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How to improve your business performance

What If Everything You Think You Know About Your Business Is Wrong

Are you a leader or a laggard?

Your business…

It's not just a mechanism for generating commerce.

It’s your ultimate asset… the quintessential creator of wealth for you and your stakeholders.

Yet many laggard CEOs allow their businesses to severely underachieve their market opportunity.

But just look around – and look honestly. You'll find a select group of leader CEOs who are outperforming the rest.

It's the same economy for them, so why are they creating off-the-chart growth, while you’re in the doldrums?

Get your answers in this video series. Sign up here

The question of pricing is once central to the discussion of forecasting and planning for profitability.  Old wisdom says lowering prices will increase our customer base and more than offset the lower margins on our new prices, giving us a new competitive advantage over our competition…

But is this assumption correct in fast-moving, turbulent times?

In today’s video (see the end of this blog entry), I will answer that question by giving you the exact tools you need to assess how changing prices will impact your business’s true profitability.

 As you watch the video, you will discover

• The 4 strategies every CEO must understand clearly and focus on in order to succeed in today’s fast-moving and complex world.
• How lack of clarity and focus can create a downward spiral in your business and erode your confidence as a decision maker
• The steps to identify whether your company lacks sufficient strategic focus.
• Why updating your “mental models” is the key to your future success.
• Whether you should raise or lower your prices to improve your business profitability

Whether you should raise or lower your prices is directly attributed to your company’s strategic competitive position in your market. 

In this video, I introduce three critical What-if Predictive Scenario Calculators to give you the strategic focus you need to determine the answer to this crucial question of whether to raise or lower prices.

First I introduce the “Should Prices be Raised or Lowered Calculator” which clearly calculates the number of new customers necessary to offset a price decrease and the number of customers who can be sacrificed in a price increase to keep gross margin dollars consistent. 

Second, I introduce the “Customer Contribution Calculator” which provides you clarity on which customers you should be focusing on growing, and which are sucking your profits. 

Third, I introduce a calculator to actually calculate your value proposition in your market, and assess your real strategic competitive position.

To ensure you have the clarity, focus, and execution to make the right strategic decisions for you and your customers during these fast-moving times, I invite you to watch this video. 

You will learn more about which decisions to make based on your assessments when you join my e-learning by doing programs.  You can schedule an appointment for a consultation and discussion of which program is right for your business when you contact us using the form below.

Today, I bring you one of the most powerful tools I use to help CEOs leverage their assets and to create sustained and profitable sales growth. 

If there is one thing I have learned over and over in my career advising hundreds of powerful CEOs and leaders, it is that companies do NOT get killed by their competition.  They usually commit suicide by lack of true business understanding. 

Today’s video will show you exactly what you may be missing when you focus on certain business ratios in the wrong level of details and will open your eyes to new ways to view your business and grow your profits. 

As you go through the video and use my What-If Strategic Calculator ™  The Wealth Creation Formula, you will discover

• The major driver of sales and profits you almost assuredly are forgetting to include in your strategic planning for profitable growth.
• The best indicator of efficiency with which a company is deploying its assets and generating sales.
• Your most useful and underutilized component in your return on assets (ROA) calculation.
• The main reason lowering costs is precisely the wrong method for improving margin and what to focus on instead.
• The power of the Wealth Creation Formula and how to use each component to make critical, strategic decisions for your business.
• The best indicator to determine immediately whether your business is in wealth destruction or wealth creation mode.
• The reason a CEO must look at all components of the ROA calculation if they want to succeed in true wealth creation.
• How the ROA calculation provides management with new ways to connect and grow sales and profits, and why most CEOs miss the crucial connections.
• The only 3 ways to grow a business.

My programs, tools, and calculators provide you a new view of your business, giving you exactly the insight and strategies you need so you can take advantage of risks inherent in a fast-moving economy before your competitors. 

The Wealth Creation Planning Calculator leverages the 4 major business drivers - Asset Velocity, Return on Assets, Laser Sales Formula, and Operating Cash Flow to provide the clarity, focus, and execution necessary to become a high achieving CEO in these turbulent times.

Now I invite you to access the Wealth Creation Planning Calculator by registering at this link (our LMS) and enter in the how did you find out about us field the word "wealth blog".  We will give you 30 days of access to the Wealth Creation Planning Calculator course.  In this course, you can follow along with the video as I explain how to use the Wealth Creation Planning Calculator in your business.

If you wish to see the video, you can watch it below, and learn how the calculator can work to provide new and more effective direction to your profitable growth strategies.

As the CEO of a corporate business, you are paid to think.  The success or failure of your company lies in your wisdom, experience, and ability to think deeply and strategically about your business now and in the future.

Back in the 80s and 90s, CEOs enjoyed a more consistent and predictable business environment.  The way to profitability was simply to do more of what was working well (and profitable) and do less of what was not.  Prior year results were a reliable indicator of future year performance.  Strategy could be developed using simple scenarios and calculations.  Cost savings or price increases were simple and easy ways to manage profits. 

Today’s business environment is radically different.  New businesses and entrepreneurs enjoy the ease of entry into even the most complex markets thanks to fast-moving technological advances.  Not only that, the lack of capital overhead allows these newer businesses to move more quickly to meet customer needs than ever before. 

Customers too have lost loyalty.  With more access to information and friend referrals than ever before, customers will easily move toward the business providing the best solution for their needs in the moment...and customer service can make or break a company as referrals and positive and negative press spread more quickly through social media.

In today’s turbulent times, you can only succeed if you are a CEO who can see the unseen, identify opportunities hiding from view, and focus on strategy rather than becoming sidetracked in the minutia of daily meetings and procedural distractions. 

In today’s video, I share ways you can take the time and learn to be a CEO who sees around corners, see the unseen, and take advantage of your creative strategic thinking to create sustained profitable growth for your corporation.

A short video explaining how to achieve the best return on strategic effectiveness

This is the third video in a series inviting you to experience a few of the Predictive Scenario Builders, known as What-If Strategic Calculators ™, I use with my clients to create meaningful strategic change and sustainable profitable growth in their corporate family businesses. 

These tools are proven to change the conversation and strategic focus of businesses I work with and improve all aspects of the business.  You can view the first and second tools here and here.

Return on Strategic Effectiveness

As a practical business advisor and former CEO, my role is to empower my clients to notice key data and to think strategically, about how your business can attain sustainable, profitable growth in these complex, turbulent times. 

A business understanding of the core elements of your business and their interconnectivity is critical.

I often start by asking my clients, “What is the Achilles heel of your business?”  Always, my clients initially respond with complaints about slow sales growth, declining cash flow, or lack of talent.  These answers prove to me the CEOs are not asking the right questions or looking at the right metrics as they make decisions in their business. 

Why?

Because cash flow, revenue growth, and lack of a talented workforce are RESULTS...not causes.  And when pressed further, the CEOs I speak with are often stunned to discover they have no idea of the causes for their dismal performance. 

How can a CEO create a thriving corporation in turbulent times when they are not certain of the levers to pull in their business to right the ship?

The Return on Strategic Effectiveness Calculator

The Return on Strategic Effectiveness Calculator is an extremely powerful tool for CEOs to identify precisely where their company is struggling and where to deploy financial and intellectual assets to create the most impactful, growth-generating results. 

The calculator considers each of the three determining factors of long-term sustainable profitable growth :

1. The drivers of cash flow
2. The components of growth
3. The three components of sustainable growth (the laser sales formula)

 ONLY #3 - the components of sustainable growth are causes.  The rest (the cash flow and the components of growth) are effects of sustainable growth.

 In this video, I will walk through the components of cash flow, growth, and sustainable growth, and give you examples of how one strategic change can impact the key metrics of your business. 

 You will understand the power of compounded average growth rate (CAGR) vs. average growth rate...and why using CAGR to monitor your business outcome can help you to identify hidden issues within your business. 

You will learn the power of the Laser Sales Formula on cash flow and growth.

The following video and attached calculator demonstrates how each input in the Return on Strategic Effectiveness calculation can change the profitability of the business, and how the model allows for a CEO to make impactful strategic decisions with far less risk...because they are asking the exact right questions.

A business understanding of the core elements is critical in fast-moving, turbulent times.  CEOs must understand how to connect the dots in their business so they can quickly identify weak areas in the business and customer relationships and beat out the competition.

Now I invite you to access the Return on Strategic Effectiveness What-If Calculator ™ by registering at this link (our LMS) and enter in the how did you find out about us field the word "rose blog".  We will give you 30 days of access to the Return on Strategic Effectiveness What-If Calculator ™ course.  In this course, you can follow along with the video as I explain how to use the Return on Strategic Effectiveness What-If Calculator ™ in your business.

If you wish to see the video, you can watch it below (Return on Strategic Effectiveness - ROSE The Harsh Reality of What is Really Unfolding in Your Business).

“Z-Chart” Scenario Builder Calculator

Discover Your Real Path to Sales and Profit Growth, and

Identify New Possibilities To Reach Your Goals

This is the second video in a series inviting you to experience a few of the Predictive Scenario Builders, known as What-If Strategic Calculators ™, I use with my clients to create meaningful strategic change and sustainable profitable growth in their corporate family businesses. 

These tools are proven to change the conversation and strategic focus of businesses I work with and improve all aspects of the business.  You can view the first video and access the first tool introduced in this series, The Customer Retention Calculator, at this link.

The Z-Chart

Today I am introducing you to the powerful Sales Growth and Forecasting Calculator known as the “Z-Chart.”

In today’s fast moving and ever changing business landscape, CEO’s must pay careful and more detailed attention to sales, profits and cash flow than ever before.  After all, CEO’s are responsible for the ultimate success or failure of their organization. 

To set strategic direction, CEOs must truly understand the influences external to their organization so they can determine the appropriate allocation of human and financial resources inside the organization.  Only then can CEOs truly make the crucial strategic decisions of what business they are in, should be in, should not be in, and the timeframe to make the necessary and impactful pivots in the strategic direction necessary for their business to thrive.

Your People Pay Attention to What You Pay Attention To

In this competitive age of employee attraction and retention, CEO engagement in the real matters of the business keeps employees engaged.  A CEO who cares creates a corporate culture which cares.   Your focus becomes their focus.

Can you see why now, more than ever, your corporate success is dependent on you knowing the key metrics impacting your growth, and leveraging your experience and powerful position in your business to help steer toward the most impactful changes?

I created the Z-Chart to be an early warning system for CEO’s and their management teams so they can quickly identify where you are relative to your forecasts.  The Z-Chart serves as an early warning system so you, as CEO, can quickly identify changing trends before your competition, and a tool to use when assessing what adjustments in strategy will have the greatest impact toward your performance goals.

In today’s video, you will discover

1. Why the contribution margin is critical to a CEO’s success
2. The 3 concepts addressed by the Z-Chart to create a competitive advantage for any company using it to monitor their performance
3. How to use the Z-chart to quickly identify your performance relative to your forecasts, and the strategies you can employ right away to “right your ship” and meet your goals...even if you are far into the year.

Now I invite you to access the Z-Chart by registering at this link (our LMS) and enter in the how did you about us field the word "blog".  We will give you 30 days of access to the Forecasting your Sales Using the Z-Chart course.  In this course, you can follow along with the video as I explain how to use the Z-Chart in your business.

If you wish to see the video, you can watch it below (Forecasting your Sales with the Z-Chart).

Every existing corporate business today has a vast array of systems and processes in place to manage and control daily operations.  Very few businesses have systems and processes in place to drive strategic thinking.

Yet, in a non-linear and fast changing business environment, Strategic Thinking Processes are the only means of creating sustainable and profitable growth.

Strategic Thinking Processes --->  The Solution to Friction In Turbulent Times

Companies are constantly experiencing all types of friction from competition, vendors, employees, customers, the government, etc.  Like a bike rider struggling against a headwind, the friction becomes far greater in turbulent times.  Companies relying heavily on the typical operational processes alone experience slow progress, difficulty with adaptation to changes, and, if left unattended, failure of the business. 

In this video, I will show you how to focus your energy on Strategic Thinking Processes, and how to effectively and experience continuous improvement in the utilization of your company’s greatest assets: Intellectual Assets.

Most companies only use about 20% of the capacity of their intellectual assets, largely because these assets are not “valued” on the company’s balance sheet and thus, often remain untracked. 

Yet, intellectual assets are your company’s most important asset.  The ability to leverage the skills of each individual to overcome obstacles, create innovative solutions for customers, and to strategically discover ways to overcome friction in the business environment is the most critical element for your sustainable profitable growth in turbulent times.

The Key To Unlocking Millions of Dollars of Hidden Wealth In Your Business Has Arrived

I developed The Strategic Wealth Creator System to help you and your Mastermind Group Alliance* focus your energy and intellectual assets on answering the right questions and making the right decisions for your business success.

No matter what the size or industry of your business, my system and programs provide the tools and frameworks to help you ask the right questions and measure the success of the 6 key Strategic Thinking Processes:

1. Adjusting Your Vision
2. Creating and Delivering Distinctive Customer Value Proposition
3. Crafting a Distinctive business Model and Competitive Strategy
4. Developing and Implementing and Evaluating Sales and Marketing Strategy
5. Creating Revolutionary New Products and Services
6. Building a Performance Culture

How do my powerful and practical tools help you build strategic abilities and get out ahead of the market?  I invite you to watch this video to learn more.

*For more information on the Mastermind Group Alliance contact us at carlosd@carlosdias.com.

How to measure the impact of customer retention and satisfaction on your business so you can maximize profitable and sustainable wealth.

The vast majority of senior executives and corporate leaders are making a dire error when measuring the happiness of their customers.  They focus on worthless customer surveys and on new client acquisition to measure their ability to serve customer needs, rather than focusing on the most important measure of customer satisfaction: Customer Retention.

Improving your customer retention rate is quite simply the fastest and easiest way to create a massive positive impact on your profitability.  Customer retention gives you two critical pieces of data for analyzing your business:

1. It tells you precisely how good you are at understanding what customers need and delivering customer value. 
2. It provides you the input necessary to calculate the average customer lifetime of your customer, which in turn, allows you to calculate net new customer growth, lost revenue from customer attrition, and how much new revenue you can create by focusing on customer retention improvement.

In this video, I demonstrate and explain these concepts more fully...and provide you with step by step instruction for using my Customer Retention Rate What-if Strategic Growth Calculator™.    When you use the calculator, you will discover the three-step system for analyzing your ability to create and deliver the value your customer base is looking for.

Understanding your customer retention rate, average lifetime customer value, and the levers you can pull to create more revenue from existing customers can secure your business growth and profitability during these fast moving, non-linear times.

Consider the difference between Blackberry and Apple. 

Blackberry was a powerhouse of the early 2000’s when they came out with a handheld device with a QWERTY keyboard and easy access to email.  However, as smarter and smarter phones became the norm, Blackberry focused on maintaining its leadership with corporate clients, rather than risky innovation.

By focusing on the wrong questions about customer satisfaction (that of the corporations and not the users), Blackberry did not notice the lifetime of a customer was declining.  The company simply did not realize how many customers were falling off...and how much more quickly they were moving toward smartphones.  Even the corporate clients, which were Blackberry’s bread and butter, began to buy iPhone as employees demanded the latest technology.   As iPhones introduced apps that allowed employees to access any email service, fast search, and even windows programs, corporations began to change their buying habits as well.

Because of the focus of Blackberry on maintaining the status quo, they did not realize they were leaking customers at a very high rate...as Apple focused on customer wants for sleek design, lightweight phones, color and touch screens and apps. 

As Blackberry shows us, managers and CEOs must first focus on client retention.  You must know how well you are serving your current clients before you focus on new customer acquisition.  Most corporations have this wrong…

The corporations focusing on client service and satisfaction, on pivoting quickly to meet client demand, and on providing clients the greatest experience dominate markets in fast-moving, non-linear times. 

In an era of social sharing, ease of consumer reviews, and fast-paced technological advances, customer happiness is even more profitable than ever before.  According to a 2016 Nielsen survey, 82% of Americans cite referrals as the #1 criteria when choosing a product or service to purchase. 

Customer Retention Rate is now more urgently important than ever. 

I invite you to access the Customer Retention Rate calculator here, watch the video as a guide on how to use the calculator and then use your own data to assess your company’s results.  

Once you complete the exercise with your team, I invite you to schedule a call with me to discuss your results and gain further insight as to how my advisory services can help you drastically improve your customer retention and profitability in these turbulent times.

(http://www.business2community.com/marketing/numbers-dont-lie-2016-nielsen-study-revealed-referrals-01477256#RrGBc8tzwfVrgW00.97) - link to study

In today’s video, I want to profoundly shift and permanently transform your thinking, actions and transactional focus as the CEO or Key Executive of your corporate family businesses. Why? Because we live in turbulent, complex and ever-changing times. Your core business, the financial asset that you and your family depend on to survive, may be hitting a wall you don’t even notice. 

Today, I will open your eyes to the new mirror for your business so you can see around corners and identify issues before they become serious threats to your business survival. The fundamental principle is to understand is that everything has changed and continues to change...yet most CEO’s have remained the same. Are you taking the advantage of opportunities the non-linear times generously provide you with, or, trapping your business in mediocrity, letting your competitors overrun you?

It is time to update your “Mental Operating System” as a CEO. No longer can you blame matters outside your immediate control for your under-performing business.  After all, some CEOs are thriving in this turbulent world. 

This video shares the fundamental principles and strategies to shift your strategic perspective, thus changing the direction of your company towards sustainable wealth and prosperity. 

We teach you which of the questions you ask about your business are no longer relevant and show you the right questions to ask to illuminate your path towards riding the wave of opportunity in this new world.   You will find out what thinking must be avoided...the thinking that drove companies like HP, Dell, Blackberry, and Kodak… to their demise.  I have experience leading or advising executive leadership teams in many industries, to build their own organizational success stories. There IS a certain pattern in the stories of these companies. 

The patterns I teach you today led toward the development of The Wealth Creation Formula, and my e-learning by doing courses specifically designed to assist CEOs of corporate family businesses, and their management teams, to understand the new business environment, upgrade their strategic clarity and focus, and execute on plans to create sustainable profitable growth in turbulent times. 

As a CEO you carry a Vision of your family Business’s Future in your head… and in your heart.  But are you doing what is necessary to make that vision come true?

Most organizations are stuck in mediocrity mode. However, today’s world requires action.

WHAT action will you take? As mentioned before, as an advisor to global executive teams across many industries, I have found the universal patterns for success...the high leverage tools and techniques that executive teams use to create successful high-growth strategies in their organizations. What I’ve learned, I have systematized, to allow ordinary businesses - like yours - to achieve extraordinary results in a competitive world.  Find out everything you need to know about it, the principles, how-to’s and how to implement the system in your business, by watching the video below, and then contact us to schedule a consultation.

Video: What if Everything You Think You Know About Your Business is Wrong

If you are struggling to understand WHY your corporate family business has been performing sluggishly, today’s video is just for you to find the answers you need to start moving profitably.

After advising CEOs of hundreds of mid to large sized corporate family businesses, I have learned that there are 5 Harsh Realities causing your business to struggle.  Like it or not, these 5 Harsh Realities are changing the course of your business and creating new twists and turns, which slow down your business momentum and steal your profits.

The shocking thing is most CEOS actually refuse to face the reality, instead of living in denial as they spin stories for themselves, their Boards and their employees.

Have you ever spun a story like this when describing slowing sales and profits? ”It’s just a little disruption” ”We’ll be back to normal soon.”

“Things are even worse for our competitors.” Using those excuses is classic denial.  When you practice Denial as Corporate Family business CEO, you put your family’s legacy and future at risk. At 1:30 Carlos Dias reflects on his own experiences as CEO and thoughts on DENIAL. Quite logically, when you try to fold 2 Contradictory beliefs Simultaneously, not only it creates a dysfunction - it creates a crash.

It is pure science. When in Denial, Carlos explains, your mental processing capacity simply slows down. You are attempting to fold two contradictory beliefs into one truth, and it creates dysfunction in your business and in your own mind. 

Psychologists call this symptom “Cognitive Dissonance” and it causes you to become depressed, anxious and angry, affecting both your Business and your Personal life. In this video, I reveal precisely how to face and fix your denial with a step-by-step solution. As with all of the other tools and assets I’ve shared with you, the solution is not complicated once you make sure you are following the right principles.

Are you protesting in denial right now?  Are you thinking, “No, this isn’t me.  I mean, sure we have created some stories about declines in sales, and I do feel frustrated and unsure what next year will bring...or how to change it, but I can’t be in denial.” In my experience, If I tell a CEO that he or she is in denial of what actually has been happening in the business, most of them will first deny it.  The crucial thing is to understand, whether you would be denying the actual circumstances or not, the numbers don’t lie.   In this video, I will introduce you to the Reality Metric, a tool to help you to see whether you are running the business that is healthy or slowly destroying itself.

The fact is, o matter how hard you are working, no matter how many units you are selling - you might not be creating wealth in your business.  You might even be destroying it. Every tool I provide has proven itself 100%, time and again, through many years and many industries. The most beneficial aspect of the Reality Metric is that it is built on a powerful calculation showing you the real picture of your business so you can spot failures at just the right time to prevent a disastrous business meltdown. Using the Reality Metric, you can keep your business profitable even in the Turbulent, ever-changing times. You will be able to acquire the necessary mental tool-kit, using the flexible set of strategic thinking processes introduced throughout my work to prepare you to thrive in turbulent and complex times.

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