The Partnership Charter Institute
created a breakthrough methodology for designing successful business partnerships
The Partnership Charter Institute was the first, and is the only professional organization focused solely on partner conflict prevention. Hundreds of family and non-family co-owners taught TPCI exactly how partners get “sideways” with one another. TPCI discovered the secret to partner success lies in a paradigm shift: away from a focus on a document, and toward a focus on the partners themselves. TPCI’s groundbreaking methodology results in partners developing and documenting scores of understandings, commitments, and agreements covering both the business and interpersonal sides of partnership.
What is The Partnership Charter Institute?
TPCI’S Mission
TPCI is committed to making it easy for all types of advisors to focus squarely on the partners themselves – helping partners creatively design a unique partnership that fits their specific circumstances and their personal styles and idiosyncrasies.
Training
TPCI trains advisors in the art of skillfully facilitating partners’ in-depth discussions and negotiations, so they can assist partners in their “difficult conversations,” whether those are about money and equity, or personal styles and conflict-handling. It also offers training in those aspects of finance, business, psychology, and law that are critical to co-owners.
Continuous Improvement
Based on thoughtful comments and suggestions from both advisors and partners, the Partnership Charter has undergone 20 years of continuous refinement. As a result, partner and advisor satisfaction has always been extremely high with many referrals coming from partners and advisors who had direct experience developing Charters.
TPCI as “Matchmaker”
Some advisors have strengths in specific areas (e.g., psychology, law) but not in others (e.g., finance, business). The DYP tool makes it much easier for advisors to effectively facilitate discussions outside of their area of expertise. TPCI also assists advisors to connect with other advisors so they can offer the true multidisciplinary services many partners are looking for when designing their partnerships.
TPCI’s Founder
David Gage, psychologist, mediator, author, and founder of The Partnership Charter Institute is a pioneer in business partnerships. For years he taught the only course at a business school in the U.S. about the specific steps people can take to establish healthy, resilient family and non-family business partnerships.
The book that started it all
David Gage distilled everything he and his team learned in over a decade of mediating business partner disputes and put it in this 250-page groundbreaking book that business advisors around the world fondly referred to as “The Partners’ Bible.”
TPCI’s expertise is partnerships. Whatever they look like.
Partnerships are closely-held companies that come in every shape and size. They’re LLCs, Partnerships, S-Corps, C-Corps, and more. (Ironically, partners even call themselves Sole Proprietorships.) They’re startups with no money. They’re multibillion dollar companies with just two partners.
They employ more than half of the U.S. workforce and contribute over half of the country’s GDP. Partners have started many of the world’s oldest, largest, and most successful companies.
While most statistics indicate over half of all partnerships fail after two or three years, some have real staying power. The Zildjian Company in Massachusetts was founded in 1623. Japan has an impressive track record for closely-held companies with over 3,000 running for more than two centuries. (Kongo Gumi Co., Ltd. survived over 1,400 years.) Countless Fortune 100 companies were founded by partners: Proctor & Gamble, Microsoft, Merrill Lynch, Intel, 3M, Apple, HP, Facebook, Google, Dow Jones, Twitter, and eBay to name just a few.
While closely help companies are as different as night and day, they share a common core: At one time or another their partners dealt with the same issues all partners deal with – the same 14 issues covered in TPCI’s Partnership Charter process.
TPCI’s history
The Partnership Charter Institute began as a spinoff from a firm that specialized in mediating partner conflicts for over 20 years. The intent of creating a separate company was to allow TPCI to build on the breakthrough PC “conflict prevention” methodology and work with a dedicated team to develop a user-friendly, online platform for use by advisors with their partner-clients around the world.
The necessity for developing a more accessible tool became increasingly apparent as thousands of people around the world were “reinventing the wheel” – they were laboriously highlighting and outlining Dr. Gage’s book to ensure partners, and partners-to-be, did not fail to ask themselves every important question.
The PC process and DYP tool empower advisors to effectively address both the personal and business sides of partnerships. This in turn gives partners the confidence (1) they’re going into business with the right person, (2) they’ve designed a partnership that fits their unique situation, and (3) they have a clear record of all the necessary understandings and agreements for long-term success.
TPCI’s raison d’être is giving advisors-to-partners everything they need to help them be more successful with their partner clients. Tools, training in partnerships, mentoring, marketing resources, making professional connections with other advisors with complementary skills and experience. TPCI provides all the resources advisors need so they can enjoy helping partners design their partnerships.
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