Overview
Distributor of wood products and hardware to the commercial building trade.

Opportunity / Threat
The company was considering the acquisition of a similar business. The target company's CEO wanted to retire and sell the business. Informational discussions over the past couple of years between the two companies had reached a point of serious consideration.

Action / Result
The company invited Dr. Gooding to sit in on an internal planning meeting to get to know the players involved in the decision. The team then scheduled a Strategic Risk Analysis session to analyze potential concerns about the new project.
Participants looked at information that was taken for granted, and challenged potentially-wrong assumptions. Once issues were identified, they analyzed and prioritized them, and outlined the people and processes needed to address potential challenges. Management acknowledged that 90% of the issues defined were not new. But once red-flagged by staff, the issues took on a new importance that came as a surprise to management.
The group decided if they could not satisfy staff and management concerns, they would re-think and postpone the acquisition until the timing was better.

Client Comments
"The process is very beneficial because it helps you counteract your own pride of authorship, excitement, and entrepreneurial enthusiasm. What you have to worry about is what everyone has in their heads--but hasn't said--about what could happen to make the project fail. Then you have to address those things."
"Outside facilitators are beneficial because they're not so influenced by you; they're not just going to tell you what they think you want to hear."
"Strategic Risk Analysis allowed us to focus efficiently on things that otherwise might have taken six months and lots of money to identify. It minimized the time it took to come to the right decision, without getting to the point of involving all the high-cost people like lawyers and accountants."
"Our staff was very, very happy about it. It allowed them to be involved in decision-making, and didn't take 50 meetings to do it. Strategic Risk Analysis should be mandatory with large-dollar projects."