We have nevertheless found that our work can be profitable if the scale of the project is large enough to justify doing the project in the first place. It goes without saying that it would be virtually impossible to produce large-scale projects in a timely manner and at a profitable level without the use of CADD equipment. The issue of checking and coordinating the work of the local firm is absolutely critical in order to ensure that the design intent is carried through. We strive to take the guesswork out of the hands of the local design institute by detailing every design element of the building carefully on computer, so that there is less of a need for them to discern what our design intentions are. The margin of error is greatly reduced when we simply provide the local firm with a computer disk.
Contracts are as critical in foreign countries as they are here in the United States.
Never begin work without one. Contracts eliminate misunderstandings, clearly establish issues such as travel expenses and, most important of all, they are usually honored and are generally enforceable. Regrettably, we have learned the hard way. We recently won a design competition and were ordered to start the work immediately. The clients insisted they needed to break ground without fail in a very short period of time.