Before a decision becomes a commitment.
The Decision Examination is IHSAN Advisory's principal engagement. It is commissioned before a consequential decision becomes strategy, transaction, allocation, policy, or irreversible commitment. Its purpose is not to make the decision for the principal. Its purpose is to make the decision more examinable.
The question. The framing. The assumptions. The alternatives. The evidence. The constraints. The incentives. The comparison set. The uncertainty. The absent questions.
The examination
IHSAN examines the relevant materials, reasoning and context; speaks confidentially with the people necessary to understand the environment; and identifies what deserves reconsideration before commitment.
Scope, participation, information access and communication protocols are agreed for the matter. A Decision Examination typically takes about twelve weeks, depending on document delivery and interview availability.
Where the work ends
At examination. No strategy formulation, implementation, resulting procurement, success fees or referral fees. No compensation tied to what you decide or how it is carried out.
The written memorandum is followed by a sixty-minute private conversation. It is a conversation, not a presentation; the memorandum is not re-read.
A smaller question
Not every question needs the same scope. A Decision Review examines one bounded question. A Decision Briefing brings the decision-makers into a focused examination with a written record. The appropriate scope is agreed privately.
Further examinations
Another Examination addresses a distinct decision. Connected Environments examines linked decisions whose assumptions, authority, timing or consequences affect one another. A separately agreed quarterly Standing Mandate provides for defined examinations over time, decision by decision.
Several departments in a room do not necessarily mean several decision environments. The question is how their decisions shape one another, and in what sequence. The boundary stays the same: examination only. Nothing follows automatically.