Latest News Archives: 2017/11

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.

“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).

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).

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.