle Pollock, FSMPS, is principal in charge of marketing for Walter P. Moore, engineers and consultants (www.walterpmoore.com). Based in Houston, Randy can be reached at 713.630.7488 or rpollock@walterpmoore.com. [ return to top ]