In a friendly acquisition, Stephanie Lischke has purchased Franklin & White, a trusted partner for assessment management services serving executive coaches, leadership consultants, organizational learning and development professionals and university executive programs around the world.
This comes at a time when assessment use is increasing, and, at the same time, the variety of instruments is greatly expanding.
“There is a flood of new assessments in the market requiring users to be more discriminating,” said Lischke. “More and more, clients are looking to Franklin & White for review and recommendations that are ‘assessment agnostic,’ in addition to managing their assessment process.”
Lischke has plans to strategically add more products and services that will include project management for learning and development initiatives, materials design and a broader range of assessments and assessment-related services. Franklin & White has already expanded its staff to support new offerings.
Franklin & White was founded in 1995 by Bobbin Franklin and Katie White. Lischke has been a client of the firm for decades and is herself an expert on assessment for development. She will maintain the current Franklin & White name—at least for the near future—as well as the structure and core service offerings.
“Katie and Bobbin recognized an important need for assessment management that was independent of any assessment publishers, so they could support clients objectively,” said Lischke. “I’m excited to be part of the organization for its next phase, and am thrilled that all previous employees are staying, and that we’ve already added some great new hires to the mix.”
Lischke has decades of experience in the leadership development field, as a long-time senior faculty at Center for Creative Leadership, as well as a consultant and executive coach. Additionally, she has been a long been a client of Franklin & White which led to a natural decision to collaborate with Franklin and White on a very friendly acquisition.
“Franklin & White distinguished itself over the years as the premier source for assessment scoring, processing and management,” said Lischke. “The brand has long been widely recognized in the leadership development industry for precision and ease of doing business.”
Lischke is also pleased they the original founders are so supportive and are remaining helpfully involved as the organization transitions.
“Katie and Bobbin recognized an important need and created a great organization to fill it,” said Lischke. “I’m excited to be part of the organization for its next phase, and am thrilled that all previous employees are staying, and that we’ve already added some great new hires to the mix!”
Lischke recently hired Rachael Foy to manage the organization’s daily operations, and is focusing her own efforts on strategically planning for the organization’s future. She has plans for Franklin & White to continue its strong legacy of serving critical assessment-related functions, while also expanding into new products and new services that serve consultants, executive education groups, and companies’ L&D functions even more strongly. She plans to continue her own independent consulting practice, Positive Developments, as a separate business.
Lischke is also the founder and principal of Positive Developments, a global consulting firm focusing on helping organizations strengthen their competitive advantage by growing and maximizing human talent. Her experience includes serving as vice president of leadership and organizational effectiveness for a large, global advisory firm and 15 years of experience at the Center for Creative. Lischke currently serves as an independent contractor/adjunct faculty for several executive development firms. She is a frequent speaker at conferences on topics of leadership, leaders-as-coaches, strategic leadership and is a subject matter expert in assessment and development.