A former Goldman exec who thinks just about every meeting can be wrapped up in 15 minutes explains why he purposely puts longer meetings in his schedule

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Marc Spilker.

• Just about everything that needs to be accomplished in a meeting can be done in 15 minutes or less, according to Marc Spilker, a former Goldman Sachs exec who's now chairman of Chiron Investment Management.
• Spilker said the final thing that can't be accomplished - nurturing a relationship with the colleague or business partner - can get lost in the press for efficiency.
• That's led him to lengthen his meetings with successful results, he said.

If it were up to Marc Spilker, every meeting would be 15 minutes long.

That's the time it usually takes to address the matter at hand, hear the relevant details, and then decide on a path forward, said Spilker, a former Goldman Sachs partner who's now chairman of a fast-growing asset management firm.

But Spilker learned long ago that human beings are sensitive and that he'd have to accept longer meetings in return for colleagues and business partners who didn't leave his office unhappy, he said in a recent interview with Business Insider. That the extra time is worth it to preserve egos and good will.

"In a perfect world, I would like to do 15-minute meetings, but what happens is people rightfully get so insulted," he said. "If you want to be really productive, it's very important to be respectful of people that you're dealing with, and make sure that they have a good feeling about the interaction. Otherwise, it'll just undermine the whole thing anyway."

Spilker has had plenty of experience with high-pressure meetings. He spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs, rising to co-head of its asset-management arm with a position on the firm's powerful management committee. In 2010, he left for Apollo Management, where as president he helped the private-equity firm sells share to public. Spilker later founded GPS Investment Partners with two ex-Goldman colleagues and together they built Chiron Investment Management, a manager of $2.7 billion where he's chairman.

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Spilker said his meeting philosophy makes sense, since most of the work in a one-hour meeting can get done in five or 10 minutes. The rest is usually build up and small talk, which, while nice if it's a social call, can detract from quickly and deliberately addressing key business decisions, he said.

One trick that Spilker has developed over the years is persuading colleagues and business partners to get to the point quickly, and front load all the important discussion to the beginning of the meeting, he said. Put simply, training people to work within his style as much as possible.

Many long-time associates now know that when they come into his office or get on a conference call with him, they should have a clear idea of what they want to get done, he said. And address that first.

"That's helping them be more productive, and then it also in turn helps me be more productive if people know how to deal with me," Spilker said. "Let's start with the most important part of it. Let's figure out what decision needs to get made and make that decision. And then everything else is just fun."