Strategic Planning

Planning for the future is integral to effective leadership. Here we answer or clarify the fundamental, critical questions of why, how, what, where, when, and who.

Our approach to strategic planning is highly engaging, generates buy-in from the leadership team, and often uses a multimedia approach to stimulate extraordinary idea generation and clarity of thought. Our facilitation process will inspire, motivate, and challenge you to think boldly about the direction of your organization and discern the best strategies needed to accomplish desired outcomes and realize the vision for your business. Our strategic planning sessions are tailored to the specific needs of your organization and would typically follow these steps:

Develop or Clarify Organizational Mission, Core Values and Desired Corporate Culture
Establish Strategic Objectives and Key Measurements of Success
Assess Organizational Strengths and Weaknesses, External Opportunities and Threats
Identify and Develop Strategies to Leverage Key Capabilities
Map Strategic Goals and Initiatives and Execution Timelines
Clarify Roles of Owners and Executive Team and Assign Accountability

We work with you to ensure that expectations are clearly set and that accountability is properly assigned along with the appropriate level of authority and empowerment needed to deliver results. Included in this planning process is the development of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs enable leaders to proactively measure success well in advance of receiving financial statements.

During the execution phase of the strategic plan we work closely with you to ensure that you are routinely meeting your long-term goals and objectives and celebrating success. When significant obstacles or challenges arise we work with your leadership team to develop and implement tactics to achieve important benchmarks and keep the plan on track.

Leadership Development & Succession Planning

Our work with business owners to develop exit strategies is complemented by our ability to customize leadership development strategies and management succession plans.

Leadership development and management succession planning are critical areas where you should be spending time and energy working on your business in order to work less in your business. Doing this will also allow your company to move forward in a seamless fashion if and when the need arises.

If yours is a family-owned business, then planning for the next generation of leaders has unique complexities—determining the qualifications for leadership among the next generation, for example. We do not believe that the next generation is entitled to run the family business, but that the next generation of leaders must earn the right to lead. We help you to develop a practical plan to identify potential and to prepare the next generation of leaders to lead your family business.

Hiring an objective third party to help you navigate the management succession planning process will help you to preserve important relationships, especially the inter-generational relationships in family-owned businesses. The same is true for successfully addressing the leadership development needs of the next generation of leaders. Let’s face it, sometimes parents are not the best people to develop their adult children.

Ownership Exit Strategies & Transition Planning

We work closely with multi-owner businesses and family-owned businesses to develop, implement, and execute ownership exit strategies and to navigate through the challenges that typically occur during the ownership transition. This includes structuring and negotiating buy/sell agreements, transitioning management responsibilities, and developing financial strategies to support both the owner exit strategy and the capital needs of the organization.

Like death and taxes, business owners can be absolutely certain that one day there will be an event that causes a change in ownership of the company. The reasons are many, and the changes will impact the business, employees, and the family members of the owners. The key is to manage change in a way that preserves longstanding relationships and shareholder value; therefore, the best time to develop exit strategies is well in advance of an owner’s exit.

Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

Like having a well-designed estate plan, business owners must have a practical and well-documented exit strategy. Again, the best time to develop an exit strategy is well before one is needed.

Strategic Planning