Resources
We like to keep the search process as simple as possible, so we offer basic tips and tools that will help you in your marketing and business intelligence activities. Below are links to blogs and news aggregators and a list of recommended business books.
My Favorite Blog Sites
All About Cities (Planning)
ArchiCentral (World Architecture)
Archinect (Architecture)
Architect’s Newspaper (Architecture)
BLDG Blog (Built Environment)
Forecasting (New Trends)
Brookings (Public Policy)
Building Design (UK focus)
Buildings & Grounds ( Higher Ed)
Center for Health Design (Health Facilities)
City Fix (Urban Transit)
Curbed (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco)
A Daily Dose of Architecture (Architecture)
The Dirt (Landscape Architecture)
Globest (Real Estate)
Greenbiz.com (Green Business Trends)
The Hill(U.S. Congress)
The Infrastructurist (Global Infrastructure)
Metropolis P/O/V (Design)
Planetzin (Planning)
The Slatin Report (Real Estate)
Streetsblog (Urban Transit)
Technorati (Blog Search Engine and Evaluator)
TED (Innovation)
Urban and Regional Innovation (Innovation Clusters)
Wall Street Journal (Real Estate)
News Aggregators for Tracking Leads and Trends
Use news aggregators to quickly scan the world for news on your topic. Since many of these sites gather news from wires, local media and press releases, you can often retrieve stories long before they hit mainstream media. These are among my favorites:
Google News – Excellent for setting up alerts
Allinonenews.com - Searches 1800 search engines from 200 countries
Bloomberg News – News by category and region
Breaking News – Current news delivered by professional correspondents, citizen journalists and bloggers
CNN – Provides breaking news alerts
Cluuz – News search engine
Newsnow – UK-focused news portal
Newser – Searches by source, location or topic
Newssift – Relationship-based searches powered by Financial Times
Newswise – Favorite with journalists
Chipwrapper – Search engine for UK newspapers
Europe Media Monitor – News from the European Commission
Topix – Choose your local news
Wall Street Journal – Partial access for free
Recommended Reading
Following is a list of useful business books which offer valuable nuggets to anyone who provides professional services—especially architects. Some of the titles are not new, but the ideas still hold true.
Architect’s Essentials of Professional Practice Series published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. for the American Institute of Architects. All of the titles in this series are very useful, particularly for emerging firms.
Architect’s Essentials of Winning Proposals by Frank A. Stasiowski is especially helpful.
Capelin, Joan. Principles for Principals. New York: Society for Marketing Professional Services, 2004. An expanded edition was published by Greenway Communications later in 2004 under the title Communication by Design: Marketing Professional Services. This is essential reading for developing better client relations.
Fritz, Mark. The Truth about Getting More Done. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., 2009. 42 truths about goal-setting, planning, discipline, relationships and communication, etc are addressed in this small book.
Ferrazzi, Keith. Never Eat Alone and Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time. New York: Doubleday, 2005.The author is a master at teaching the secrets of developing excellent client relationships.
Gerber,Michael. The E-Myth Revisited; Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It. New York: Harper Collins, 1995. Small business owners will gain the most from this book as well as the others by this author in the E-Myth series.
Iloniemi, Laura. It’s All about Image: How PR Works in Architecture. London: Academy Press, 2004. The author has worked with several international high-profile as well as small architecture firms and truly understands how the process works.
Kogan, Raymond and Cara Bobchek. Strategic Planning for Design Firms. New York: Kaplan Publishing, 2007. Every firm should look at this excellent step-by-step guide.
McCormack, Mark H. What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School; Notes from a Street-Smart Executive. New York: Bantam, 1984. This witty marketing book which describes how to apply “people sense” to get things done is one of the best and will never be out-of-date.
Parinello, Anthony. Selling to VITO ; the Very Important Top Officer. Avon, MA: Adams Media Corp., 1999. Filled with tactics for getting to the top decision-makers, this book should be on every marketer’s reading list.
Shapiro, Ronald M. and Gregory Jordan. Dare to Prepare; How to Win Before You Begin. New York: Crown, 1008.