For additional case stories, click here.

       Back to the Future -
How can I do what you do?

Eight years ago I was asked to give a presentation at the yearly conference of my peers about my consulting practice.  After reflecting on what I might say, the “one thing” that stood out in my mind was the travel.  Not just travel in general as we cover the U.S.A. and some foreign countries, but very specifically the part about travel when I rise in the morning after arriving late at night wondering just exactly where I am.  Oh yes, I follow very specific instructions to arrive at just the right hotel in the right town on the correct date.  But sometimes the first view out the hotel window in the morning light serves up some real surprises.  From seeing the bay in Vancouver for the first time to waking-up one morning on the west coast and overlooking the Pacific Ocean and then the next morning doing the same thing on the east coast except it was the Atlantic Ocean.  In Hawaii out one window we see sail boats of all sizes and shapes; out the other window we see an active volcano.  One morning we awoke to see a large group of Mexicans coming into the country along this sleepy little town by the border, another the sounds of New York, another the sites of a farm and lastly an ocean vessel carrying cargo that seemed to be just 10 feet from my balcony along the St. Lawrence Sea Way in up state New York. 

The experiences of travel are many and quite varied as they have been for the consultants and presenters who travel as I do.  Thus, the title of this article, Back to the Future.  For those of you who remember, this is the title of a 1985 flick starring Michael J. Fox and Chris Lloyd.  They played a young man and a nutty inventor who managed to invent a time machine that could take them to strange places and different periods of time.  The feelings they express in this film as they jump into new time zones and different sections of the country are often the same feelings I find myself having when I arrive at a new client’s location for the first time.  Everything is strange, different and frightening to a point.  I don’t know which direction is north or exactly which time zone I am in.  The feeling can be one of powerlessness, uncertainty and disorientation.  I often feel alone, vulnerable, helpless and fatigued. 

Then it comes time to pull up my boot straps and get to work.  It is time to put the travel woes, frustrations and surprises behind and begin to focus on the client and the job ahead.  Every client is a new opportunity and every speech, a new challenge.  I feel like Marty and Doc in Back to the Future who experienced many surprises, felt lost, powerless and yet were able to leave their old boring jobs in a little rural community and change time zones and peoples’ lives.  What a dream!  In a very real sense, the feelings we travelers experience are much the same as Marty and Doc describe in the movie.  Terrified, suspicious, disgusting, pessimistic, worried, intrigued, engrossed, curious, optimistic, re-enforced, daring, free, calm, peaceful, liberated, fortunate and truly blessed. 

While we travel from coast to coast and border to border working with business owning families to help them plan for themselves personally, for their companies, estate planning, their families, and passing their assets and companies from the current generation to the next generation, the problems and challenges are surprisingly all the same. But as each family approaches the situation based upon their value set, ethic background and religion, the challenge of planning takes on a totally different perspective.  Just as the family unit is emotionally based and business is task and production based, the results spell confusion for most families.  

I Want to Do What You Do

At least once per month someone asks me how they can do what I do.  They want to give presentations, or they want to consult with families in business like I do.  Granted, it is a nice compliment, but sometimes people don’t know what they are asking for.  Then I give them the short version about what it takes to do what I do, and how, like most other jobs, the individual preparation is overwhelming.  I never hear from them again.  I must have a way of making the difficult look easy.  For those who hang around, we get into the processes of consulting to business owning families and what is required.  For example, knowledge prerequisites include behavioral sciences, financial side of the business, legal matters and management systems.  You certainly cannot know all there is to know about all these broad areas of knowledge, but some knowledge is required, plus a staff and associates who can fill-in the gaps.  This means one must know how to run and manage a consulting and management firm. 

Our consulting process begins by conducting a “chemistry session” with the prospective client, and if that goes well, we then conduct a needs analysis to determine if our expertise matches the client’s requirements.  Next we enter the owning family’s personal and business systems to get the story, look for strengths and weaknesses regarding the path to meeting their goals.  We meet with the family for educational purposes and discuss how we might improve the areas of weakness to eventually achieve their goals.  We gather an enormous amount of information both personal, via interviews, and historical (data such as the history of the company, financials, estate planning documents, etc.) all for the purposes of assessment.  Once a written plan is put together, for the next phase of action we begin to work on altering the plan as needed simultaneously executing family, business and ownership recommendations as we steadily move toward our goals. 

Besides me, it is not uncommon to use an attorney, CPA, therapist and other selected advisors during an engagement.  Other skills and knowledge required include being a professional traveler, marketer, writer and presenter.

While our consulting process with a client takes us into the future, our travel schedule and repetition of issues and problems to address often takes us Back to the Future.

 

This article appeared in Mike Henning’s Family Firm Advisor newsletter.  For more information about receiving one free copy of our newsletter, contact us.