Business of Architecture Podcast · Enoch Sears & Rion Willard

SmithGroup: Leading with Vision, Legacy, and Values | EP 642

July 7, 2025·1 hr 1 min·5 clips

Roxanne Malek shares how immigrating from Iran shaped her journey from graphic designer to managing partner at Smith Group.

A successful firm plans decisions years ahead. The opening point is practical: big choices do not happen all at once. Leaders work toward them over time. That lands squarely in the world of architecture practice, where design work, clients, deadlines, teams, and money all keep tugging at the same hour of the day. Growth is not just an org chart problem. When the conversation turns to decisions, the guest keeps coming back to trust, succession planning, and knowing who can actually carry work forward. Expertise has to travel through the firm. Lab planners, architecture, interior design, engineering, landscape, and civil come up as connected parts of one practice, not separate boxes. That does not make coordination easy. The guest is clear that working across disciplines and locations can get messy. The client is still the anchor. The formula is plain enough: do the right things, create real value for clients, enjoy the work, and make money at the same time. Simple, yes. Easy, no. That is where the episode gets useful, because profit is treated as a responsibility, not a dirty word beside design. It also belongs to the people doing the work. Making money helps firms take care of hardworking teams, not just the company. The host keeps the conversation aimed at owners who feel pulled away from architecture by management, contractors, clients, and the machinery of the business. The warning underneath is sharp: architecture skill may not be the bottleneck. Running the practice may be.

As heard by us

A steady case for leadership, trust, and profitable architectural practice.

It frames growth as a leadership problem before it becomes a design problem, and keeps returning to the idea that the best decisions are built over years rather than forced in the moment.

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Why you'd press play

When your architectural practice is growing and the leadership side feels stretched, press play.

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