Project Management Matters

A couple of years ago, Bill Payne of Dorsey & Whitney LLP invited me to come to Minneapolis on two weekends in mid-winter. Not for a retreat or winter sports, but to meet with partners in their office on Saturdays. Payne was then the head of the M&A Group and he explained: 'We do a lot of mid-market deals, many with similar dynamics, documents and time pressures. Yet, each deal seems to be run like we were starting from scratch. We reinvent the wheel. We do wonderful individual work, sometimes under crisis conditions, but we don't seem to pull together as a team.' He wanted more teamwork, more project planning, and more learning from each deal. I jumped at the chance to facilitate the partners' discussions. Any firm that values matter management to this degree must be serious.

20 minute read June 28, 2007 at 03:32 PM

By

David Cruickshank