Organizational success starts with good planning. This same written plan carries through to the future transitional process. Your experienced Summit advisor will assess the current organization’s position and resources, and help design a planning process that will best provide the roadmap to realize your vision.

Summit can help your organization with all facets of planning, including:

• Vision and Purpose
• Plan Development
• Plan Execution

An organization can only be as strong as its team and its team only as strong as its leadership. Once a strong strategic plan is in place, leadership must still guide activities within the organization to achieve the goals and objectives. This requires:

• Development of a team with the skill sets, personalities, and structure appropriate for the products or services being provided.
• Clear performance metrics and accountability to the team members and leadership.

Your Summit advisor(s) will work with you and your team on strategies for:

• Leadership Development
• Systems Integration
• Growth Management

There are two primary areas of concentration for a successful transition of an organization from present to future management:

1. Develop an organization with Transferrable Value.

Utilizing the elements established through Strategic Planning and Organizational Development allows the organization to help the leadership team grow and develop. Aligning goals with the company’s vision and purpose empowers leaders to make informed decisions. Transparency and delegated functionality help the owner grow the business and then permit a potential successor to see value in the organization.

2. Answer the questions specific to succession:

• Who will be the successor?
• When to transition?
• What’s next for you?

Your Summit advisor will help you structure these key areas to result in a successful transition by concentrating on:

• Maximizing Transferrable Value
• Developing Key Metrics
• Building A Succession Team

Most business planning involves increased sales, more market share, less waste and/or any number of valuable goals with hope of increasing profit as a key element on the list. These are certainly productive goals to set, but do they increase the value that would be transferrable to the successor? Your Summit advisor will work with you to develop those goals that meet profit objectives while increasing transferrable value.

Delegation is one of the most difficult elements of a privately-owned business. After all, the owner may have started the business and knows all elements of the business. Most owners often feel that “No one can do things as well as I can.” Even if true, this puts severe limits on growth of the existing business and makes a successful transition extremely difficult. Your Summit advisor will help you develop an organization suited to being run independently from the owner. Having these structures in place will then make the organization much more attractive to a potential successor.

Succession planning needs to involve various advisors. If you work with a financial advisor, they will help you develop a plan specifically designed to make the most of your retirement goals. A key element for a business owner needs to be the value of the business now, and at the projected time of retirement. Your Succession Planning Team must include experts from numerous disciplines, including the right combination of:

• An Attorney
• A Financial Planner
• A Certified Public Accountant
• A Valuation Company
• An Insurance Provider
• Others who can provide the best guidance in their respective fields

Your Summit Advisor will work with you to help select, and then work with the team of advisors.