Art’s Principles: 50 years of hard-learned lessons in building a world-class professional services firm

by Arthur Gensler, Michael Lindenmayer, Doug Wittnebel (Illustrator)

Art’s Principles reveals the blueprint behind one of the most successful professional services firms, giving career-minded individuals the tools they need to excel in business. The book covers the essentials of leadership, talent acquisition and operations, while outlining the creative strategies that propelled a small business into one of the largest and most admired in its industry. This guidebook is full of well-tested ideas that are applicable to someone running a small, medium or large a professional firm—or running any project where people, profit and customers matter.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Architecture, Art, Design, Management

303 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2015

Reviews

[Jen Konecny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quality advice, easy to read

Good stuff here. A lot of common sense advice, but provides a good foundation for services firms. Would recommend this book.

[Douglas Wittnebel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent set of short pieces from Art Gensler about design and business, illustrated by the well known illustrator and architect, Doug Wittnebel

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Art's Principles: 50 Years of Hard-Learned Lessons in Building a World-Class Professional Services Firm

Rating: ★★★☆☆

“A solid collection of business lessons, informative but not particularly revelatory.”

Art's Principles by Art Gensler offers a retrospective look at the philosophy, values, and leadership principles that helped transform Gensler from a small architectural practice into one of the largest design firms in the world. As someone with a background in architecture and design, I was naturally curious about the insights that shaped such an influential company.

The book's greatest strength lies in the glimpse it provides into Gensler's culture. Art Gensler places significant emphasis on collaboration, client relationships, long-term thinking, and the cultivation of talent. It is easy to see how these principles contributed to the firm's success, and there are several useful observations about leadership, business development, and organizational growth.

That said, I found the book to be an okay read rather than an extraordinary one. Many of the lessons presented are sensible and practical, but rarely surprising. Readers familiar with business literature will likely encounter ideas they have seen elsewhere, often framed through the lens of Gensler's specific experiences rather than as groundbreaking management insights.

The writing style is clear and accessible, though at times it can feel repetitive. Several chapters revisit similar themes, reinforcing the firm's core values without necessarily adding new dimensions to the discussion. While this consistency reflects the author's commitment to his principles, it occasionally limits the book's ability to surprise or challenge the reader.

I particularly appreciated the sections discussing the relationship between design excellence and business success. As architects and designers often struggle to balance creativity with commercial realities, these reflections felt especially relevant. However, I wished the book had gone deeper into the complexities and challenges of running a global design practice, rather than focusing primarily on lessons learned and success stories.

Overall, Art's Principles is a worthwhile read for those interested in architecture, leadership, or the history of Gensler. It offers useful insights into the firm's culture and values, but I did not come away feeling that I had encountered anything especially transformative. Informative and pleasant, but ultimately more interesting as a case study of a successful company than as a source of profound business wisdom.

[Lee Fritz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good leadership can take simple forms, and Art Gensler boils down the big ideas into little digestible nuggets. Many topics were straightforward and predictable (best business is repeat business, consulting is all about growing relationships), but a few topics surprised me (Gensler is set up without profit centers at their size? Big G focuses on reducing silos and emphasizes opening new offices with exported Gensler staff?)

It was fun to have a frame of reference on the new office strategy of opening an office based on a new big project in the market, having seen that exact scenario play out around the Pittsburgh airport (and what a great group that was to interact with!

Sure, the infographic style of the book became a bit garish after a while, but I envision jumping back in and easily reminding myself of specific topics as they come up in my career - recruiting, team management, client challenges).

Recommended for anybody in AEC whether or not you’re familiar with Gensler (and I’m sure many of you are!)

[Carol Sente · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having grown up and spent a majority of my career in the architectural industry, the firm Gensler was well known. Only recently was I made aware that their Founder and first CEO Art Gensler wrote this book. He has since passed at age 85 in 2021. As the largest architectural firm in the world - both in number of employees (5,500+) and revenues ($1.8B), with 53 offices in 17 countries, how could you not read this book if in the A/E/C industry?! I certainly wanted to learn how he scaled his firm and what leadership techniques he attributes as important and successful. The book is an easy read that encompasses many short chapters. It reads more like any interview with Art and does not delve too deep into any of his principles which is both good and (for the topics I was interested in) not so good. Still definitely recommend reading this book.

[Chase · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy, simple, high-level read. This truly explains the "principles", giving starting thoughts in a very broad stream of topics.

Doing more professional work in "professional services" I found many parts of the book enlightening or inspiring. I would have appreciate more depth in those areas, but understandably I appreciated the brevity with the other topics that didn't seem relevant. This book strikes a nice balance between acknowledging "there is significance with this point" without belaboring that point. I assume this book ought to be a starting point for deeper research.

As a high-level reference for those looking to better understand & operate in professional services, this is a positive read.

[Justin Perdue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great and fast read. Rating 4 out of 5 as there were lots of places I wanted him to dive more into specifics of HOW to apply the principles. There needs to be a second book called "Art's Principles: Seriously, this is how to apply them."

[Ted Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sound advice for those of us in professional service firms.

[Weston Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written with good advice on leading and operating a professional services firm.

[Kat West · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly obvious stuff but easy to read format and good reminder of the fundamentals

[Maciek Wilczyński · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good basic piece, many obvious, few not so obvious advices if you are building a consulting firm. Overall, nice. Strong intro to D. Maister's work

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few surprises but overall dull and obvious advice. Dude got incredibly lucky in the 60s with 4 gigantic clients and that is really not a replicable formula or relatable perspective

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gem.

[Pete Markos · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome book. will certainly read again.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book at the end of my 4-month long internship with Gensler. For people looking to get into the professional service industry like I am, working with and attracting clients, this book is an alright read. Art has written his book in a really accessible way, with no fancy jargon. It's also applicable to almost all professional service industries, not just architecture. I put this book down about 2/3 of the way through, and honestly it's because Art talked in circles throughout this book, just saying the same lessons over and over. Be honest, moral, and fair. Have a life outside of work. Work really hard once you're at work. Put faith in your employees. The further I got, I just didn't feel like I was getting any new information, and of that information, nothing was mind-blowing. I don't think I learned anything from this book except how Gensler got its current work culture, and it's interesting to see how many of Art's ideas actually manifest themselves in the Gensler offices and which didn't. I'm still marking this book complete, since I really don't think any big information was awaiting me in the last 80 pages.

[Kristopher Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw Art Gensler speak about this book at the AIA Convention, and it was the best session I went to. I love seeing someone insert basic professional service and business thought into the design profession. I can see why his firm is so successful, and it's contrary to the values instilled in typical architectural education. The lessons in this book are so simple, but so hard to achieve for so many firms. I recommend it to anyone, and if you can see Art Gensler speak, take the opportunity. I'd like to have read a little more in-depth on some of the topics, which is the only knock I'd give the book. It's a 1-2 day read, and I highly recommend it to any architect, and probably to anyone working in a professional service capacity.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an easy read with some practical advice about working in the service industry. I talked about it so much that my husband also read it and got a lot out of it as well (and he's not a big reader). The author talks of the importance of culture, working with others as a team (family), and tips for success in business in general. Just from reading the book Art Gensler seems like he'd be a nice man and a great person to work with.

[Jonathan Chew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loathe homework (work asked me to read this) but it’s a good read. In hindsight, I wished I read the history (right at the back) first.