After more than 20 years in Banking, Finance, Ecommerce and with Deloitte Consulting, I finally found the best and most talented project manager and his team - David Tutera - Wedding Planner & Event Host.
1. He has an amazing sponsor, client & stakeholder communication
If you ever watch an episode of "My fair wedding" or "Celebrations" it is amazing how he builds the initial rapport with his clients in a very charming and friendly way. In addition during the requirements and planning part he is very creative and experienced in giving advice and manages expectations very direct and in a neutral way. He engages key stakeholders like husband, mothers, managers etc. on a very early stage and handles them mainly separately during the project. He even sometimes involves his gorgeous family to give a personal touch to the project.
2. He relies on a core team and excellent suppliers
The pre-planning and coordination is done by his core team of highly skilled coordinators and designers but all details like decoration, dresses, food and extra requests (e.g. dance, fireworks, etc.) are done by first class suppliers. He also maintains a long term relationship with his top suppliers and make sure that they can shine and are mentioned towards the clients.
3. He manages emotions and frustrations immediately
Weddings and celebrations are probably one of the most difficult projects to manage due to the personal involvement, expectations and emotions of so many people. Whenever an emotional situation is getting out of hand, he is stopping his work and focuses personally on fully solving it and supporting the person involved. He does that in a result-oriented way rather than confronting however he stays firm to manage expectations and timelines.
Getting married soon and trying to coordinate our own wedding and the ideas of us as a couple and the expectations of the parents, family and friends is not a very easy task as you probably experienced it yourself. Doing it as a daily job with high profile people with even higher expectations and sometimes more difficult personal traits can very challenging.
Therefore from Asia PMO we truly believe that he deserves to be recognized as one of the best project managers in the world. For more information on Agile or Project Management, please contact me on carsten@asiapmo.com or in the chat.