Letters: The Tragedy That Was MMG

Along with many others in the profession, I read with interest your account of the rise and fall of the Mitchell Madison Group, "The Mitchell Madison Story — Part III" (May, p. 40).

Clearly, the absence of an infrastructure scalable to match the phenomenal growth of the enterprise and the excessive dependence on a sourcing methodology replicable by others were factors contributing to MMG's problems.

At the same time, I suspect that the fatal toxin in MMG's bloodstream was more fundamental. The Greeks called it "hubris" — a condition the ancients believed most afflicted the great and gifted. It is defined as an "overweening presumption suggesting impious disregard of the limits governing human action." If certain of the Mitchell-Madison founders believed they could defy the principles underlying sound professional services management (on which David Maister has written at length), while somewhat cynically laying claim to the heritage of integrity and firm values espoused by Marvin Bower and Thomas Kearney — well, the stage was set for the tragedy of Olympian proportions that resulted.

David Calfee

Vice President

Bridge Strategy Group

Chicago