Our Approach

What we do

Think of us as guides. We are experts at the intersection of business and psychology. The opportunities and hazards owners face in times of transition may be new for you, but we’ve navigated this journey many times. Our team specializes in working alongside owners, family members, and their management teams to chart safe passage, navigating in and around visible and invisible hazards inherent with transitions.

We know the complexities you, your family, and your management team are experiencing - often for the first time. Specialized advisors (investment banking, tax, wealth, etc.) operate in silos of their own discipline competing for your attention and making their money when you complete a transaction - this results in a costly and confusing journey for owners.

Our expertise in business psychology and family systems coupled with traditional business management skills – such as culture, structure, strategy, financials, and systems – helps you navigate a safe and confident course to the next phase of your journey.

The results

We help you reconcile competing priorities and reduce complexity so that you gain:

• Clarity: Defining the current personal and business realities against the preferred future realities and reconciling the two against the owner’s beliefs, biases, and values provides the definition for what matters, what doesn’t, and why.

• Confidence: Thoroughly exploring opportunities and challenges in three areas (business, money, and self) reduces complexity and provides greater decision-making certainty.

• Control: A clear pathway for how the transition will happen along with a compelling understanding of why it matters provides owners with the direction they need to navigate the journey.

When these three factors combine, you gain a greater understanding leading to less stress, less negative conflict, better interpersonal relationships, increased organizational capacity, and stronger financial performance. All while preserving and enhancing individual and family wealth.

The Backstory

Achieving business success doesn’t happen overnight -- it requires years of effort. During Allie’s PhD research, the 2012 U.S. Economic Census data revealed intriguing insights about just how few businesses are able to repeatedly navigate uncharted waters to build the organizational capacity necessary to scale. While privately held businesses provide the majority of jobs and economic opportunity, of the 28 million businesses in the U.S. 96% of them remain below $1M in annual revenue and only:

• 4.0% exceed $1M

• 0.4% exceed $10M

• 0.16% exceed $30M

• 0.00061% exceed $50M

Such scaling transitions require owners and business leaders to know things they never had to know, do things they never had to do, and be things they have never had to be before. These uncharted shallow waters with hidden hazards force owners to navigate the transition often - with significant consequences when things go wrong.

But it doesn’t have to be this way! A holistic approach to understanding and gaining alignment on key variables in three domains – business, money, and self – provides owners, their families, and management teams with clarity, confidence, and control.