Decade Answers: John Sorrenti

John Sorrenti is the president at JRS Architect, Mineola, N.Y. What was one of your corporate or career highlights of the decade? I think that there were many challenges during this last decade that quite frankly, most of us were unprepared for. With the start of 2001, firm owners did not know how the world was going to change nor did we understand the economic issues that would lie ahead. We had to make our decisions based upon the unknown and hope that our past experiences were enough to make the best business decisions that one could. For our firm, the most memorable career decision for the past decade was whether or not to change the entire makeup of our firm and to purchase an office in NYC, thereby changing the dynamics of our firm forever. Not being that familiar with change management, we encountered several challenges that we had to work through in addition to the normal day to day operations of an architectural firm. It also meant changing the firm size from a smaller to a medium size firm. This decision changed how the firm operated yet we did not want to change our firm's foundational values. Entering into a new decade, I am proud to say we successfully met all of the challenges and today our firm is stronger than ever.