2024 Business conditions survey results

Management for Design , 10 October 2024

Management for Design recently released the results of their annual Business Conditions Survey, which benchmarks real business conditions and analyses predicted outcomes for firms in the architecture, engineering and design industry.

Unsurprisingly, businesses are not optimistic about the economy and business conditions moving forward and certainly not as optimistic compared with 12 months ago (and pre-Covid) according to the recent survey.

  • Leading indicators, including revenue and profitability are noticeably slowing
  • Growth projections have consistently been downgraded
  • Increasing productivity and reducing costs are now the main priorities for our respondents
  • On a positive note, approximately 30% of the respondents expect to increase their profit margin

According to survey respondents, what are the major issues facing Australian businesses in the year ahead:

  • Increased building costs resulting in project delays and overruns and “value management”
  • The increasing cost of doing business not matched by increased fees
  • The passing of risk from the contractor onto architects, engineers and design professions
  • Refining business operations will be the key driver of improving business performance

If you would like to receive the full report (valued at $395 plus GST), request the full report here.