Strategic Consultants Limited Practical Business Solutions

Our mission is to help businesses improve their performance and plan for growth, stability and continuity by providing practical business solutions to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing business environment.

We have a strong business philosophy based on:

• Trust and confidentiality
• Excellence
• Decisiveness
• A holistic approach to assessment and resolution of issues
• Value Added to the client's business
• International experience
• Networking

The family business is so much more than just a business. It is a stew of family relationships based on love and resentment. The primary challenges faced by family businesses are to match family values to business goals. As incremental generations join the business, relationships become entangled and often lead to conflicts in all areas of operations.

The challenge of Family Businesses

More than 70 per cent of all business enterprises are family owned....but less than 10 per cent of all family businesses survive to the 3^rd Generation.

There are several challenges faced by family businesses:

• Alignment of personal and family business goals
• Conflicts between family members
• Lack of accountability
• Complications in the management of Human Resources
• Issues around power and control
• Differing values between generations
• Lack of effective communication across generations
• Professionalising businesses that started as informal family operations
• Managing succession, ownership and governance
• Protection of wealth for future generations
• Providing career opporunities for family members that are more attractive than those offered elsewhere

All these challenges need to be addressed if a family business is to maximise its potential and sustain itself as a professionally run establishment.

Professionalising the Family Business

This process should bring about the following:

• Clear distinction between family values and business values
• A set of clear objectives for the family and for the business
• Commonality of goals
• A Family Strategic Plan
• A Business Strategic Plan
• An effective Board of Directors
• Succession planning for management and for ownership of the business
• Implementation of a Corporate Governance Code

How We Can Help

In order to help family businesses achieve their objectives we provide consultancy services in the following areas:

Ownership

• Structuring the ownership of the business and other family assets
• Ownership distribution within the family - beneficial ownership versus ownership in trust
• Cultivating a distinction between Ownership and Management
• Understanding the responsibilities of owners versus those of management

Management

• Effective involvement of family members in the business
• Remuneration levels of family members and other employees
• Involvement, where necessary, of external professionals in key areas of business
• Human Resource policies
• Definition of roles, responsibilities and reporting lines
• Composition of the Board of Directors

Succession

• Timely succession and retirement planning
• Development of a well formulated succession plan
• Recommendations on how to choose and train successors to take over responsibilities

Protection

• Providing adequately for working and non-working family members
• Assessing and mitigating business risks
• Finding opportunities to expand and grow assets
• Addressing issues relating to Wills
• Reviewing appropriate Trust and related structures
• Setting up suitable Trust structures

Businesses often have ample opportunity for expansion within the same industry or by penetration of new markets and industries. However this is frequently constrained by limited funds or the lack of financial support.

We are able to offer clients the following services, which would enable them to proceed with expansions and new business ventures:

• Determining your most favourable options and actions when acquiring or selling a business concern
• Finding suitable equity partners
• Locating sources of finance and negotiating the terms and structure of finance
• Negotiating long term loan capital and working capital finance
• Developing relationships with investors and bankers

Many managers become absorbed in dealing with day to day crises and routine management affairs, and are unable to step back and plan the longer-term success and continuity of their business. Our aim is to help our clients:

• Develop a mission and a vision for the future of the business
• Establish and align the goals of the owners of the business
• Identify core competencies and strengths
• Evaluate options and strategies for growth
• Develop and implement a business plan
• Gain a dynamic edge over competitors
• Take full advantage of opportunities and maximise strengths
• Minimise the impact of weaknesses and threats

The strategic planning process involves a review of the client's business and its management and recommending improvements to foster success, stability and continuity.

New opportunities for growth and expansion often arise through the purchase of existing businesses or by forging strategic alliances. Conversely, certain business units may have to be sold in order to sustain growth and profitability.

The salient features of the services we provide in this field are:

• Reviewing the commercial aspects of potential transactions
• Targeting companies for merger or acquisition, or identifying suitable purchasers for disposals of businesses
• In the case of mergers, assisting the parties involved to establish the commercial rationale and principle terms of a merger
• Due diligence reviews
• Tax planning and legal considerations
• Negotiating the transaction
• Managing the completion of the transaction
• Seeking financing or equity partners to participate in transactions