So, you have been invited to become a principal in your firm? Congratulations! Now, what can you expect? Are there lessons learned from other design firms that have successfully gone through internal ownership transition? Yes, there are.

Cameron MacAllister consulting firm completed a benchmark study a few months ago on how architecture firms are handling the ownership succession process involving one or more founders who are near the end of their tenure.

The firms were located all over the U.S. (Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Midwest, Northwest, West), and ranged in size from 25 to 190. Eight of the participating firms are recipients of AIA National Firm Award. What these firms had most in common was a high-quality design orientation. We call these Design-First Firms.