The "Ultimate Success" For Family Business Leaders
Over many years I’ve worked with hundreds of Family Business Leaders and been a part of some great national business organizations which focus on what is needed for Family Businesses and their Leaders to become and to remain extremely successful.
These have included: Vistage International Family Business Network, Business Enterprise Institute, CEO Space International, John Maxwell Executive Leadership Program, Family Firm Institute, Secret Knock, Strategyzer AG and Exit Planning Institute.
As a member of these organizations and having taught business design and innovation to Vistage CEO Boards across the U.S. and Canada, I’ve learned from hundreds of the country’s best and brightest CEOs dedicated to building and growing companies which endure.
I’ve learned from them what is important to them and what isn’t important.
That is what I’ve been bringing to other Family Business Leaders around the U.S. by developing and deploying our “Fourth Quarter” Game Plan Program.
When we work with Family Business Leaders, we ask about your story and the story of your Family Business. We get to see the heart and soul of America’s family entrepreneurs, that is, America’s new breed of Family Business Pioneers. We get to see your passion and your excellence. We get to see the love and respect you have for your colleagues and for those you serve. We get to see the grit, determination and pioneer spirit which drive you and your team. Just as it has driven me ever since growing up in the Niemann family businesses.
Achieving The Ultimate Success Needs More Than Just Basic Planning
Achieving the “Ultimate Success” requires what we call “Fourth Quarter” Planning. This is a focus on what is needed for a Family Business Leader to be successful for all Four Quarters of his or her life in the Family Business.
This is a mindshift which Family Business Leaders have been asking us to deploy with them. It is a belief in the need to “begin with the end in mind” if you really intend to be and stay successful.
This is a combination of Strategic, Asset Protection, Business Continuity, Leadership, Succession, Exit, Tax and Estate Planning. This is the deliberate, adaptable and customized process of working with Family Business Leaders and your families and colleagues to continue to profitably build your Family Business.
And to deploy early on what’s needed to achieve a successful future transition and eventual exit from your Company, without waiting for the “Two Minute Warning” or Overtime. We address with you how to protect what you’re building and how to take control of your legacy.
It’s About Seeing And Starting With Your “Fourth Quarter First”
For this reason, “Fourth Quarter” Planning addresses your planned, foreseeable growth and future exit. Ideally, your future Fourth Quarter will occur on your terms and timetable. However, sometimes unforeseen events (such as unexpected death or disability or the loss of key employees) will frustrate the best laid plans.
So, “Fourth Quarter” Planning comes with back up plans in case of an unexpected owner, partner or key employee death, disability, departure, dispute, divorce or business downturn.
To Be And To Stay Successful For The Whole Game
Many Family Business Leaders have heard us say that our job is to “look into the future” with you. And then work together on what is needed to avoid foreseeable pitfalls and to achieve the outcome you want.
That is the essence of “Fourth Quarter” Planning. To look ahead. To see it coming. To avoid the 24 “Train Wrecks” that destroy the success of other Family Businesses. To deploy what’s needed to keep the promises you’ve made to yourself, your family, your colleagues, your stakeholders, your customers and your communities.
By Deploying Some Very Powerful, Yet Simple, Concepts
“Fourth Quarter First” thinking is a very simple mindset. Yet, in practice, it’s often overlooked. Too many business owners are on the journey, but have no clear destination in mind (or they are missing the steps needed to get there).
Together we simply focus on both the journey and the destinations you want for yourself, your family, your colleagues and your Company. We then address what’s needed (the “Main Plays”) to actually get there.
We “Begin with the end in mind” (i.e., your personal “Fourth Quarter First”). And we live by the flexibility principles that “All plans are firm...until changed” and “Go for great, don’t wait for perfect.”
If you would like a complimentary copy of “The Ultimate Success Decision Guide for Family Business Leaders”, please contact my assistant at 402-633-1489.
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