LeMessurier, a Boston consulting firm established in 1961, works alongside architects, developers, contractors, and business owners to facilitate and optimize building design and construction. Some of their most notorious projects include Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, The Boston Public Library, and the TD Garden, to name a few. As a long-standing organization in a rapidly changing industry, LeMessurier sought Commonwealth Corporation’s Workforce Training Fund grant to expose their firm leaders to innovations in business development and marketing- and their future is already gaining a new foundation.

The consulting firm’s leadership shared they applied for the grant because they wanted to prioritize training that would allow them to bridge the gap of experience for incoming leaders and stay ahead of the curve in a marketplace that demands strong business development, marketing, and communications skills. 

Thanks to a $182,080 Workforce Training Fund grant received in 2020, LeMessurier embarked on formal training for the first time in recent years and created a specialized program that included all levels and departments. “We wanted the next generation of firm leadership to gain an understanding of marketing, business development, branding, and business planning,” said Kathryn Grady, Executive Assistant at LeMessurier. “At the same time, we wanted our engineers, enclosure consultants, and modelers to build a shared foundation and understanding of BIM, Revit, their tools, and plug-ins to facilitate exchanges of ideas, improving processes, and innovation. Over time, we discovered that communication was improving across the board. People were engaged with the training but also with discovering the stories, skills, and lessons we can offer each other,” she added.

"After two years of training, we’ve seen increased revenue, added employees, and more people coming to work at LeMessurier from our competitors than at any other time in our 60-plus years as a company."
-Bill Lovallo, Managing Principal at Lemessurier​

This new training covered assorted topics that targeted business development specific to the company, many of which were brand-new to its audience of future firm leaders, principals, and associates. Executed at first over the COVID-19 pandemic, LeMessurier held these workshops over digital platforms such as Zoom and Teams to allow for virtual interaction.

Since then, LeMessurier reports it has seen successful growth that can be directly attributed to the Workforce Training Grant. With stronger communication skills and sharpened business development tools, the firm reports it has changed its attitude toward project pursuits, allowing them to expand its client network and measurably improve its odds of securing project contracts.

This training has directly affected the way that we conduct Business Development,” said Steve Jones, Director of Business Development. Likewise, Bill Lovallo, Managing Principal at LeMessurier, remarked, “After two years of training, we’ve seen increased revenue, added employees, and more people coming to work at LeMessurier from our competitors than at any other time in our 60-plus years as a company. We must be doing something right.” 

Now, LeMessurier is preparing a survey for their employees on what additional training they would want in the future, turning the pursuit of business development into a tradition at a company prioritizing scaling from within.