Lawrence Armstrong is the chairman of Ware Malcomb, a leading design firm that he helped grow from 3 offices to over 46 offices globally. He started at the company in 1984 and eventually purchased it from the founders in 1992. As an architect and artist, Lawrence has leveraged both his creative and strategic skills to drive the firm's success.
Lawrence believes it's important for architects and designers to develop both their creative and business skills. He advocates for "whole brain" thinking, drawing inspiration from Renaissance figures like Leonardo da Vinci who excelled in diverse domains. Lawrence's own background as an internationally exhibited artist has complemented his work as a business leader.
Under Lawrence's leadership, Ware Malcomb expanded from 3 offices to over 46 offices across the US, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining a "one team" culture and consistent service delivery across the distributed offices, leveraging centralized resources and collaborative processes.
Recognizing the need for strong leadership as the company scaled, Lawrence focused on building a leadership development program to identify, train, and mentor the next generation of leaders at Ware Malcomb. This included executive coaching, mentorship, and creating opportunities for emerging leaders to take on greater responsibility.
In addition to his work at Ware Malcomb, Lawrence has been actively involved in addressing homelessness in his local community of Orange County, California. He helped launch a program called "United to End Homelessness" that has housed over 1,100 people through innovative approaches like landlord incentives.
As Lawrence transitions from CEO to Chairman, he is spending more time pursuing his passion for art and creativity. He discusses the iterative, collaborative process of writing his new book "Layered Leadership" and is open to the possibility of future writing projects, though he is focused on the current book launch for now.