Do the Right Thing

Doing the right thing has always been the focus for A&Z Engineering founders and owners, Jamal Anabtawi, PE, and Warren Zwick, PE. They met at a local engineering firm in 1991. With shared ideas about how people in Indiana think and do business, the friends decided to found a firm based on their own philosophy. In 2005, A&Z Engineering was established.

“It’s not just about doing the job right,” says Anabtawi, owner and director of business development, “but doing the right thing for each client and employee. We wanted to empower our employees. And we look for the right clients that need our help.” 

It’s a formula for success and employee satisfaction. Ninety-five percent of A&Z’s business is repeat clients. Only four employees have left in the past 12 years—and they continue to work with the company today as clients. The firm has hired six new employees in the last six months.

Doing the right thing for each client involves knowing and doing what A&Z is good at doing. “We are primarily a Roadway Design and Construction Inspection firm,” says Anabtawi. However, with the recent growth, A&Z is now also offering:

• Roadway/Highway/Intersection Improvements       
• Construction Inspection Services
• Underground Infrastructure and Utilities Improvements
• Land Surveying
• Traffic Impact Studies
• Right of Way Services
• Bridge Design and Structural Engineering
• Transportation Planning, Engineering, Studies and Reports
• Trailways, Bicycle and Pedestrian Paths
• Funding Acquisition Assistance

“Our work is mainly related to public services and safety: water projects, new roads, traffic services, recreational facilities such as bike and pedestrian trails, and bridges,” says Anabtawi. “We are blessed as the majority of our clients give A&Z Engineering the design work and inspection as well.”

A&Z’s new areas of expertise meet clients’ growing needs. In addition to surveying, “Bridge design and rehabilitation—both highway and pedestrian—are examples of new services,” says Frank McCutcheon, PE, project manager. Stormwater utility creation and consulting is a specialty of veteran project manager Mark Jesse, who recently joined A&Z Engineering, but has 33 years of experience in various aspects of the engineering field.

Clients include the City of Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana Department of Transportation, regional cities such as Warsaw, Garrett, Woodburn, Kendallville and New Haven and towns such as St. Joe, Waterloo and Winona Lake, and more. 

Recent design projects have been New Haven’s Landin Road to downtown; Maplecrest Road; Flutter Road; the pedestrian bridge along Lake Avenue; the intersection and road improvements at Husky Trail Road; Liberty Mills and Bethel and Till; and Heritage (Greenway) Trail section near Grace College in Winona Lake.

Doing the right thing means clients come first. “When you help the customers research their project and then keep them informed, trust is built and they know they are getting their money’s worth,” says McCutcheon. For example, the team can figure out roads that qualify for federal funds, help clients apply for them and prepare feasibility and environmental impact studies.

“We’ve done many federal aid projects that take years to complete,” says Anabtawi. “This kind of large scale, long-term project can be overwhelming to smaller towns and that’s when we step up. Our goal is providing quality services.” And the result is happy clients.

Communication with clients also falls under A&Z’s focus on doing the right thing. “Doing it right can bring in money, but, more importantly, doing the right thing is looking at the relationship first,” says Anabtawi. “You need to get the client on board and heading in the same direction for it to go well. We bend over backwards to please our clients.”

“We’re fortunate to have good, long-term clients,” says Anabtawi.

And good leadership as well, according to senior project manager Nitin Timble, PE, PS, who has 30 years of experience in structural engineering and project management. “The personality of the boss affects the culture,” says Timble. “Jamal is accessible and relates to us as an individual, not as ‘I am the boss.’”

“Our focus is not on individual accomplishments, but on using our strengths as a team,” says Anabtawi. “We want every employee to explore different tasks. Your strength is about knowing your weaknesses. If I need some help, I go to the other person who is better at that than I am.”

“Misguided competition creates barriers to collaboration,” says Timble. “Instead, there is a casual, fun vibe here.”

“There are no niches. We work as a team,” says Jesse. “Because of that, A&Z can do more for less. That’s why it is successful.”

“We don’t want to lose that feeling of relationship as we grow,” says Anabtawi, always leading the team to do the right thing as they do things right. 

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