Working with Trella
Our consultants will guide you through a phased process that works uniquely with the needs of your family enterprise. As objective outsiders, we’re able to ask the hard questions to help you think through the grey areas in systems and relationships to foster clarity and alignment in your family.
Strategic Implementation
We provide multifaceted, top-to-bottom support for enterprising families, advisors, and single and multi-family offices. Our services fit into six broad categories that all overlap with one another. While they are interrelated, they flexibly adapt to fit your needs.
Strategic Design
The first phase of our process involves getting to know your family and the current state of your enterprise. Once we have confirmed we are aligned with your expectations related to timeline, effort, and budget, we dive in. We will interview family members and key stakeholders, posing in-depth questions to help uncover sticking points that may need to be addressed and finding points of alignment. We also review relevant technical and financial documentation to ensure key planning elements for your enterprise are in place and functioning as they should. After our discovery is complete, we will review our findings with you and present a tailored plan for moving forward to meet your family’s vision, desires, and goals.
How Do We Help Enterprising Families?
Business Strategy and Performance
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Clarify and define the business vision and goals
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Design, organize, and facilitate strategic planning sessions with management and/or board
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Review and optimize the business organizational roles and responsibilities
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Identify strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s culture and formulate change management strategies
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Develop effective measurements to drive execution (KPIs)
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Identify the elements of the family that provide a competitive advantage
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Identify and help manage risk
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Assist with capital allocation decisions
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Increase team capacity through individual assessments and team development
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Provide ongoing leadership development and training
Multi-Generational Alignment
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Define and align the family’s future vision, purpose, values, goals
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Facilitate conversations about the transfer of ownership between generations
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Identify and manage different risk thresholds and desires
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Create accountability and governance structures
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Establish liquidity and distribution needs and desires
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Help family members establish a true ownership mindset
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Provide education related to business ownership such as helping families understand their corporate org chart
Managing Family Relationships
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Build cohesion and connection in the family
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Manage conflict and build communication skills
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Clarify individual legacy desires and goals
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Provide education to develop greater family member competency
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Design, plan, and facilitate family meetings, retreats, and assemblies
Succession & Exit Planning
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Prepare owners for exit
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Review technical plans to ensure they are aligned with transition goals
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Determine business leadership needs for growth
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Develop leaders and prepare the next generation to lead
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Build financial capacity in the rising generation
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Prepare the rising generation for wealth transfer
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Translate complex wealth and tax plans into simple language
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Bring together key consultants to ensure comprehensive and quick results
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Drive plans to completion
Formalizing Governance
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Draft ownership charters that include the owners’ values, vision, purpose, philosophy, risk tolerance, etc.
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Design processes and reporting structures to manage information flow to owners
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Develop key provisions for shareholders’ agreements to prepare for meetings with attorneys and accountants
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Develop and write key policies for ownership such as distribution, family employment, etc.
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Design, organize, and facilitate ownership meetings
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Design and develop formal ownership governance structures
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Build a family constitution
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Develop concrete, practical policies that guide behavior
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Develop or reinvigorate family councils
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Design foundational board documents such as a board charter, terms of reference (TOR), risk philosophy and framework, etc.
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Structure the board to include committee structures, number of members, skill profiles, etc.
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Recruit board members
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Develop documentation for board meetings, reporting, risk management, strategic planning, etc.
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Design, organize, and facilitate board and committee meetings
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Build communication structures to connect the board, ownership, and family council
