
Working behind the scenes, below the radar, offering innovative solutions that make you look good in the eyes of your stakeholders.

It’s Not About Us
Too many advisors make their popularity and profile the measure of their success. We believe profile does nothing to help our clients, and we much prefer to work behind the scenes and below the radar.
We Say No to Opportunities
While we believe we are the best at what we do, we don’t believe we do everything equally well, nor that we are the best fit for every client or engagement. A firm that does not say “no” as often as they say “yes” lacks integrity. Our goal is to create excellence, and when we can’t, we are delighted to refer to someone who can.
What We Believe

We Know Things Others Don’t
Conventional wisdom is long on convention and short on wisdom. While there is much good advice in the world, our differentiator is having ideas, solutions, and behaviors others don’t have. We are always on the hunt for things others don’t know that can help our clients — in our research, our learning, and our daily experience.
Investing in Relationships is How We Succeed
Adding value to others is the lifeblood of relationships, and we see the act of investing deeply in relationships as essential to who we are as individuals and as a firm. This means cultivating a deeper understanding of our clients and colleagues, bringing our best advice always, and maintaining a principled independence that allows us to put the needs of a relationship ahead of our own.


Learning Motivates Us
We see learning not only as a source of perspective, insight, and wisdom, but also as fuel. New ideas compel us to act, with a desire to bring insights to bear for our clients. We are curious to know more and understand better, not for the sake of learning, but to build our excellence as advisors.
Practicality Makes the Difference
Ease of application is a stronger measure of efficacy than the quality of an idea. After all, if a client can’t put your good counsel into practice, what good is it? “Can they do this?” is an explicit test in our organization. If we can’t make it practical, our advice needs more work.


Excellence Is Habitual
As historian Will Durant paraphrased Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do … therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit.” We believe this is true and that having excellence as a standard in our work requires having excellence as a standard in our life: as parents, partners, colleagues, and friends.
We Maintain a Contrarian View
When all is said and done, we can only do our best work if we are free to do what we think is right. This means keeping our independence as advisors, and more important, as thinkers. This often makes us different and even contrarian… but also free: free to say what must be said, free to insist on a better way, and free to do what we must if it’s in the best interest of our colleagues and clients.

You’ve probably never heard of us, but you have heard of our clients. We like it that way.
More than 500 C-Suite Leaders
We create the Firm’s fate and we choose success—together. Though unique individuals and entrepreneurs by trade.
More than 1000 Executive Committee Members
We create the Firm’s fate and we choose success—together. Though unique individuals and entrepreneurs by trade.
More than 5,000 Senior Leaders
We create the Firm’s fate and we choose success—together. Though unique individuals and entrepreneurs by trade.