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www.tetracannagroup.com

Denver, Colorado 2015

Surviving in a Newly Regulated Industry
A Tetra Canna Group Survive & Thrive Workshop

Table of Contents
Workshop Objectives ………………………………………………………………………….… 2
Pre Assessment ………………………………………………………………………….………. 3
Motivation Matrix ………………………………………………………………………….……. 4
Core Ideology ………………………………………………………………………….………… 5
Envisioned Future ……………………………………………………………………………….. 6
Vision Creation ………………………………………………………………………….………. 7
SWOT …….…………………………………………………………………….……………….. 8
Strengths ………………………………………………………………………….……………. 11
Weaknesses ………………………………………………………………………….…………. 12
Opportunities ………………………………………………………………………….…...…… 13
Threats ………………………………………………………………………….………………. 14
Post Assessment …………………………………………………………………………………15
Notes ………………………………………………………………………….…………………16

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WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES:

1. Create a functioning vision for the company
 A clear Vision will combine the objectives and direction for the company based on the
collective input from all principals of the business. From this, your business is able to
grow and navigate through the difficult journey of surviving in a newly regulated
industry.

2. Identify all SWOT components of your
 A SWOT analysis is a common company tool used by many organizations. However, at
Tetra Canna Group, we partner with investment banking and private equity savvy
individuals to create a new SWOT analysis from the perspective of a future strategic
acquirer of the business. This is critical if a company intends to implement a strategic
exit strategy in the future. At Tetra Canna Group, we ensure success by bringing this
new SWOT analysis to our clients

3. Prepare final report with all SWOT components

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PRE ASSESSMENT

Please rate yourself prior to us starting this workshop.

1. I know exactly what strengths our company has from a Strategic Acquirer's (SA) perspective.

1 2 3 4 5
STRONGLY AGREE DON’T KNOW DISAGREE STRONGLY

AGREE DISAGREE

2. I know exactly what weaknesses our company has from a Strategic Acquirer's (SA) perspective.

1 2 3 4 5
STRONGLY AGREE DON’T KNOW DISAGREE STRONGLY

AGREE DISAGREE

3. I know exactly what opportunities our company has from a Strategic Acquirer's (SA) perspective.

1 2 3 4 5
STRONGLY AGREE DON’T KNOW DISAGREE STRONGLY

AGREE DISAGREE

4. I know exactly what threats our company faces from a Strategic Acquirer's (SA) perspective.

1 2 3 4 5
STRONGLY AGREE DON’T KNOW DISAGREE STRONGLY

AGREE DISAGREE

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VISION

In order to set yourself up to achieve future company goals, you must have a vision.

While assessing the vision you have for your company, it is valuable to know your own capabilities and
qualities and be able to communicate them with impact. The more you know about yourself,
competencies, values, interests, motivators, personal style, etc, the greater the likelihood of your
achieving your potential in the workplace.

MOTIVATION MATRIX

The Motivation Matrix is a self-assessment tool to help you articulate your work strengths, areas for
development, low motivation, and potential burn-out areas. There are four quadrants to fill out.

Skills/interests you are drawn to and excel Skills/interests you are drawn to but not
at or do well: these are your 'best work (yet) your best work skills: 'development
skills' opportunities'

Skills/interests you don't like to pursue; not Skills/interests you excel at or do well but
best work or development skills: 'low fueling don't like to pursue: (in excess can become
skills" 'burn-out skills')

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Companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a core purpose that remain fixed while
their business strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world. A well-conceived vision
consists of two major components: core ideology and envisioned future.

CORE IDEOLOGY

Consists of both core values and core purpose.

CORE VALUES CORE PUPOSE

Core values are the essential and enduring tenets The organization’s reason for being. An effective
of an organization - a small set of timeless purpose reflects people’s idealistic motivations for
guiding principles. doing the company’s work. It doesn’t just describe
the organization’s output or target customers; it
Do not ask, “What core values should we hold?” captures the soul of the organization.
Ask instead, “What core values do we truly and
passionately hold?” You discover core ideology A primary role of core purpose is to guide and
by looking inside. It has to be authentic. You inspire.
can’t fake it.
How might you frame the purpose of your
What are your Core Values? company so that if you woke up tomorrow
morning with enough money in the bank to retire,
1. you would nevertheless keep working here? What
deeper sense of purpose would motivate you to
continue to dedicate your precious creative
energies to this company’s efforts?

2.

3.

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ENVISIONED FUTURE

The second primary component of the vision framework is envisioned future. It consists of two parts:
1. a long term goal
2. plus vivid descriptions of what it will be like to achieve the goal.

An envisioned future needs what we call vivid description—that is, a vibrant, engaging, and specific
description of what it will be like to achieve a lofty goal.

For example, Henry Ford brought to life the goal of democratizing the automobile with this vivid
description: “I will build a motor car for the great multitude… It will be so low in price that no man
making a good salary will be unable to own one and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of
pleasure in God’s great open spaces… When I’m through, everybody will be able to afford one, and
everyone will have one. The horse will have disappeared from our highways, the automobile will be
taken for granted…[and we will] give a large number of men employment at good wages.”

Passion, emotion, and conviction are essential parts of the vivid description. Some managers are
uncomfortable expressing emotion about their dreams, but that’s what motivates others.

Churchill understood that when he described the BHAG facing Great Britain in 1940. He did not just
say, “Beat Hitler.” He said, “Hitler knows he will have to break us on this island or lose the war. If we
can stand up to him, all Europe may be free, and the life of the world may move forward into broad,
sunlit uplands. But if we fail, the whole world, including the United States, including all we have known
and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister and perhaps more
protracted by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear
ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say,
‘This was their finest hour.’”

Don’t confuse core ideology and envisioned future. Managers often exchange one for the other, mixing
the two together or failing to articulate both as distinct items. Core purpose—not some specific goal—
is the reason why the organization exists. Your envisioned future is a clearly articulated goal. Core
purpose can never be completed, whereas your envisioned goal is reachable in 10 to 30 years. Think of
the core purpose as the star on the horizon to be chased forever; the envisioned future is the mountain
to be climbed. Once you have reached its summit, you move on to other mountains.

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What is your envisioned future?

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Now, let’s create our vision for the company.

Vision simply provides the context for bringing this dynamic to life. Building a visionary company
requires 1% vision and 99% alignment. When you have superb alignment, a visitor could drop in from
outer space and infer your vision from the operations and activities of the company without ever
reading it on paper or meeting a single senior executive.

Based on your CORE VALUES, CORE PURPOSE, and ENVISIONED FUTURE…
…create a vision:

ULCERS

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DISCOVER NEW OPPORTUNITIES, MANAGE & ELIMINATE THREATS

Now that you have a firm grasp on your vision, you must examine your current SWOT components.
With experienced investment and private equity specialists, the Tetra Canna Group will you’re your
organization frame your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats from the perspective of a
future acquiring entity. We will start with your company’s strengths and weaknesses.
To get your list going, start by answering some fundamental questions that make your company either
stand-out or drown.

1. Marketing: How do you build general and specific awareness of our company in the minds of
our potential customers?

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2. Sales: Those direct activities which result in our customers ordering our products and services.

3. Production Capabilities/Service Capabilities: Those activities which result in our providing
products and/or services to our customers.

4. Accounting, including A/R and A/P: While not usually included in strengths and weaknesses
in most analyses, we suggest that this area be included to the extent that it impacts any
interactions with customers. Done poorly, this area can be a major irritant to customers,
possibly resulting in loss of business and alienation of customer personnel.

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5. Administration: Does our leadership provide clear, unambiguous goals, communicated
effectively to everyone in the company? Do our leaders allow people to function with an
appropriate level of responsibility and authority, stepping in only to help guide and assist, or do
they micromanage, limiting initiative resourcefulness?

6. Human Resources: Does HR support the mission of the company effectively, with good
communication and even-handed administration of policies and benefits? How does HR
contribute to the effectiveness of the company?

7. Intangibles - such as responsiveness, flexibility, reputation, follow through on commitments,
etc.: Each of these depends on the type of company, the need for each of these characteristics in
the marketplace and within the company. Each should be considered for its effectiveness both
inside and outside the company.

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What do you do better
than anyone else?

What advantages does What unique or lowest-cost
your company have?
resources can you draw upon
that others can’t?

STRENGTHS

What do people in your What is your Unique Selling
market see as your strengths? Proposition (USP)?

What factors mean that you 11
“get the sale”?

Your USP is the unique thing that you can offer that your competitors can’t. It’s your
“Competitive Edge.” It’s the reason why customers buy from you, rather than someone else.

WEAKNESSES

What could improve? What should you avoid?

What are your competitors doing What factors lose you sales?
better than you?

What are people in your market and Strategic Acquirers likely to see as weaknesses?
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OPPORTUNITIES

Useful opportunities can come from such things as:

o Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale.
o Changes in government policy.
o Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, and so on.
o Local events.

What good opportunities can you spot? What interesting trends are you aware of?

TIP: A useful approach when looking at opportunities is to look at your strengths and ask yourself
whether these open up any opportunities. Alternatively, look at your weaknesses and ask yourself
whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating them.

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THREATS

What obstacles do you face? What are your competitors Are quality standards or
doing? specifications for your job,

products or services
changing?

Is changing technology Do you have bad debt or Could any of your
threatening your position? cash-flow problems? weaknesses seriously threaten

your business?

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POST ASSESSMENT

Please rate yourself now.

1. I know exactly what strengths our company has from a Strategic Acquirer's (SA) perspective.

1 2 3 4 5
STRONGLY AGREE DON’T KNOW DISAGREE STRONGLY

AGREE DISAGREE

2. I know exactly what weaknesses our company has from a Strategic Acquirer's (SA) perspective.

1 2 3 4 5
STRONGLY AGREE DON’T KNOW DISAGREE STRONGLY

AGREE DISAGREE

3. I know exactly what opportunities our company has from a Strategic Acquirer's (SA) perspective.

1 2 3 4 5
STRONGLY AGREE DON’T KNOW DISAGREE STRONGLY

AGREE DISAGREE

4. I know exactly what threats our company faces from a Strategic Acquirer's (SA) perspective.

1 2 3 4 5
STRONGLY AGREE DON’T KNOW DISAGREE STRONGLY

AGREE DISAGREE

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NOTES

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