Sunday January 23, 2000

ON OR OFF TRACK? Tool can help businesses see how well they are being managed.

By Roger Harris,Ventura County Star writer

Steven Blois was a little bit skeptical when asked to take the Family Fortune Wheel for a figurative spin.

The Wheel is a new diagnostic tool developed by a trio of Westlake Village entrepreneurs who want to help family owned businesses prepare for the succession of younger generations.

Getting ready for the inevitable is a good idea, Blois agreed, but answering the Wheel's 96 true-false questions seemed like a strange way to go about it.

"As I was answering the questions I didn't know what to think," said Blois, co-owner of Blois Construction Inc. in Oxnard. "But when we saw the results it made sense."

Making sense out of a sometimes difficult and often sensitive generational change in business ownership is exactly what the Wheel is supposed to do.

"The test is comprehensive, but simple," said Ralph Daniel, one of the developers of the Wheel and a principal of California Family Business Institute (CFBI). "It's designed to give business owners a quick overview of their strengths and weaknesses."

For Blois, the results validated the direction that he and his brother, Jim, are taking the company founded 33 years ago by their father.

"It gave me some insights that I might not otherwise have gained and that's helpful," Blois said.

Blois Construction is a general contracting and engineering firm that installs underground pipelines throughout Southern California.

The Family Fortune Wheel is designed to measure the risk factors in four business areas --CEO/founder succession readiness, family relations, ownership structures and management structures. The questions cover topics as diverse as how family members get along, or don't, at work; the CEO's hobbies and outside interests; estate planning; decision-making processes; and the involvement of non-family members in running the business.

Ron Wolfe, owner of Ron Wolfe & Associates Inc., a Santa Barbara real estate and investment brokerage and management company, said the Wheel helped him focus on specific planning issues.

"I have a son who is coming up through the ranks in terms of succession planning and this gave me a better idea of the role I might be playing (in the future) and how to prepare for that," Wolfe said.

To ensure that the Wheel produces comprehensive results, all family members who own or work for the business as well as other key employees are asked to answer the questions, said Daniel, who also is a psychologist specializing in working with family businesses.

All answers are anonymous. It takes about 30 minutes to complete the questionnaire.

What sets the Wheel apart from other business diagnostic tools is the institute's proprietary method of assigning a numerical value to the answers and reproducing the results graphically in a pie chart.

Seeing the chart, with slices of the pie colored in red, green and yellow to reflect the company's state of readiness in particular areas, usually puts to rest any misgivings that business owners may have had about the usefulness of the Wheel, said Stephen Woodworth, a CFBI principal and private investment banker.

Lots of green is good. Yellow areas are issues that need some attention, while a pie with lots of red wedges means the company better take a hard look at itself.

"It's so visual, people get it immediately," Woodworth said.

Glen Farr, co-owner of Farr & Associates, an Oxnard life insurance and employee benefits broker, has recommended that several of his clients take advantage of the Wheel.

"The visual aspect of it really helps a family see where they are," Farr said.

The Family Fortune Wheel is available for $199. CFBI, which provides a variety of services for family business, sees business consultants as the primary market for the Wheel.

What the Wheel is not designed to do is recommend changes or solve all of a company's potential problems, said Nelson Dodge, a CFBI principal and marketing consultant.

"It's a starting point," Dodge said. "It's a nonthreatening way to gather information."

That, Blois said, is the Wheel's real pay off.

"It brings you out of the trees," Blois said. "You get an unbiased look at your company."