Consulting
Strategic advisory for ecosystem builders. Program design, curriculum, and organizational capacity.
- Strategy & roadmap
- Curriculum design
- Capacity assessments
250,000+ entrepreneurs. 100+ countries. 500 cities. 6 continents. ISM helps businesses, institutions, and entrepreneurship ecosystems move forward with clarity, locally and worldwide.
International Strategic Management (ISM) is a leading U.S. advisory, capacity-building, and technical assistance firm working across the entrepreneurship and economic development arena. For twenty-three years, we've delivered customized training, mentorship, and program design for entrepreneurs and the organizations that support them, in 100+ countries and 500 cities across six continents.
ISM is known for its human-centered approach. We began small, as volunteers offering business training to minority and women entrepreneurs in our communities. After the H1N1 pandemic and the 2008 economic crash, we added consulting to larger entrepreneur support organizations. Since then we've grown to serve governments, foundations, universities, incubators, and accelerators worldwide, with a continued focus on underrepresented, underserved, and under-resourced communities.
Our expertise spans economic development, education, training, youth development, strategic partnership development, and workforce development. We work equally well with a corporation running an internal accelerator, a university launching an entrepreneurship program, a foundation deploying capital, and a government agency building policy that clears runway for its founders.
Faris Alami · Founder & CEO
From a stateless teen fleeing war to keynote speaker in 100+ countries, and founder of the firm that has trained a quarter-million entrepreneurs across six continents.
Faris founded ISM to do the work he wished had existed when he started: real mentorship, real strategy, real access. Twenty-three years later, that mission has taken him and the ISM team to more than a hundred countries and put ISM on the ground with USAID, the World Bank, the Kauffman Foundation, the U.S. Department of State, Monsha'at, and dozens of universities, embassies, and governments.
Faris has navigated a changing environment several times, including the H1N1 and Covid-19 pandemics and the 2008 economic crash, growing ISM's offerings each time. He is the author of The Power in 7 in Marketing, hosts the weekly Finjan Show video podcast, and launched the independent nonprofit Connecting Dots Globally to support youth entrepreneurship worldwide.
He speaks the languages of the boardroom, the classroom, and the incubator floor. Clients hire him when they need someone who can translate strategy across all three.
Twenty-three years ago, ISM started small in Troy, delivering business training to minority and women entrepreneurs across the Detroit community. Twenty-three years later, the practice reaches six continents while the office stays right here.
ISM's practice spans five interconnected pillars. Every engagement touches at least two.
All businesses are global.
A mindset and actions.
Leverage the knowledge.
Engage your community.
Productivity & automation.
Every engagement plugs into a delivery vector — the buyer, sponsor, or convener that carries the work into a real market. Six main vectors, each with a different rhythm and set of stakeholders.
Three ways ISM shows up. Each one plugs into any of the six delivery vectors, alone or in combination.
Strategic advisory for ecosystem builders. Program design, curriculum, and organizational capacity.
Multi-cohort learning journeys for founders at every stage. In-person, virtual, hybrid.
Short-form intensives on a specific capability. Ideal drop-ins for an existing program.
ISM serves two audiences with distinct needs: individual entrepreneurs and SME owners on one track, entrepreneur support organizations on the other. Every program is available in person, online, or hybrid, with an additional year of coaching.
Startups, scale-ups, entrepreneurs, business owners, business leaders.
Non-profits, incubators, accelerators, SME centers, innovation hubs, economic development agencies, universities, community colleges, K–12.
The gold-standard business-planning curriculum covering organizational structure, HR, operations, production and quality, finance and accounting, marketing, and sales. Licensed from the Kauffman Foundation and delivered by ISM worldwide.
Fully customizable program that prepares leaders to sustain their businesses through crises and beyond. Deployed with entrepreneur support organizations; now available via licensing so local facilitators can train the trainers. Active in 60+ countries.
Three-month coaching engagements tailored to the shape and stage of a business. Includes business planning, pitching support, mentorship on business challenges, milestone funding, growth planning, and brand creation. Startups through growth-stage.
For revenue-generating SMEs and startups preparing for debt or equity capital. Loan-package readiness, investor introductions through the Yallah Global Investor Portfolio, and the Art of Asking for Money curriculum.
One- and two-week U.S. tours that combine training and touring for international delegations. Delivered across Michigan, Washington D.C., Texas, and California, with reciprocal tours in Egypt, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, and beyond.
A fourteen-week program built for economic development leaders and entrepreneur support organizations. Equips participants with tools and best practices to support entrepreneurs and small businesses in their communities, particularly the underrepresented and marginalized.
For economic development agencies, governments, venture capital, incubators, angel groups, and chambers of commerce. ISM helps organizations understand the supports already in place and the resources worth pursuing to grow opportunities.
Custom programs to support small business owners scaling their enterprises, from one-on-one mentorship to supplier matches and export assistance. Designed with local partners and beneficiaries. Serves micro businesses through companies with 500 employees.
Numbers tracked across two decades of programs, mentoring, and capacity-building. Spans founder engagements, cohorts, coaching hours, ecosystem work, and country-level programs.
Programs across six continents.
I would recommend this program to anyone that has a business idea. Faris and the ISM team did a wonderful job guiding and supporting each entrepreneur as they unveiled their new businesses.
ISM provides outstanding business courses. I was most impressed with their courtesy, respect, and business curriculum, and ability to mentor new and developing entrepreneurs.
ISM has given me insight as a business owner, the answers you never thought you really needed but that are required to be successful. As if they had been part of the company since its founding.
It would be impossible to count all the ways that ISM helped me. The Resilient Entrepreneur Program helped me prepare and sustain my business activities during COVID and still now.
2003 → 2026. Scroll the milestones that took ISM from a small Detroit volunteer team to 250,000 entrepreneurs across 100 countries.
Small volunteer team, delivering business training to minority and women entrepreneurs across the Detroit community.
First engagements overseas. PR Champion Award. Global Trade Mission Award. Recognition from Automation Alley.
Youth Entrepreneurship and STEAM Global Trade Mission programs launch for high school and college students. Corp! Magazine Diversity Business Leader Award.
Incubation and acceleration management training launches. First engagements with U.S. federal agencies. Program design and best practices formalized for entrepreneur support organizations.
The signature Capacity Building Tour program launches. New training materials translated into multiple languages for international audiences.
ISM's first online course reaches 10,000 participants. Digital delivery becomes a formal part of the practice, alongside in-person programs.
Built for founders navigating COVID and beyond. Redesigned curriculum for online delivery. Active in 60+ countries. Multiple programs offered free of charge to the public.
100+ countries served. Connecting Dots Globally youth nonprofit launched. Finjan Show podcast begins. Global Entrepreneurship Week hosted in SE Michigan.
Resilient Entrepreneur Program offered via licensing to partner organizations. Creation of the ISM membership model. 20-Year Impact Report published.
Twenty-three years. 100+ countries. 500 cities. 200+ partner organizations. And the next decade already scoped.
ISM has delivered work with, for, or in partnership with more than 200 organizations across government, universities, foundations, business support, and NGOs. A selection below.






Whether you're launching a program, opening a market, or building the ecosystem around your founders, the fastest way in is to write.
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