The Discovery Process™ consists of asking many questions of stakeholders, gathering information, establishing chemistry, and determining if there's a fit between what the Family Business Institute offers and the needs of the inquirer. Fundamentally, the process is one of establishing a sound foundation for what may become a working relationship. The Discovery Process™ may take a wide range of times ranging from one meeting with one person to a series of meetings with many stakeholders or groups of stakeholders.

Assess your current situation
Family Business Planning: The Family Business Diagnostic™
The Family Business Diagnostic™ is an exploration of the business and the family from a variety of perspectives. The Family Business Diagnostic™ consists of personal, confidential, one-on-one interviews with all stakeholders, our proprietary Family Business Health Assessment, personality profiling, the analysis of corporate financials, the analysis of personal financials, benchmarking of corporate data, the analysis of testamentary documents, and the analysis of shareholder agreements. The Family Business Diagnostic™ is a top to bottom "family business physical" conducted by one or more of our experienced consultants. The Family Business Diagnostic™ takes about two months from start to finish.

Make your blueprint for success
Family Business Planning: The Balance Blueprint™
The Balance Blueprint™ is a "sanity check" to make sure we understand – completely and fully – the data we've collected, the desired outcomes of the stakeholders, and that the tentative conclusions we've drawn and the recommendations we've formulated have an outstanding chance for producing successful results.

Using the Family Business Institute's proprietary consulting model, we check in on all areas of the business operations and management, family and interpersonal relations and, money, wealth and power dynamics and the relative balance of those three elements within the larger system. The Balance Blueprint™ gives the family or closely held business in question a peek into our process and potential solutions, an opportunity to prepare themselves for potentially surprising, uncomfortable, or even shocking discoveries we've made, and gives the Family Business Institute consultants insight into how best to position the message of improvement or change in a way that's not threatening to the stakeholders and which maximizes the opportunities for project success.

Evaluate
Family Business Planning: The Healthy Family Business Prescription™
The Healthy Family Business Prescription™ is a formal presentation made to stakeholders outlining our diagnostic methodology, issues which require attention, and an outline and timeline for resolving issues. The presentation is shaped and polished by Family Business Institute consultants to produce maximum buy in and impact among the stakeholders. The Healthy Family Business Prescription™ formally lays out the client's target outcomes, the scope of the Family Business Institute's work, a budget for the work, and a project timeline.

The first four steps in the eight step GAMEPLAN™ process are conducted thoroughly and faithfully in order to help family businesses maximize their family and organizational success. Total Family Business Institute time invested in the first four steps in the GAMEPLAN™ process may range from approximately 40 hours on the low end to well over 100 hours on the high end. The amount of time required to develop The Healthy Family Business Prescription™ depends on the size and complexity of the business, the size and complexity of the family, and the issues and challenges at hand.

Plan the steps for your successful strategy implementation
Family Business Planning: The Sequential Implementation Method™
In the first four steps, we've established a tremendous understanding of the business, the family, and the stakeholders. The Sequential Implementation Method™ builds on that foundation and is – finally – where the client undertakes steps to change and improve deficiencies or maximize advantages. Sequential Implementation can be as unique as the individuals and the businesses it's tailored to benefit and can last from six to 18 months or longer depending on the needs and wishes of the client. It represents the delivery of the mutually agreed upon outcomes identified in the Healthy Family Business Prescription™.

Lock in your value through quality assurance
Family Business Planning: The Quality Assurance Experience™
Formal Quality Assurance distinguishes us from our competitors who assume customer satisfaction instead of quantifying and evaluating it in a systematic way. In order to provide objectivity, quality assurance is always conducted by a party other than the consultant who delivers the client work. The quality assurance interviewer becomes the internal advocate for the client to make sure the Family Business Institute's service delivery meets or exceeds client needs and expectations.

Activate your maintenance program
Family Business Planning: The Maintenance Program with Change Protection™
The Institute's philosophy is that change – no matter how skillful the consultant and how well intentioned the family business stakeholders – is quite fragile and must be protected. As the client requires less intensive work and the sequential implementation project nears its conclusion, the Family Business Institute and the client mutually establish a program for accountability and for making new tools, initiatives, strategies, and adjustments permanent. The Maintenance Program with Change Protection™, while flexible, usually means quarterly or semi-annual meetings for one or more years as well as a continuing policy of unlimited contact, advice, and support irrespective of the schedule for formal meetings or retreats.

New plan development based on your progress
Family Business Planning: GAMEPLAN Adjustment™
GAMEPLAN Adjustment™ is the "closing of the loop" which returns us to The Discovery Process™. There's an old saying, clichéd but true, that with each step up the mountain the view changes. With respect to family and closely held businesses, once they've resolved the issues identified in the Healthy Family Business Prescription™, new and different issues and challenges arise, and the stakeholders may request assistance in tackling new challenges or responsibilities.

The Family Business Institute's GAMEPLAN™ represents a closed loop system for analyzing and assessing a family or closely held business, providing solutions, managing change, and providing a continual resource to business families across the generations.