George Carpenter
CEO, CNS Response

“After more than one year of a great amount of turbulence at the board and executive team levels, we needed a deep and independent assessment of our management effectiveness. This was particularly complex because our founder and former CEO remained a disruptive force to the organization in many ways.

Michael and I met, and at that time I was not exactly sure about the right path forward and how to implement the assessment and change process. All I knew was that we needed an outside and expert view that could enable us to better understand some of our historical dysfunction and then help us to develop a road forward as a company, board, and executive team. However, as soon as I was able, we contracted with Brainard Strategy. Michael demonstrated a confidential and practical approach for to conducting a board and executive assessment process which could be implemented instantly.

Michael’s blend of assessment skills, organizational development knowledge, and senior executive presence helped me to get our management team focused on the key re-building activities. Additionally, Michael put together a report that enabled our board to clearly understand the challenges, root causes, and strategic choices as we moved forward. Lastly, we are implementing his action items and our company is in a vastly better place today than we were prior to engaging with Brainard Strategy. As a small publicly traded firm, Michael applied a highly customized, thorough, and legally defense-able process for us to resolve once and for all some of our major challenges and move forward in a much more unified way.

Brainard Strategy’s flexible options for management assessment enabled us to navigate very choppy waters and we are better for it at the board level, executive team level and organizational level.”