Decision Examination

Examine the decision before committing to it.

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.

Timing

When to commission an examination.

A Decision Examination is appropriate when the consequences of being wrong materially exceed the cost of examining the decision again.

When substantial capital is at stake.

When institutional direction may change.

When the decision is difficult to reverse.

When consensus has formed unusually quickly.

When competing advisers have economic interests in the outcome.

When the available alternatives appear narrower than they should.

When the decision has been discussed extensively but something remains unresolved.

Or simply when the consequence deserves another way of seeing.

Scope

What we examine.

Every examination is specific to the decision. Depending on the situation, IHSAN may examine:

The question.What decision is actually being made?

The framing.How did the situation come to be understood this way?

The assumptions.What must be true for the present reasoning to hold?

The alternatives.What was considered, dismissed, or never surfaced?

The evidence.What information is carrying the decision—and what information is absent?

The constraints.Which limitations are real, and which have merely become accepted?

The incentives.Who benefits, directly or indirectly, from particular interpretations or outcomes?

The comparison set.Which precedents and reference points are defining what appears possible?

The uncertainty.What remains unknown, despite being discussed as though it were settled?

The absent questions.What is no longer being asked?

Process

The examination.

IHSAN begins with the decision as it currently exists. We examine relevant materials, reasoning, assumptions and context; speak confidentially with the people necessary to understand the environment; test the structure surrounding the decision; and identify what deserves reconsideration before commitment.

The process is deliberately bespoke. We do not publish a standardized formula for consequential judgment.

The decision remains yours.

Boundaries

Where our work ends.

At the examination. IHSAN will not formulate the resulting strategy. We will not implement it. We will not participate in procurement resulting from it. We will not accept success fees, referral fees, or any compensation tied to what you decide or how it is carried out. Any further examination is a separate engagement, commissioned only at your request.

That boundary is not a limitation of the engagement. It is one of its principal features.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality.

Consequential decisions frequently involve information that should remain private. Engagements are conducted discreetly. Scope, participation, information access, documentation and communication protocols are established according to the requirements of the principal and the matter under examination.

Engagement

Engagement.

IHSAN accepts a limited number of Decision Examinations. Scope and investment reflect the consequence, complexity, access requirements and demands of the examination.

Decision Examinations begin at USD 50,000. The scope and fixed fee are agreed privately before the engagement begins.

Following an initial Decision Examination, you may commission a further examination, or IHSAN may establish a Standing Examination Mandate for institutions requiring continuing access. Each is separate and optional, with its own scope and terms agreed privately. Neither is a condition of the initial examination, and neither carries a share in what you decide or earn.

A Decision Examination typically takes about twelve weeks, depending on when documents are delivered and when interviews can be scheduled.

Discuss an examination.

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