Making sense out of a sometimes difficult and often sensitive generational change in business ownership is exactly what the Wheel is supposed to do. 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. Blois Construction is a general contracting and engineering firm that installs underground pipelines throughout Southern California. 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.