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First Things First: Set Your Family Governance Plan for Success

Some Tips to Preserving Your Wealth, Your Family and Your Legacy

By Ken Ude

My lifetime business mentor taught me that if a business has a strong Mission Statement and defined Values, tough decisions become easier to make. A strong Mission Statement and defined Values become your moral compass. The same holds true for families. If you know who you are and what you stand for, family decisions become easier. In the process of discussing who you are what you stand for, the family unit becomes closer and more aligned. In working on a Plan to build your family’s foundation you become stronger as a family unit. This is particularly important for families of wealth.

THE POWER OF PUTTING IT IN WRITING

For the past 10 years PwC has done a worldwide survey approximately 500 family businesses to identify emerging trends. One of the findings of the 2021 PwC Family Business Survey was a strong correlation between defined and written values and overall business performance. Well defined and written values promote:

Better performance. 58% of family businesses with values in a written form saw growth vs 52% Those family businesses that did not.
More transparency. 77% of family businesses with values in a written form say information is shared in a transparent and timely way between family members, vs 54% for those that did not.
More supportive staff. 54% of family businesses with values in a written form provide emotional/mental health support to staff, vs 39% for other family businesses.
Better prepared for succession. 41% of family businesses with values in a written form have a robust, documented and communicated succession plan in place vs 20% for other family businesses.

I believe that wealth is relative. You don’t have to have a multimillion-dollar portfolio to have some of the challenges that come with wealth. If you have significantly more money that your prior generation you can run into some of the same issues many HNW families face: poor communications, lack of mutual trust, misunderstandings, entitlement, lack of motivation and not understanding the responsibility that comes with wealth.

Learn From Others: Build your personal network and learn from others by joining YPO, Vistage, FOX or other family business peer groups.

FAMILY SUCCESS: WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION?

Where do you start to set your family up for success? It depends on your definition success and what you want your Family Legacy to look like. Some of the components of success that many families consider include:

• High functioning and motivated youth.
• The operating and/or investment businesses beating all benchmarks.
• Great stewards of the wealth.
• Good balance between business, family, community, faith and personal growth.
• Supportive communications.
• Family unity and having fun together.

Defining and creating a plan for success starts with a well-defined “business plan” for the family. A Plan that defines Mission, Vision and Values. A Plan that creates communications, transparency and governance. A Plan that addresses the purpose of the wealth and stewardship of the wealth. A Plan that educates and motivates the next generations to be entrepreneurial and to create additional wealth to extend you legacy. When you tie all of these topics into one document you have effectively created a Family Constitution.

WEALTH IS MORE THAN FINANCIAL: THE THREE CAPITAL ACCOUNTS

Before diving into the components of a Family Constitution, we need to consider the different aspects of wealth. Wealth is not just financial in nature. In his book Family Wealth, Keeping It in the Family, James Hughes, Jr, outlines that family wealth is more than financial. There are three different capital accounts: financial capital, intellectual capital and human capital.

Human Capital: consist of the individuals who make up the family including effective parenting, communications, consensus building, conflict resolution, leadership training, values, morals, ethics, spirituality and goal setting.
Intellectual Capital: is comprised of the knowledge gained through the life experience of each family member, or what each family member knows including education, career choices, coaching and mentoring, governance and the rights and roles of trustees and beneficiaries.
Financial Capital: is the movable and immovable property that it owned. Financial capital allows the Human and Intellectual Capital to grow and flourish. Topics include creating wealth, managing and investing wealth, effective transfer strategies, financial parenting and understanding the psychology of money.

A legacy family understands and executes a Plan to build on each of these Capital Accounts. As you start to think about your constitution and governance structure you need to consider and make provisions to build each of these Capital Accounts within your family unit.

Ask the Following Questions … Often:  Who, What, Where, When, Why, How, How Much

FAMILY CONSTITUTION & ESSENTIAL GOVERNANCE TOOLS:

The Constitution of the United States defines how the Country will operate. It is a concise statement of national principles that has evolved to meet the changing needs of a modern society. The preeminent book in creating a Family Constitution is The Legacy Family, by Lee Hausner and Douglas Freeman. They point out that “a very common step used by Legacy Families is the create of a Family Constitution, which formally sets the rules for the family’s governance, power sharing, communications and problem solving”. A Family Constitution normally includes some of the following topics:

Mission Statement. The Mission Statement defines who your Family is and what it stands for.
Values. What you believe is defined in your Values. Examples of family value statements can include:
– Honesty
– Humility
– Integrity
– Giving back
– Caring for others
– Empathy
– Faithful
Vision Statement. If Forbes profiles your family’s journey 40 years from now … what do you want the headline and the message of the article to be? Were you good stewards of all of your Capital Accounts and leave a lasting Legacy, or did you come up short? An inspirational Vision Statement can become the North Star for your Family’s journey.
Governance. Think about how your family is going to make decisions in the different areas of its journey. Who is going to decide what and in what manner? What areas do you want non-family members involved? Do you need an Investment Committee? Small families might not need a Family Council, where larger ones do. If there is an operating business, who oversees it and how? Who will be the next leader of the business and how does that transition occur? Does the Family Office need an advisory body? Who do these governance polices apply to? Your governance structure should reflect that families are dynamic as they grow and change. Allow for that to happen.
Family Employment Policy. If you have an operating business or a family office a Family Employment Policy can be helpful. It defines under what conditions a family member can enter, be employed or exit the family business. Consider some of the following questions:
– What education is required?
– Does the candidate need to get outside experience before entering the business?
– Does there need to be a legitimate business reason for the position?
– Do they get paid the same as non-family members?
– How are promotions handled?
– Who do they report to?
– Can they get terminated?
– What family members do these policies apply to?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have all of the above defined and agreed upon in writing, before your brother calls and says that his son lost his job and is hopeful that you can give him one …
Communications Plan. “If they don’t know the truth, they will make something up” … and it will become their truth, so it is better to get ahead of this train right at the beginning with open communications and transparency. People learn and digest information differently. Some are verbal learners. Some visual. Understand how the different members of your family absorb and process information and tailor your communications plan accordingly. Define who gets access to what information. At what age? At what level of detail? What about spouses and in-laws? Define the timing and cadence of the flow of information. What information do you want accessible daily, vs monthly, vs quarterly or for an Annual Report.

Model the Behavior that You Want Your NextGen to Have:
• If you want them to work. Go to work.
• If you want them to be healthy. Live a healthy lifestyle.
• If you want them to be humble. Be humble.

Education Plan. Education is about helping family members become the best version of themselves as possible. This includes formal academic education, continuing education, retreats, seminars, motivation, inspiration. Define, in writing, what funding is available to whom, for what, and what is the expected outcome.
Financial Literacy is really important. Not everyone is a ‘numbers person’ but to be a responsible owner I believe that every adult family member needs to be able to read and understand an Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows. Moreover, they need to understand investment performance benchmarks to be able to access whether their operating company and their portfolio is performing to expectations. Building business and financial acumen should be an important part of the Communications and Education plan. Financial Intelligence, A Manager’s Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Medan by Karen Berman and Joe Knight does a good job of explaining numbers in a non-accounting way.
• Family Health. Most families make family health a priority and make resources available to support it. If it is also important to you define to what extent your family’s wealth will support. Covering health insurance premiums might be in the Plan, while paying for yoga classes might not be.
The Family Bank can be used to spur NextGen entrepreneurial spirit. This is an interesting concept. Assume that the family business is in manufacturing, but someone in the NextGen has NO interest in manufacturing but does have an interest in restaurants. The Family Bank could be tapped into to secure a franchise so that the NextGen can learn if they really like the restaurant industry, or if it was a passing fade. There is one Orange County family that used their family bank to motivate the NextGen’s to learn about real estate and become real estate investors. Some of the ground rules of their bank was: a) The investment had to be in real estate. b) There had to be a formal business plan. c) The Plan had to be approved by the Family. d) The funding was in the form of a no-interest loan. e) The loan had to be paid back within 18 months. If these conditions were met, the father would make all of the resources of his company available to the project. You can guess that the father was a successful real estate developer an investor.
Philanthropy and Giving Back. Your family plan may wish to address your desires and plan to give back.
Family Fun. A family Governance and Communications program cannot be all work and no play. You need to weave some fun and team building into the program. Best in Class families create a series of:
– Family Meetings, to make sure the communications remain open and transparent.
– Family Retreats, that are a combination of business updates, personal development and fun.

Develop well planned Family Leadership Summits

HOW DO YOU START

This journey takes time, and it is important to get started. It can, however, very difficult to accomplish by yourself. Most families find it useful to engage a guide to help you navigate all of these topics before they become issues. It is important to understand that there are “Quantitative” issues and there are “Qualitative” issues. Most of the family business consultants and advisors are “Quants”. Most of the tougher issues to navigate are on the “Qual” side of the house. A balance of Quant and Qual is important since there is potentially so much at risk.

FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS

The 2021 Global Family Business Survey by PwC had the following recommendations for families to consider:

Professionalize family governance. Having a professional governance structure and a clear process for conflict resolution, preferably involving an independent party, make business sense, particularly for a family business. A professional approach strips emotion and personal bias, common stumbling bocks for families, out of decisions.

Governance should reflect that families are dynamic. Family businesses need to revisit governance structures regularly, because the structure of ownership can change as NextGens enter the business or through marriage. Therefore, it is important to set out parameters in a family constitution and keep them current.
Write values down. A written accounting of a family business’s value helps with communications and transitions.
Allow external help. Conflict and difference of opinion are inevitable – we’re only human. But the emotions involved in family discussions can be difficult to resolve internally. Many on the panel see the benefit of involving a neutral, outside perspective.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Here are some additional resources that I have found useful when thinking about creating a Family Constitution and Governance structure:

The Legacy Family, The Definitive Guide to Creating a Successful Multigenerational Family, by Lee Hausner and Douglas Freeman.
Family Wealth, Keeping It in the Family. How Family Members and Their Advisors Preserve Human, Intellectual and Financial Assets for Generations, by James Hughes, Jr.
Your Business, Your Family, Your Legacy, Building a Multigenerational Family Business That Lasts, by George Isaac.
How to Develop Your Family Mission Statement, by Stephen Covey
Financial Intelligence, A Manager’s Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean, by Karen Berman and Joe Knight.
Hats Off to You ~2, by Lee Hausner and Ernest Doud
The Destructive Power of Family Wealth, Guide to Succession Planning, Asset Protection, Taxation and Wealth Management, by Philip Marcovici
From Trust to Impact, Why family businesses need to act now to ensure their legacy tomorrow. Results of the 10th annual Global Family Business Survey by PwC.

Permission is needed from Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC to reproduce any portion provided in this article. © 2022

Ken Ude’s career spans 40 years of running small to mid-sized private equity businesses as CEO/President before becoming Director of the USC Marshall School of Business Family Business Program. At USC he partnered with Lee Hausner, PhD, and George Isaac, two thought leaders in family businesses and family dynamics. The Mission of the USC Marshall Family Business Program was “To Create and Preserve Value by Increasing the Professionalism of the Business and the Effectiveness of the Family”. They did this through a series of workshops and programs focused on the dynamics of the entire family enterprise and system. Ken heads up the family business practice for Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC. If you would like additional information, please reach out to Dana Borowka at 310-453-6556, ext. 403 or email Dana@lighthouseconsulting.com.

If you would like additional information on this topic or others, please contact your Human Resources department or Lighthouse Consulting Services LLC, Santa Monica, CA, (310) 453-6556, dana@lighthouseconsulting.com & our website: www.lighthouseconsulting.com.

Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC provides a variety of services, including in-depth work style & personality assessments for new hires & staff development. LCS can test in 19 different languages, provide domestic and international interpersonal coaching and offer a variety of workshops – team building, interpersonal communication, stress & time management, sales & customer service training and negotiation skills as well as our full-service Business Consulting Division.  To order the books, “Cracking the Personality Code”, “Cracking the Business Code” and “Cracking the High-Performance Team Code”, please go to www.lighthouseconsulting.com.

Cracking the Strategic Planning Code – Ideas from the Experts

By Larry Cassidy, Marc Emmer, Diana Ho, Brian Oken, Steve Phillips & Paul David Walker

When the topic of strategic planning comes up, some individuals get very excited about the planning process while others consider it just a waste of time. With so many different styles and approaches, we thought that we’d ask a number of experts for how they approach this topic and the top three key points to think about before your next strategic planning meeting.Team activity

Larry Cassidy

Strategic Conversation

My view of so-called “strategic planning” is that today it is less an event and more an ongoing conversation. The most effective organizations are evolving, and for me that moves viable strategic thinking away from being an annual event and toward an ongoing conversation.

The idea that we can somehow nail down where and how things are (and, projected, where and how they will be into the future), and then craft a lasting response, is ineffective. The world in which we operate is constantly changing; thus, we too must participate in that same game, which requires a continuing and continuous conversation.

As that applies to crafting strategy, I recommend frequent sessions in which the “team” comes together to discuss the future. For each session, step one is to identify the most important questions which must be answered; step two is to arrive at agreement on the answers; and, step three is to define action steps based on those answers (what, why, who, how, when, resources and milestones). As you prep for these ongoing sessions, consider:

  1. Inviting more of, rather than less of, your management and supervisory team. Interesting ideas often come from the “less likely” participants. And participation invites a sense of “ownership.”
  2. Requesting from the attendees, in advance, the questions they feel are the most important to the firm’s future. You may be surprised at what you get.
  3. Building each session around a few key questions, using multiple breakout groups to discuss each question, and mixing people and functions within breakout groups for each topic discussion (thus creating fresh energy and different chemistry around each question).
  4. And, inviting a few key outsiders to participate in each session (good strategic thinkers, creative types, folks who will challenge and “stir the pot”). You will find their input tends to raise the bar for those on your team.

Marc Emmer

Strategic Planning: The Entrepreneurs Dilemma

There is one thing that almost all entrepreneurs have in common; they want to grow. Yet determining where and how to grow can prove elusive, even to the most savvy strategists.

Which wayOften, management teams face gut wrenching strategic choices. While growing a core business incrementally offers a high probability of success, companies with a singular focus are subject to concentration risk that inhibits enterprise value. The more the company grows, the bigger the problem becomes. A diversification strategy reduces concentration, but growth far afield from one’s core competency, increases the probability of failure.

Often, entrepreneurial companies also lack the talent to focus on transformational business model innovations that could drive competitive advantage. Unfortunately, many companies create a 12 month forecast within their core business, and pass it off as a strategic plan. A well thought out vision balances the short term and the long term and clarifies the company’s value proposition and strategic priorities.

Here are some success factors to consider before engaging in strategic planning:

  1. Market Analysis-A thoughtful review of trends in the industry that will impact future demand.
  2. A level of preparedness on the part of the participants so that they are in a position to make fact-based strategic decisions.
  3. A process that enables execution on strategic objectives.

As we approach the time of year when many companies formalize their business strategies, it is important to structure a framework that ensures that management takes the time to think, both about the core business and potential disruption. Great companies weave strategic thinking into their management DNA and then convert strategies into actionable measurable tactics that drive results.

Diana Ho

The Art of Strategic Planning

Strategic planning has fallen in and out of favor numerous times since my earliest days as a planning facilitator. While my experience base and process toolbox has grown over the years, so has my “beginners mind.” Rather than bringing a methodology that works for all, I approach each planning engagement as a blank slate, pay attention, listen deeply and design each process based upon the unique characteristics of the client organization.team mtg

Every organization has a strategic plan whether they know it or not. The opportunities embedded in a “strategic planning process” include a) making the plan explicit, b) aligning expectations, c) leveraging resources and d) building a skilled planning- and accountability-minded team. The process of planning is equally as important, if not MORE important, than the resulting “plan;” and the effectiveness of any planning process is directly correlated to the extent that it is aligned with the leadership/power structure of the organization. So design the process well, Grasshopper!

When considering external resources, decide where your needs lie along the continuum of “expert” (who will tell you what your process and strategy ought to be) and “facilitator” (who will leverage your organizational resources, ask questions, provide options, build capacity and hold your feet to the fire).

Three things to consider before having a strategic planning meeting:

  1. What is the organizational “appetite” for planning; should we be thinking in terms of a “planning meeting” or a “planning process and mindset?”
  2. Who needs to be at the table?
  3. What are the organizational and personal rewards and consequences for planning or not planning?

Brian Oken

Strategic Planning for the Rest of Us

If you’re like most of us, you’re leading a small to medium-sized business with limited resources, no time and a million things you need to get done. To get the best results, I believe you should narrow your focus, engage your team and make your efforts count.

But before you proceed with any group planning activities, you should:

  1. Be clear about what you want for your business. Do you want to grow market share, sell in the near future, build a legacy…?
  2. Have a competent management team in place.
  3. Decide whether you’re going to use an outside facilitator or Do-It-Yourself.

Here’s my approach to strategic planning:

Be focused and realistic. It’s impossible for any group to successfully accomplish more than 1 or 2 strategic goals a year because of all the associated projects and tasks. If you global-teamtry to do too many things at once, it will dilute your focus and compromise your results. Remember, you want to actually achieve these goals.

Generating great financial results is a team effort. Your plan and strategy (and the reasons for them) must be presented in such a way that everyone in your company can easily understand them. The plan must also connect daily activities to company goals. This is the only way your employees will feel connected to your overall vision. People need feedback and need to know their efforts are making a difference. Be transparent about your results and celebrate your successes!

Implementing a strategic plan is a methodical approach and an ongoing process to help you and your team work smarter and get better results. But in order for this to happen, your plan must drive the agenda of your staff meetings and be referenced and updated on a regular basis. Once you see how an effective plan can help you achieve your goals, I doubt you will ever operate without one again.

Steve Phillips

The Strategic Planning Meeting – Turbo charge your approach!

Strategic planning is by its nature, time consuming and hard! Assessing the environment and the company and then positioning and aligning resources takes tons of effort. So much effort that many Fortune 500 companies just don’t do a good job. And… it’s these companies that rarely hit their potential. But true strategic planning, (like what McKinsey or BCG does) can easily cost $1M or more. So what is the answer? How does a company do great planning at a small fraction of the cost? I think a turbo charged approach meets most everyone’s needs. It’s quick, uses your best people, gets everyone bought in to the implementation of the plan, builds-in an accountability system, and gets it mostly right. Think of it as a leveraged approach.

So what is the process for a turbo charged approach? It’s easy! I find it most useful to use a third party (not the CEO) to organize the process, collect and analyze the data, set the objectives and outcomes for the meeting (with the CEO) design the agenda, and to facilitate the meeting. In this way, people can do their work and the third party can do all the leg work. Then when it’s most important, everyone can meet and use their time together wisely.

So how to approach turbo charged strategic planning?

  1. Pick a third party to organize and drive the process. It can be a senior level consultant (like me 🙂 ) or an internal specialist but it should not be the CEO or President. They have much better things to do than the leg work that it will take to make the meeting effective.
  2. Collect valid data. Some folks like to collect both external data and internal data but some are fine with just picking the brains of their top folks on what we really need to do next to be most successful. (Remember, this is a leveraged “turbo charged” approach). I suggest the third party personally interview participants for about 60 minutes each. This should be plenty of time to assess what should be done next year.
  3. Create a specific and detailed agenda based upon what you learned from your data analysis. This should also include the specific outcomes and objectives for theteam lightbulb meeting and detailed agenda items. Too many times people just put topics on the agenda without ever fully considering: the type of item, the champion of the item, the outcome of the item, the process for the item, the time line for the item, the pre-work needed to be ready to efficiently use time, etc. Creating a great agenda is an art and time consuming. There are many considerations and it often takes much longer than anyone expects but when done right, huge amounts get accomplished in the meeting seamlessly and the group actually enjoys the process (and if I have my way, walk out of the room a more effective team. See #5).
  4. Use a professional facilitator for the meeting. I am not just saying this because I am one. I am saying it because it works a thousand times better than not having one! I would much prefer to be maximizing everyone’s time and using each person’s brain in the room rather than have one of those folks worrying about lunch, the air conditioning or making sure the conversation stays on point. A pro will pay for themselves a hundred times over.
  5. Use the strategic planning meeting to tune up your team. There is no question that teams outperform groups of individuals on complex tasks about 99% of the time. It used to be that we did “teambuilding”. Now I find the best way to build your team is while they are working on a real project. A professional will know how to do this seamlessly and effectively and at the same time you are setting up your plans for the future. It’s a win win win win. Better strategy, alignment, direction, and teamwork!
  6. Do quarterly follow-ups to create a built-in accountability system, adjust the plan as needed, speed up the team, and continue to develop toward high performance. It only takes about 4 hours for the quarterly meeting to meet its objectives but most groups try to leverage or maximize their precious little time together. High performing teams will rotate who is in charge of each meeting and give them total freedom to run the session where and when and how they see fit. They can be at client sites, hotels, new offices, wherever will work for the theme of the day. Most groups put in place a ¾ day or all day quarterly meeting and use the extra time to develop everyone, either with team building, leadership development, site tours, or expert panels or guest speakers. It is a day everyone looks forward to. And then once a year, usually 4th Q, we do a longer retreat to close the year formally and kick off the next, all in alignment with the executive committee and shareholders meetings.

So there you have it. A leveraged approach to your strategic planning. Pick a third party to run the process, collect and analyze data, create a specific and detailed agenda, hire a professional facilitator to run the meeting, and create a built-in accountability system that ensures people stay on track and in alignment. This process works like crazy, takes very little time, is not terribly expensive, uses your people where they are best and does not waste their time. It creates ownership and buy-in, decreases resistance and makes full implementation almost assured, creates strategic alignment, builds your team and helps them to achieve and stay at high performance. It gives you a full opportunity to participate as a leader, makes everyone smarter and leaves your organization aligned, agile, collaborative, and highly productive.

Paul David Walker

Understand Present Reality

There are flows of intelligence that manifest as multidimensional streams of cause and effect at every level of life. These flows have momentum and move forward with or without you. In business these flows are formed by market wants and needs. As you consider your business strategy, it is important to understand these flows and position your window of opportunitycompany to use these flows, like a surfer at the sweet spot of a wave, to move forward accurately. It is pointless to try to swim against the current. As you ride these flows forward you will be able to see opportunities as they emerge before your competitors. The objective is to find emerging trends that lead to a window of opportunity, as we do with our clients illustrated here.

The Right Plan For You

It is dangerous to develop a strategic plan that does not take into account your companies true capabilities. If a surfer chooses a wave that is too big for their skills they will be drowned or seriously hurt, the same is true of a company. It does not serve well to develop a business strategy that requires more resources, talent, or momentum than the company can realistically achieve. Find a place in the flow of your market that acerbates you, not one that will drown you and your company. Once you succeed and gain power and skill, develop a bigger plan.

Explosive Targeted Actions

After understanding your place in market trends, build a simple focused strategic plan. Then eliminate all activities that do not support that plan. Make sure every executive understands that this is not a drill. It is a road map for all actions. Paint a compelling picture of the outcomes at every stage in your plan and develop the courage to act. Teams with clear missions, a sense of urgency, the stillness of a master, and explosive targeted actions are the ones that will win in the 21st century. Those that hesitate will lose. To summarize:

  1. Understand present realitytarget road
  2. Develop the right plan for you, not a grandiose fantasy
  3. Commit to explosive targeted actions

 

Permission is needed from Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC to reproduce any portion provided in this article. © 2014

Larry Cassidy has been a Group Chair with Vistage International (formerly TEC International) for over 27 years. He currently works monthly with more than 50 Southern California executives, in three chief executive groups and one group of key executives, regarding all aspects of their businesses. Larry can be reached at hndicapper@gmail.com and 714-460-3090.

Marc Emmer is President of Optimize Inc. a management consulting firm specializing in strategic planning. Marc is the author of Intended Consequences, Design the Future you Wish to Create. Marc can be reached at marc@optimizeinc.net or at 661-296-2568.

Diana L. Ho is a seasoned facilitator/executive coach, percussionist, book-binder and kick-ass project manager. She began her career in retail merchandising and was Vice President and division head in a Los Angeles management consulting firm before founding Management Arts in 1995. Contact her at DianaHo@ManagementArts.com or 310-475-6563.

Brian Oken has a 20 year track record as a successful President/CEO, having effectively guided organizations through aggressive revenue growth to sustained profitability. Throughout his career, he has been involved in managing, operating and strategically positioning companies in the public and private/family sectors. He is well known for improving the profitability of organizations while also creating great places to work. Prior to opening his own firm, Brian spent two decades running manufacturing and service based businesses as President and CEO. His accomplishments include significantly growing income and cash, being listed on the Inc. 500/5000 fastest growing company list, engaging in international strategic alliances and the launching of numerous successful new products. CEOs, Presidents and business owners call on Brian as a trusted advisor to help grow their companies, make better decisions with greater returns and create the highest performing workplace cultures. Brian can be reached at boken@informalcowboy.com or 310-466-2804.

Steven Phillips, Ph.D., Founder and CEO. In his relentless effort to deliver uncommon results, Dr. Steven L. Phillips has built an enviable reputation for his senior team consulting service that focuses on results-driven off-sites for senior leadership, strategic planning, and executive leadership. Dr. Phillips has helped thousands of individuals and organizations establish new levels of teamwork, transformation, and performance, all specifically targeted toward bottom-line results. Dr. Phillips has extensive experience as an Organization Development professional. For many years he served as a SVP Chief Talent Officer for a privately held 1B company with 10,000 employees. As a consultant, he has worked with Senior Executives at Microsoft, PepsiCo, Viacom, Mattel, Boeing, and many others, helping individuals, teams, and entire organizations successfully implement change. Steve also works one-on-one with Presidents and CEOs helping them strategize for powerful and successful leadership. Additionally, Dr. Phillips creates customized team development activities for executive teams designed specifically to shorten cycle time to high performance. Dr. Phillips’ best-selling books are used in corporations throughout the world. His latest book, The Senior Leadership Off-site Playbook, is soon to be released. Steven can be reached at sphillips@phillipsassociates.net or 310-456-3532.

Paul David Walker, Founder & CEO of Genius Stone Partners was part of building the first leadership firm to align Strategy, Structure and Culture, and has been a business leadership adviser to the CEO’s of Fortune 500 and midsize companies for over 25 years. He is the author of Unleashing Genius: Leading Yourself, Teams and Corporations, two other books, and will publish a new book called Invent Your Future. He has succeeded by unleashing the genius of the people around him and is known to be a visionary leader and master of collaboration. Paul can be reached at pauldavidwalker@geniusstone.com or 562-233-7861.

 

Inspiration and Techniques for Building Championship-Level Performance
Lighthouse clients have one thing in common – all are committed to boosting the performance of their organizations. So, we are pleased to introduce our clients and friends to Boaz Rauchwerger — speaker, trainer, author and consultant.  We highly recommend Boaz to you. Ask him to deliver one of his inspirational programs at your next executive retreat or strategic planning session.

One of our favorite Boaz programs is “Playing Like a Championship Team Every Day”. It helps you build on the strengths of everyone’s individual differences. This program helps you discover five steps to get everyone to join the building crew and resign from the wrecking crew. This is a very powerful and inspirational program that receives rave reviews every time.

• Master five techniques to inspire others to perform like champions
• Six recognition techniques including the powerful “good finder” program
• Learn four ways that your team can gain a competitive advantage
• Identify the three prerequisites for maximizing the team’s results
• Learn the two forms of keeping a daily score so everyone wins

Who is Boaz?
Over a 30-year span, Boaz, author of The Tiberias Transformation – How To Change Your Life In Less Than 8 Minutes A Day, has conducted thousands of seminars internationally on goal setting and high achievement. He has taught over half a million people how to supercharge their lives, their careers and how to add Power to their goals. His innovative program, for individuals and corporations, is a simple and highly effective process for high achievement. He was voted Speaker of the Year by Vistage, an international organization of CEOs and business owners. How to contact Boaz – Want more information on Boaz’s Power Program, including “Playing Like a Championship Team Every Day”? Just click here and we’ll be in touch.

 

If you would like additional information on this topic or others, please contact your Human Resources department or Lighthouse Consulting Services LLC, 3130 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 550, Santa Monica, CA 90403, (310) 453-6556, dana@lighthouseconsulting.com & our website: www.lighthouseconsulting.com.

Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC provides a variety of services, including in-depth work style assessments for new hires & staff development, team building, interpersonal & communication training, career guidance & transition, conflict management, 360s, workshops, and executive & employee coaching. Other areas of expertise: Executive on boarding for success, leadership training for the 21st century, exploring global options for expanding your business, sales and customer service training and operational productivity improvement.

To order the books, Cracking the Personality Code and Cracking the Business Code please go to www.lighthouseconsulting.com.