Bryan Ritch
What current projects are you working on?
As a true project management firm for the construction industry, we are always developing and managing responses to request for proposals (RFPs) and statements of qualification packages. I work with our regional proposal managers and marketing staff to ensure they have the resources to deliver a winning submittal. We have ongoing projects to update our approach and processes for different marketing areas, including branding, social media, proposals, video, conferences, and advertising. I am also working on the marketing for our annual NetPoint and GPM Conference.
What is your career highlight so far?
I have a few different career highlights at PMA as a graphic designer and marketing director. Earlier in my career at PMA, I worked with our claims experts to develop graphics, including interactive animations to demonstrate project and schedule delays. The demonstratives supported PMA’s expert testimony in construction claims negotiations. As marketing director, my highlights are in the success we have as a team. The number of proposals submitted increased by 40% in the last two years, and our win rate increased by 10%.
What is something new or innovative happening in your industry?
I think the development and use of Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) have been an invaluable and innovative development for the construction industry. Construction projects are among the most complex types of projects to manage with massive amounts of data, documentation, and details. Implementation and use of a PMIS for collecting and organizing project information can provide advantages to project managers in decision making for planning, organizing, and controlling projects, resulting in multiple quality outcomes. PMA has implemented or used e-Builder, Oracle Primavera Unifier and P6, and ProCore on its projects. PMA also actively develops project management innovations for planning, scheduling, delay, and risk. For marketing, innovation is evident in developing marketing automation tools and platforms like Hubspot, Salesforce Pardot, SEMrush, and many others. We use these marketing automation tools to improve our marketing efforts for branding, thought leadership, and software innovations.
For marketing, innovation is evident in the development of marketing automation tools and platforms like Hubspot or Salesforce’s Pardot. We use these marketing automation tools for marketing campaigns on thought leadership and our scheduling software for lead generation and prospect management.
What university or college did you graduate from?
I earned my MBA from Walsh College and a bachelor’s in graphic design from Eastern Michigan University.
What is your favorite local establishment/feature (restaurant, museum, stadium, etc.)?
I enjoy the Detroit Institute of Arts, located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, which has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States.
What was a transformative project or challenge that you did at PMA?
Marketing is a small functional group at PMA, and it has required a lot of self-teaching to attain the knowledge and skills necessary to manage marketing projects. Working with PMA operations staff, who are experts in project management and project controls, has also transformed how I approach project work.
Do you get to do something at work every day that you love? If so, what is it?
I like the people I work with at PMA, and for this reason, I have worked at PMA for the last 21 years. I have also benefited from PMAs goal to be innovative as it has provided interesting challenges for the marketing team and me.