Leadership Edge: TRXL 185
Radical transparency in architecture firms: exploring real-time data benchmarks, financial literacy as a design skill, and how open operations create team alignment and sustainable business models for better project outcomes.
Summary
In my conversation with Robert Yuen, we took a hard look at what it means to bring radical transparency to the AEC industry—and why it’s essential for the future of practice. Robert and his team at Monograph are not only advocating for a cultural shift but actively building the infrastructure to support it. At the center of this effort is their new benchmark report, which uses anonymized real-time data (not surveys!) to paint an accurate picture of firm performance. This is particularly relevant due to the small firms that make up 90% of the industry. We talked about accountability, financial literacy, data-driven practice ops, and why transparency is no longer optional.
“If you do good work and you’re not profitable, you might not have the opportunity to continue to do good work.” — Robert Yuen
Key Takeaways
Here are my top 6 takeaways from the podcast episode. Then we'll get into the deeper analysis.
