Your Guide To Better Business Decisions

Avoiding making business decisions, especially tough ones, is the same as making a decision. Successful leaders understand this and do not vacillate when a decision needs to be made. The challenge of leadership is that no one tells you when you need to make a decision or what the right answer is. You need to figure out the answers to those questions, often alone.

Your Ownership Journey shows business owners, from novice to veteran, how to develop an ownership strategy and use that to make better business decisions. With this book, you’ll gain clarity on your life goals, find the tools to raise capital and retain top talent, drive growth, and create a plan for the future of your business.

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“Owning a business is hard, and they don’t come with user manuals. Your Ownership Journey explains the challenges, and provides solutions, that trouble so many private companies. Werner provides a great compass for owners to navigate safely to their intended destination.”

Laura Huang, Professor at Harvard Business School and bestselling author of EDGE: Turning Adversity into Advantage

“Your Ownership Journey is a must-read for private company leaders at every level: family owners, senior executives, and independent directors. The book identifies practical considerations related to succession planning and management oversight that will be helpful to current and aspiring independent directors on private (and public) company boards.”

Lance Mangum, Staff Vice President, Government Affairs at FedEx Corporation

“Business owners are in the enviable position to shape an enterprise that reflects their values system and life goals. In Your Ownership Journey, Werner provides wise and compassionate frameworks based on decades of personal experience, helping owners ensure they have set the vision that is right for them, can challenge their thinking as conditions change, and can execute toward that vision. It is a good catalyst for reflection by business owners and board members alike.”

Kathryn Haley, EVP United Healthcare, Board member Concentrix
Corporation, First Midwest Bancorp, Inc., and Alight Solutions

“Your Ownership Journey provides an excellent roadmap from early stage to happy and fulfilling retirement with directions on how to navigate the difficult stops and detours along the way.”

Dennis Kessler, Retired Co-President of Fel-Pro, a fifth-generation family business

“The COVID-19 pandemic has made it imperative for all of us to rethink how we use our time and talents to ensure we have a livelihood. Jobs and assured income as we knew it has been permanently disrupted. Bruce Werner’s comprehensive step-by-step guide for all budding entrepreneurs is both timely and required. We need to identify and leverage our skills and talents to create ‘value’ for a target audience who will exchange their money to access it. I recommend this book with enthusiasm to all of you to better face the reality of the 21st Century.”

Dr Ravi A Fernando, Chairman/CEO, Global Strategic Corporate Sustainability

Meet The Author

Bruce Werner spent the first half of his career at Werner Ladder, with executive responsibilities in all facets of the business. During that time, the family completed six acquisitions and sustained 10 percent annual growth for over a decade. The family later exited the business in a successful LBO.

As an independent consultant, he helps owners address their governance, strategy, capital, talent, and succession issues. This work is based on several decades of deep operational experience. He has started and built businesses in finance, energy, retail, and technology, in addition to being a partner in a private equity fund.

Werner has a specialty in working with family businesses, both as an advisor and as a board member. His governance experience includes forming new boards and serving on established boards, both advisory and fiduciary. He has performed audit, governance, and compensation committee work.

In the non-profit world, Werner has served as board chair and worked on governance, nominating, strategy, compensation, finance, and investment committees.