Breen Group Inc.
Our Philosophy
Early Project Assessment
An EPA takes on many forms such as Acquisition Assessment prior to purchasing a property, Property Condition Assessment, Conceptual Programming, etc. Simply put, it is never too early to establish a responsible project scope definition accompanied by a professionally and independently prepared project development budget accompanied by a project delivery schedule.
If prepared properly at the very beginning, these scope, budget and schedule definitions are in sync with each other and simply get refined with much more detail as the project goes through the design delivery process, and ultimately by the construction delivery process, without wild deviations that defy explanation.
That's why we believe that 95% of a project's success is often determined within the first 5% of planning during Early Project Assessment.
Finally, it is essential that all stakeholders sign off on the EPA prior to proceeding with design and construction, to ensure complete alignment on the project vision and metrics.
Design
Management
Prior to commencing with any serious design after EPA is completed, it is critically important to select the right Architectural & Interior Design firms plus other key design disciplines through a professionally managed selection process that ensures the best alignment of design firm experience, team leadership, ability to execute on scope, budget, and schedule, as well as all terms, fees and conditions. Too many times the firm that does conceptual sketches during EPA is carried forward simply because they were there.
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Once design is ready to commence, the Development Manager must communicate the key benchmarks to the design team and establish key deliverable milestones from which to perform reviews to confirm compliance with scope, budget, and schedule. It is critical that any changes by Ownership in program and/or design, flow through the Development Manager prior to the implementation by the design team to maintain accountability.
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A highly collaborative and disciplined design process can produce award winning designs that don't break the bank.
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Construction
Management
Once again, the strategy of selecting the right general contractor and using the correct form of contract is crucial. A market analysis must be performed prior to establishing whether a Competitive Lump Sum, Guaranteed Maximum Price, or other contracting method should produce the most favorable results. Once the strategy is established, a competitive process must be employed to ensure the best overall value of firm experience, team experience, ability to execute on scope, budget and schedule, as well as all terms, fees, and conditions.
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Once the contractor has been selected and placed under contract, and construction has commenced, each day in the schedule must be treated as importantly as the last day in the schedule. As they say, time is money, and the Development Manager must not only hold the contractor accountable but must do the same with the design team, FF&E procurement team, brand team, and other stakeholders including ownership when needed.
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Bottom line, the project team must be held accountable for on time, on quality, and on budget completion.
Contract Close-outs
Effective and proactive management of each contract, whether as small as a purchase order or as large as a construction contract will ensure that any and all disputes are handled on a timely basis along the way and not left to pile up at the end when the differences will seem insurmountable. If the selection process was successfully employed in the beginning, then rarely will any disputes be the result of catastrophic failures to perform, but rather will be incremental in nature and thus resolvable by all reasonable parties.
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In Mr. Breen's entire career, for any contract of any nature, not one has ever required third party mediation, arbitration, or litigation in order to fully close it out with final releases. Not for the projects that Mr. Breen started from the beginning nor for those troubled projects that were inherited mid-stream after they went off the rails.