Finish 2025 strong
As 2025 winds down, companies still have time to make meaningful strategic moves that can strengthen their position heading into the new year.
Julie Witecki, a Denver-based strategy consultant with FMI, helps AEC companies sharpen their business and market strategies to drive efficiency, effectiveness and long-term impact.
Here, Witecki shares her insights on trends and conditions as well as some moves to make in the run-up to year-end.
—Interview by Margot Lester, edited by Bianca Prieto
What's the most common barrier keeping contractors from being more successful, and what's one way to overcome it?
The most common barriers are undisciplined project selection and preconstruction. To overcome them, install a simple, enforced go/no-go decision framework tied to strategy and pair it with a repeatable preconstruction playbook that includes scope clarity, pull plan, buyout targets and risk review. Better selection and planning are the fastest levers to recover margin.
What should we be focusing on between now and year-end?
The single most important areas of focus before year-end are backlog quality and cash discipline.
Here’s how you do that. First, tighten project selection and pricing. De-select marginal pursuits, re-price risky scopes and protect fees. Then, scrub work-in-progress and close out change orders to convert earned margin into cash heading into the first quarter. Next, front-load preconstruction on awarded 2026 starters—targeted VE, logistics, buy-out plans—to lock in cost certainty and schedule.
And while you’re doing that, watch policy and input volatility. Inflation is persistent and trade policy remains a headwind, so build alternates and lead-time contingencies into plans. Remember, high-performing firms win before breaking ground.
What else can we do to set the stage for a strong 2026?
Narrow your hunting ground. Prioritize two to three segments where you already have references, subcontractors and schedule know-how. Depth beats breadth when costs are moving. You can identify five owners, five designers and five trade partners to contact weekly with something useful, like intel, a sketch or a schedule trick. Giving can be better than asking!
What's a trend that's not getting enough attention from contractors?
AI and electrification are straining the grid. Transmission and distribution upgrades, substation work and interconnection packages will shape site selection and schedules. Contractors who build power literacy in areas like utility coordination, substation and SCADA [supervisory control and data acquisition] partners and long-lead equipment strategy will win over peers, even outside traditional utility markets. It will also be important to track data center ripples into civil infrastructure and power scopes.
What words of encouragement do you have for contractors feeling the strain of tariffs, rising costs, labor issues, etc.?
There is still real demand. Public infrastructure and power work are holding up, and data centers remain a growth engine in 2026. And remember that you have controllable levers. Planning, communication and collaboration—more than external forces—drive most productivity gains. Small improvements compound quickly. Which is why you should make momentum visible. Track meaningful client conversations, warm introductions requested, meetings booked and proposal wins.
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The Level is curated and written by Margot Lester and edited by Bianca Prieto.
