We believe that partnership is critical to our success. That partnership is more than a financial term; it is a spirit and a way of doing business. To that end, we believe there are four key points of partnership with operators:

Values

We believe that the most important thing in partnership is how we treat each other. We believe respect is the cornerstone of that foundation. No one individually has gotten to this point without great success and we should remember that in dealing with each other and discussing tough issues.

The next key is honesty. Honesty not only means "not lying" but being forthright with what we know and how we feel. If we can honestly get all-important issues on the table, good or bad…fact or opinion, nothing from inside our organization should stop us.

The last key value is support. Each of us has a job to do in the partnership. We must not only stay out of each other's way and let people do their job but go a step further. We must ask ourselves "am I doing all I can do to support and help my partner succeed?"


Planning

The ingredients of success are talent, planning and hard work. Planning is the oft forgotten ingredient. At CIC Partners we believe planning is critical for a great partnership. We realize you can take it too far. All plan and no execution means failure. That's why we think there are two key times for planning.

First, shortly after we become partners it is a good time to develop a plan that looks out to the next three to six years. It should examine our situation, our mission, our objectives, strategies and short-term tactics. This is a plan that we can build on but in regards to our mission, objectives and strategies not change from year to year. There are several methodologies to build that plan and CIC Partners can help. We care less about how we do it and more that we do it.

Secondly is planning for the coming year. We believe in developing an annual plan that connects with the long-term plan and includes annual goals, tactics and budgets.

We believe if both are done in a timely manner you can get on with the jobs of taking care of customers and growing your business.


People

People are everything. We believe while ownership share usually dictates Board representation, the quality of people that sit around the table is everyone's concern. We only want Board members that everyone likes and wants to do business with. We also want Directors to be "value-adders" not "overseers" of a business. If we choose Directors correctly then we should always have unanimous votes. Not because we will always agree, but because listening to one another and finding common ground is of supreme importance.

We believe any time spent on talking about people is time well spent. We enjoy discussing how to take care of them better or how to get more talented people on the team. We also believe everyone should have measurable objectives: the Board, the CEO, Senior Management and Team Members. We believe the best ROI we see is in highly motivated, talented people.