Gsbt

Getting paid on time, finding time to have children and dealing with long-hours culture were among topics discussed by executives from  BIG ,  Zaha Hadid Architects  and  Design Haus Liberty  at a business talk hosted by Dezeen in London last month. "Don't hand over your drawings if the client hasn't paid," was the first tip provided by BIG's chief executive Sheela Maini Søgaard, who revealed that she got her job 10 years ago by scrawling this and two other snippets of advice on a napkin during her first meeting with BIG founder  Bjarke Ingels . "Bjarke said he was having trouble with clients who weren't paying the bills," recalls Søgaard, who previously worked in the food industry, including a stint with celebrity Danish chef Claus Meyer. "So I just wrote three things down on a napkin," she added, saying she found time between child-nursing duties to meet Ingels in Copenhagen on the suggestion of a mutual friend. Two weeks later, Inge