Several preparation steps, ranging from pre retreat interviews to simple are essential, Most important is for the consultants to perform a preliminary analysis of the company situation facing the participants. We hold views via the Internet with each attendee before the Web and e-mail permit a faster and less expensive way to interview each person We send an e-mail message in advance to participants asking each to report his or her opinions about the firm's strengths, weaknesses opportunities, and threats (SWOT) on one page, placing three to five bullet points under each category. We assure complete anonymity and receive responses directly by e-mail. Next we identify the patterns running across all the SWOT responses, which typically indicate a lot of agreement (the Web-based results just as valid as those obtained from personal interviews). Then we use our SWOT summary to kick off the first retreat, where we ask the group whether our analysis of their responses represents an accurate picture of the company's current situation this step facilitates a fast current This starting foundation to build on and reduces the probability of later disagreements about the state of the company