Well, it’s official: Mead & Hunt is 120 years young! The AEC industry has undoubtedly experienced huge, fundamental changes in the last 5, 10, 50, and certainly 120 years. We’ve faced economic downturns, war, and unprecedented industrial and commercial growth. Our technologies and methodologies have changed so much they’d be nearly unrecognizable to our earliest predecessors. Yet in the face of industry evolution—which promises to only speed up as we move forward—Mead & Hunt has managed to thrive. How have we accomplished this?
We’ve been around long enough to understand that staying the same is not an option. Since its founding in 1900, we have significantly expanded and diversified our disciplines, markets, services, and geographic presence. This growth has mirrored the changing needs of the communities we serve—as infrastructure needs expanded, so have the depth and breadth of services we offer.
Yet throughout all these changes, our mission, vision, and values have essentially remained untouched. We reaffirmed this over the past year as we contemplated updates to our mission, vision, and values statements, an endeavor we named Project Why. Project Why asks a simple yet vital question: why do we exist? To answer, a group of 20 non-management employees representing multiple offices, disciplines, and markets worked together to define our values as they reflect the firm today. The team gathered feedback and input from throughout the company in a unique, wholly employee-driven process.
When we stopped to take stock of who we are, what our purpose is, and what we value, we saw that our values have not strayed too far from where we started:
These values are in pursuit of our purpose:
Our ability to adapt and innovate has been crucial to our growth and longevity. We believe that we have been able to move forward because of our enduring commitment to our founding values. We have evolved over the years, consistently weathering significant changes, precisely because we have stayed true to our founding principles. Our work has always been about taking care of people, whether it be our clients, employees or communities. This legacy will continue to inform our actions as we move forward.
