As businesses grow, the strengths that fueled their early-stage successes must grow with them. Deep client relationships, entrepreneurial leadership, and individual expertise remain critical, but leveraging scale creates opportunities to connect those strengths across teams, markets, and capabilities so they can create even greater value.
That’s the premise behind Partnership Mindset, one of the Transformation Plays in BW’s Change the Game Strategic Plan: putting the client at the center and connecting the right people, expertise, and capabilities around the client’s needs to build trust and create lasting value.
For BW Design Group (BWDG), that mindset is taking shape through its Commercial Engine — an interconnected approach to market strategy, strategic marketing, commercial formation, and project delivery designed to help teams work together to create lasting client relationships and durable organic growth.
Building the Engine for Growth
BW Design Group has long been successful at building strong client relationships and delivering outstanding results. Much of that success was fueled by entrepreneurial leaders with deep market knowledge, strong relationships, and an ability to capture observed opportunities.
As BWDG grew, those strengths needed to scale with it. Leaders began asking a new question: How do we build on what our best people do exceptionally well and turn those strengths into a sustainable organizational capability that can scale with the business? That question led to what BW Design Group now calls its Commercial Engine.
Creating a Shared View of Growth
At the heart of the Commercial Engine is a simple idea — a flywheel — where earning trust creates opportunity, opportunity creates loyalty, and loyalty builds reputation over time. Growth isn’t about winning one opportunity; it’s a virtuous cycle connecting what the firm promises, how it delivers, and what happens next.
Looking more closely at how they pursued business, BWDG leaders saw an opportunity for greater visibility and connection across the organization.
“Opportunities lived in a tracking system, but people tended to upload them only once they were fairly sure they’d win the engagement. That meant we could only see about 90 to 120 days ahead. Large-scale, long-term pursuits often existed only in offline notes. There was no shared view of pipeline by market, and no easy way to see where the business was strong or weak,” shared Mark Baum, BWDG’s Chief Commercial Officer.
It was evident that greater visibility of pipeline would help teams see opportunities earlier, understand where the business was gaining momentum, and bring the right capabilities together sooner.
Designing for Scale
That led to a bigger question: what does it take to build pipeline consistently and intentionally as the business continues to grow?
Leadership began clearly defining the core elements of the Commercial Engine and the distinct roles people and teams play within it. Rather than expecting everyone to contribute to growth in the same way, the model recognizes that client leaders bring different strengths; from understanding markets and creating demand, to building relationships, shaping opportunities, and delivering exceptional work.
The Engine is designed to work as a virtuous cycle driven by the integration of BWDG’s market strategy, strategic marketing, commercial formation, and project delivery methodologies.
“How we engage in the market shapes what opportunities come our way. How we pursue those opportunities shapes how we deliver. And how we deliver is what earns the trust and loyalty that keep us growing,” explained Shelby Wisniewski, BWDG’s Chief Marketing Officer.
From Sawtooth to Steady
Establishing their Commercial Engine also meant looking closely at people, roles, and how work moves across the organization. As BWDG had grown, its leaders naturally stretched across multiple responsibilities — developing relationships, pursuing opportunities, and then shifting deeply into execution.
At greater scale, each of those areas required more dedicated focus while remaining tightly connected. The Commercial Engine created greater clarity around ownership of commercial formation, who owns delivery, and how those teams partner throughout the client lifecycle. It also highlighted capabilities and gaps where BWDG needed to continue building.
“We developed the Commercial Engine to create consistent presence in our markets — building relationships over time, staying close to what our clients need, and bringing the right expertise to the right opportunities,” said Baum. “That consistency puts us in a stronger position to anticipate where our markets are going, build trust before an opportunity emerges, and bring the best of Design Group together to capitalize on it.”
Putting the Engine in Motion
“We developed the Commercial Engine to create consistent presence in our markets — building relationships over time, staying close to what our clients need, and bringing the right expertise to the right opportunities,” Mark Baum, BW Design Group Chief Commercial Officer
Creating the Commercial Engine strategy was the beginning; operationalizing it was essential, and even harder to execute. The Commercial Engine could partially turn—like two people manually spinning a wheel from opposite sides— but realizing its potential required the entire organization to align around it. A reorganization of BW Design Group in January 2026 brought greater clarity around roles and ownership, and momentum has continued to build.
Equally important, BW Design Group leaders have worked to create greater ownership throughout the organization. Teams needed greater clarity and authority to own their areas, with leaders setting direction, removing barriers, and supporting the process rather than directing every decision.
It was also critical to stay agile. Instead of planning every detail up front, BW Design Group leaders named the big pieces, started moving, and kept adjusting — building new routines, clarifying how teams work together, and optimizing the system through experience.
Winning By Design
The Commercial Engine isn’t finished. Measuring the client’s actual experience — the piece that closes the loop and builds brand equity — is still new territory. But the proof points are already emerging.
Wisniewski put it this way: “The real power of the Commercial Engine is the connectivity it creates around the client. Market strategy, strategic marketing, commercial formation, and project delivery aren’t separate activities from a client’s point of view; they represent the client’s cohesive experience and impressions of BW Design Group. When each piece of the commercial flywheel reinforces one another, our firm demonstrates greater consistency, relevance, and intention. That’s how we earn trust, and trust is what keeps the flywheel moving.”
That is the power of Partnership Mindset: organizing around the client, connecting the right people, and demonstrating capabilities at every stage of the relationship. It builds the trust that creates lasting value and durable organic growth.