Oxford professor Brent Flyvbjerg spent his career studying the process of planning, building, and completing large-scale projects to better understand the factors that make such endeavors successes or failures. How Big Things Get Done illustrates Flyvbjerg’s findings with the real-life stories of massive projects like the Empire State Building and the Sydney Opera House as well as perhaps more relatable endeavors like home renovations. Flyvbjerg’s research determines multiple judgment-based factors that he believes can make a difference in the success or failure of any project, big or small. He uses multiple metrics to help determine these factors, including project timing, budget, process, and returns. Flyvbjerg eventually put his theory into practice to help build thousands of schools in Nepal meant to withstand earthquakes—a project that is regularly championed as a successful case study in large project planning. While many of these large-scale, megaproject examples may seem outside the realm of application in the finance world, Flyvbjerg’s principles have utility throughout the construction of a deal, the planning of a conference, or strategizing a business growth plan. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Think Slow Act Fast. Movement does not always equal progress. Having a good plan with which to execute is essential in realizing success through the execution. Flyvbjerg suggests that planning, especially planning that incorporates contingencies and risk offsets, will minimize errors in the action. 
• Close the Window Quickly. The reason you think slow act fast is that each project is like having an open incision for surgery.  The longer it is open the more that can go wrong.  Risk in the real world lives in the tails of the distribution and projects in the real world tend to have fat tails.  The longer a project goes on, the longer you will likely encounter risk. So, close the window quickly by thinking slow and acting fast. 
• Hire the Master Builder. Sometimes DIY is not a shortcut to success. “Master builders” have knowledge and experience to help navigate your plan forward successfully. In addition to knowing how to do things right, master builders often have firsthand experience with what can go wrong and have plans in place to correct mistakes. A master builder may be a mentor you can consult for advice, but they may also be a third party you hire to manage execution. In many cases, it is worth paying up to level up your game quickly and avoid pitfalls that will delay the construction of your project and could topple your goal. 

Considerations for M&A Professionals: 

• One of the best ways to have an impact on the success of a transaction is to know what success looks like for your team, firm, and/or client. Communicate those goals and associated timelines within your immediate team and among the network of diligence vendors. Leverage project management principles to align critical diligence resources to desired outcomes.
• Know the M&A process cold from start to finish. Know what vendors to bring in when and how to best communicate how they can have an impact on process. Visibility and accountability tend to drive out uncertainty. 
• Investment banks, private equity groups, TAS groups, and LevFin groups are de facto libraries of deal successes, errors, and killers. Leverage the learnings of your institution and more seasoned deal professionals to identify tried-and-true methods that avoid rework or broken deals. Seasoned deal professionals are your firm’s master builders. 
• The timing of deal processes often discourages thinking slow and regularly over-emphasizes acting fast. When commissioning diligence, give your vendors extra time when possible. If you are working with great practitioners, the quality of their work product improves with the extra hours or days. When purchasing diligence services, remind yourself of the trinity of consumer choice. That is, you can only pick two of the three qualities: cost, speed, and accuracy.

If you are producing work on behalf of clients, let them know what is truly feasible in the time allotted. Layout tradeoffs of truncated timelines and what can reasonably be delivered or achieved. Best if you can lay out the options in relation to the goals and key objectives the client has shared with you.