The Strategic Path LLC was created to provide assistance in analyzing and developing appropriate strategies to deal with complex choices about their future. 

Complex and critical situations demand careful, painstaking analysis and synthesis of objectives and practical and policy limitations on alternatives, and a thorough evaluation of the likely and not-so-likely consequences of proposed steps on the path forward.  When facing such decisions, we seek advice from expert professionals.  Unfortunately these experts too often have a narrow perspective, attuned to optimizing the outcome in their particular realm.  Lawyers advise on the legal rights of the parties; accountants on tax consequences; financial consultants propose steps to improve net worth.  Even if they understand the client's larger objectives, they often avoid addressing those issues as beyond their competence or authority.  And sometimes a conflict exists between the best overall strategy and the self-interest of particular advisors.

Too often the most fundamental questions about the goals the client is seeking to achieve, the limitations (sometimes self-imposed) on acceptable means and available resources, and the obstacles to long-range success are left undefined, poorly understood, or not communicated to the professionals.  The consequence is that the professional advice tends to focus on technically elegant or currently popular approaches, based on unexamined and untested assumptions about the client's objectives.

Sam Bleicher founded The Strategic Path LLC to help clients ensure that their strategic path will meet their real interests and concerns.  He has an unusually wide range of expertise and experience: a BA in Economics from Northwestern University and a JD from Harvard law School were followed by over 20 years in business and private law practice, almost a decade as a law professor, and more than a decade as a senior government official dealing with environmental and foreign affairs issues.  He has recently worked in Russia and China, and he is familiar with the complexities of transnational matters.  From 2004 to 2007 he was the Director for Strategic Initiatives in the State Department bureau responsible for the construction and operation of diplomatic facilities in 262 locations around the world. 

"My experience over the years has convinced me of the necessity for specifically - and separately - addressing the fundamental strategic questions raised by complex and critical decisions, not just as a sideline or precursor to legal or other expert advice. Too often I have found that professional advice is based on mistaken notions about what the client is trying to achieve." 

If your organization would benefit from help in clarifying goals, objectives, constraints, and acceptable means - independent of your lawyers, accountants, and financial advisers - The Strategic Path LLC is  ready to assist you.