WzW-The Strategy of Preeminence in Action

Business Breakthrough Webcast Series™

The Strategy of Preeminence – Finding the Inflection Points in Your Business

By Jay Abraham & Carlos Dias

Toolkit #1 of 3

A unique coaching program that answers – in clear, specific and often life-changing detail – the question:

What exactly does it take, step-by-step, to achieve greatness and sustainable profitable growth in a fast-moving world?

The Strategy of Preeminence

© 2016, Executive Learning Systems, Inc. 1

“The premises we’re currently operating on in the workplace – about how we learn, think and work – are out of date. Several long-standing assumptions underpin existing approaches, and they don’t make sense in light of what’s coming out in new research. Learning leaders need to understand these shifts, and then realign what they do to accommodate this awareness”

LOOKING AT THE BIGGER PICTURE, ESSAY BY CLARK QUINN CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER MAGAZINE – JANUARY 2016 EDITION



Content

No business can afford to coast anymore. Today’s leaders need to adjust their vision so they can clearly see where their business is positioned today, where it needs to be, and how to get there.

This comprehensive, innovative program enables you to envision what “success” will look like and then chart the best path to achieve that success, especially during times of hyper-turbulent change.

There are 6 blocks in each Module/Toolkit. Here’s what is included in each one of them:

1 Jay Abraham and Carlos Dias Monthly Audio Recording

These monthly sessions (over 3-hours each) will answer questions submitted by participants before the event. Carlos & Jay will also email comments about particular case studies and other topics of interest.

2 eLearning

The program starts with individualized eLearning – 3 online modules/toolkits featuring audio, video, illustrations and charts – accessible on computer, laptop or iPad – conveniently packaged so each executive can gain the knowledge and business understanding to succeed in a fast-moving world – anywhere, anytime, in long sessions or short increments. Your learning is fully in your control.

3 Strategic Thinking Guidebooks

They were designed to add to the visual eLearning experience in a way that deepens understanding and provides real-world context. You’ll find key concepts and visuals from the eLearning, along with more examples, tips, and links to online tools. You’ll also find specific, carefully constructed strategic-process steps to work through with your Mastermind Group.

4 Mastermind Maps™: Learning by Doing the Right Things Right

They are an electronic version of posters that Jay and Carlos used with their clients, so they’re proven to get executive teams thinking divergently and creatively. You’ll use them to lead your Mastermind Group Alliance step-by-step through structured Strategic Thinking sessions. These electronic maps have been engineered for collaborative decision-



making, whether your group members are in the same room or on the other side of the world. Think about it! You can tap into the best minds in your business, without paying the price in travel costs and non-productive downtime! During each strategic thinking session, you’ll project or screen-share the electronic Maps; fill them out as a team; and then distribute a copy of your thinking so everyone has an accurate up-to-date record of your work. The Mastermind Maps™ prompt you to look at your business differently – to consult important data you previously overlooked, to consider critical metrics that you have previously had been unaware of, to ask the Socratic questions that you’d never before confronted. Client after client tells us, the Maps act as catalysts – energizing the group, sparking breakthrough ideas, and generating new growth-building strategies that propel your business to a new level of wealth and prosperity.

61 Instructional proprietary electronic Mastermind Maps™

Action Steps instructional videos

5 Jay & Carlos Virtual Mentoring Video Series™

Selecting and Facilitating the Mastermind Group

Breakeven Analysis and Contribution Margin

The Web Trend Watcher™ Step-by-Step

Getting Salespeople Onboard with Laser Sales

How to “Hack” a Cause-and-Effect Diagram

6 Predictive Scenario Builders for Your Business

These What-If Strategic Calculators™ are powerful tools that let you cut through the number fog, so you can test best-and-worst-case scenarios for different business models and competitive strategies. Available 24/7, they are engineered to be more user-friendly than spreadsheets. Use them on your own, use them with your Mastermind Group, you can even share them with your Board!



eLearning

Block 1 of 6 Understanding Vision

Goal: Give you a snapshot about a leader’s role in turbulent times, as well as the key concepts, paradigms, rules, and system thinking processes you need in order to determine exactly how your organization is doing – and, more importantly, where is headed.

● Carlos Dias – video intro

● Why your reliable old map showing where your organization had been and how far it could be expected to travel, can mislead you today

● Why, when you learn how to incorporate “unpredictability” as a key element that needs to be considered, your company becomes better able to navigate in changing waters

● Why we make decisions based on our paradigms, and why paradigms can become false and mislead us into making wrong strategic decisions

● Why “denial” has the potential to destroy your business

● How the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns operates in your business

● Why “new knowledge” makes it essential for everyone in an organization to periodically adjust their Vision

● How world economic turmoil affects your business

● Why it is more important to identify and eliminate “constraints” in your system than to solve “bottlenecks”

● The three essential core competencies your people need to master in turbulent times: Hindsight, Foresight, and Insight

● Why and how to broaden your strategic thinking with Mastermind Group Alliances operating at all levels in your organization

● Why “thinking divergently” is a critical skill in turbulent times

● A few words from Jay Abraham



Block 2 of 6 Preparing Data

Goal: Learn how to identify the key metrics and data that will give you the “true picture” of how your business is performing. You will analyze, at a fundamental level, what is necessary for your business to create wealth (not only profits). You will also become familiar with the “Law of Exponential Growth”, how to determine your business’ sustainable growth rate, how to calculate Return on Strategic Effectiveness, and how to analyze your seven cash flow drivers.

You will be given access to What-If Scenario Online Calculators™ and other tools that will help you to clearly understand how your business really works.


● Why relying on the wrong metrics and the wrong data is like flying blind

● Introduction to The Wealth Creation Formula™ and Return on Strategic Effectiveness – ROSE, and the strategic implications of the relationship between the two

● You will be introduced to a What-If Scenario Online Calculator™ that enables you to diagnose and correct your business performance, and show you The Wealth Creation Formula™ in action

● Every business is looking for high growth. But many executives forget to consider how to finance that growth – and end up growing faster than their business can afford. You will learn to calculate the limit to “Sustainable Growth Rate”

● Introduction to your “7 Key Cash Flow Drivers”

● Why the idea that an organization should sacrifice sales margin for sales growth – or vice versa – can have harmful implications in your business. You will learn to calculate which is more valuable for your organization

● Why failing to take Breakeven Analysis and Contribution Margin into account is a cardinal error when most executives plan their business strategy

● What could be the impact of “price change” on your profits (many executives fear that their business will lose customers and gross profits will fall if prices are raised; actually, a price increase usually raises gross profit, all things being equal)




Block 3 of 6 Tracking Trends that are Shaping Your Business

Goal: In hyper-turbulent times, you can no longer assume that the future will be merely an extension of the past. You need a way to envision the future before it arrives, and then leverage that future to your benefit for maximum competitive advantage. In this block, you will learn to use our proprietary tool, the Web Trend-Watcher™, to scan for and prioritize the key trends that will affect your business over the next 3-5 years.


● Viewing your business using the Web Trend-Watcher™

● How and why the Law of Unintended Consequences continuously affects your business

● How to use an effective “Crap Detector” to determine the reliability of the incoming business data and information you get every day

● How to differentiate between a “dubious assumption” and a “factual assumption”

● How to scan the trends and breakthroughs likely to change your business in the next 3-5 years

● The importance of Mastermind Groups when using the Web Trend-Watcher™

● Scanning and identifying the opportunities and threats around you

● Putting it all together: After the scanning exercises (learning-by-doing) you will have identified 30 - 60 key trends that could shape the future of your business over the next 3 years. Some of these trends are opportunities, others are threats, and some could be the basis for breakthrough ideas. You will learn to identify and prioritize these breakthrough ideas. You will begin by scoring these trends, then selecting the high-impact opportunities and threats




Block 4 of 6 Identifying Internal Causes of Your Actual Performance

Goal: Learn how to avoid dysfunctional growth strategies and escape from the mental traps that can sabotage your organization. You will learn processes that help you see your business’ strengths and weaknesses accurately, so you can pinpoint what is stopping you from reaching full potential. Using What-If Scenario Online Calculators™, you will learn how to test out different scenarios to select your best path forward, and how to determine the optimal, sustainable sales growth rate for your organization.


● How (and why) to know if your growth is healthy, and about “the growth illusion”

● What Mental Models are, and their “mental traps” (denial and self-doubt)

● How to identify internal causes to your actual performance

● How to strategically apply the concept of Laser Sales to exponentially grow sales and profits

● How to leverage the concept of Customer Life-Time Value to keep your clients for life

● Assess how your actual Business Vision works, then apply the concept of Business Backbone to create focus and effectiveness

● Apply the Factor 16 Principle to put less of your energy in, yet get better results

● How Gast’s Laws of Business Success can be applied to your organization

● Applying the Business Ecosystem Principle to your organization

● The harmful consequences of benchmarking

● The vital organs of your Business “Body”

● Testing the 6 components of profitable growth in your business




Block 5 of 6 Discovering What is Behind the External Causes that Could Affect Your Future

Goal: Compare your organization against key competitors, so you can foresee competitive threats and opportunities. You will also learn how to look for outside events that could impact your organization’s future, for better or worse.


● What really makes your competitor strong compared to critical key areas

● Discovering what is behind the external causes that could affect your future

● What future events may present a danger to your organization




Block 6 of 6 Identifying the Key Strategies that Will Lead to Success

Goal: Learn how to “Adjust Your Vision” by taking a clear-eyed, metric-driven view of your current performance. Identify the trends that are more likely to be shaping your organization’s future, and assess the organizational strengths and weaknesses, both internal and external, that must be leveraged to maximize your potential for success. Now is the time for you and your Mastermind Group to put all of that data and thinking together, to clearly see the 10 to 12 key strategic issues you will need to focus upon, for your business to profitably grow and thrive in turbulent times.


● Why and how to find the “Wave of Opportunities” for your business

● Identifying the key strategies that will lead to success

● Understanding why your organization behaves as it does

● Hacking the causes and effects

● Understanding the SWOTS (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) in your business ecosystem

● The concept of “windfall profits”, how it works, and how you can apply it in your business

● Understanding where your organization is going and why

● Leveraging the advantage of the “Power of Momentum”

● Why and how Mastermind Groups will make your people unstoppable

● How to transform your vision into true reality

● The two qualities of leadership that affect your ability to lead; the power of leadership self-assessment

● How much of your business is Friction, and how Friction is related to wealth creation

● How to defeat Friction in your organization

● How much of your “Intellectual Capital Base” you are currently using, and learning to capitalize on it

● If inflation rises, can your business keep up? Learn from Carlos’ experiences in managing during times of hyperinflation in the 70s and 80s in Latin America




Mastermind Maps™: Learning by Doing the Right Things Right

Block 1 of 6 Setting Expectations

2 Mastermind Maps™ (electronic posters) are used in this block

Activity 1 Setting expectations for adjusting your vision

Brainstorm a list of expectations for what you want to achieve; conduct a full business scan using the Adjusting Your Vision process – Toolkit #1 of 6

Activity 2 Setting expectations for your Mastermind Group – and for you as its leader

Working with a Mastermind Group allows you to see your business from new perspectives, leveraging hindsight/insight/foresight and setting the stage for divergent thinking. Lead a discussion about your expectations of the Mastermind Group participants, and their expectations of you. Document your mastermind group’s findings on the Mastermind Map™.



Block 2 of 6 Preparing Data


Activity 1 Return on Strategic Effectiveness (ROSE)

Now it is your turn to Adjust Your Vision by focusing on the key metrics that can tell you how your business is performing financially today, help you troubleshoot potential problems, and help you find new perspectives on how to address those problems. Explore the Return on Strategic Effectiveness Calculator™.

Activity 2 Prepare key marketing data

You will need certain marketing data as you Adjust Your Vision. Like the financial data, it is important to have the marketing data available on Mastermind Maps™, so it can be used in your group discussions. You will compile data for: Clients/Contribution to Sales, Products/Contribution to Sales, and Geographic Areas/Contribution to Sales.



Block 3 of 6 Selecting the Opportunities, Threats, and Breakthroughs that Have the Potential to Impact Your Business


Activity 1 Working with your Mastermind Group, scan for trends in the Customer, Market, and Social Scan area of the Web TrendWatcher™

Ask each of the “6 Questions to Identify Opportunities Around You”. Brainstorm your findings, consolidate them, and enter on your Mastermind Map™.

Activity 2 Scan for trends in each of the other 5 trend areas, one area at a time

Follow a similar process as in Activity 1.

Activity3 Score and prioritize trends you collected in your scanning sessions

A total of 30 - 60 trends should be collected across all of the scanning sessions. Some will be threats or opportunities. Others could be the basis for breakthrough innovative ideas. These activities will help you to prioritize your ideas so you can choose the ones to pursue. Differentiate between trends that will have high/low importance and high/low probability of happening in your business. Determine if each is an opportunity, a threat, or a breakthrough.

Activity 4 Select the opportunities, threats, and breakthroughs that have the greatest potential to impact your business

Refine and consolidate the threats and opportunities. Identify those with the greatest potential for a breakthrough innovative idea.



Block 4 of 6 Identifying Internal Causes of Your Actual Performance


Activity 1 Audit your 7 cash flow drivers

Review the Cash Flow Drivers data you collected in Block 2, and update your findings. Use the Cash Flow Strategic Calculator™ to determine or re-evaluate your Cash Flow Drivers. Update your findings using the Return on Strategic Effectiveness (ROSE) Mastermind Map™

Activity 2 Audit your sustainable growth

Document each of the components that contribute to the rate at which you can sustainably finance your organization’s growth.

Activity 3 Audit your customer full-profit potential

Explore and document the full profit potential of your top customers, and calculate 3 different potential futures for your organization.

Activity 4 Audit your Business Backbone, including key indicators that lead to success and to failure

Identify the ways in which your current strategy is succeeding, and the ways in which it is failing, in relation to each of the key elements that make up and support your competitive business strategy.

Activity 5 Audit your actual vision

Evaluate the vision and values under which your organization currently operates.



Activity 6 Test the 6 components of profitable growth

Assess where your organization stands in relation the 6 components of profitable growth.

Activity 7 Identify internal strengths and opportunities, as well as internal weaknesses and vulnerabilities

Tie all your findings together and document your key areas of strength and vulnerability.



Block 5 of 6 Discovering What Is Behind The External Causes That Could Affect Your Future


Activity 1 Analyze your competitors

Analyze and document your key competitors to pinpoint specific threats and opportunities they present to your organization.

For your targeted customers, enter any/all factors that make each selected competitor more attractive than you in the eyes of your targeted customers. Repeat the analysis for your Products and Services, Targeted Geographic Markets, Strategic Moves (e.g., Speed), People, Organization, and Finances.

Activity 2 Discover what is behind the external causes that could affect your future

Develop a list of the potential future events that may possibly present a danger to your organization. Rate and rank the probability and potential impact of each.

Activity 3 Strategize about external causes that could affect your future

List potentially dangerous external cause scenarios.

Brainstorm and list the potential causes, potential consequences or effects for your organization, and possible solutions for each scenario or event.



Block 6 of 6 Identifying the Key Strategies that Will Lead to Success


Activity 1 Determine why your organization behaves as it does today

What effects – both seeable and foreseeable – make your organization behave as it does today? Document your results

Activity 2 Determine what is causing the effects you have listed

Create a cause-and-effect diagram for each effect.

You may wish to view the Virtual Mentoring Series™ session (webinar) #01-05A: How to “Hack” a Cause-and-Effect Diagram for tips on how to conduct your discussion, as well as tips for how to use the “Hacking” technique to leverage your group’s ideas in a new way.

Activity 3 Identify the SWOTs in each element of your business ecosystem

Discuss this question: What are the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOTS) in each area of your Business Ecosystem?

Activity 4 Discuss these questions: For each area of our business ecosystem, what is the best case scenario we can hope for over the next three years? What is the worst case scenario that could occur?

Look back at the previous activities in this block to help you prepare for this discussion.

Activity 5 Determine the major strategic issues you face in your business

Discuss this question: What are the major, critical strategic issues we face in our business over the next two to three years? A “critical” issue is one that is so strategically important that your organization’s future depends on it. Document and prioritize your results.



Activity 6 Transform each of the critical strategic issues into an actionable strategic plan

Select the 10-12 key strategic issues and create a plan for moving forward. Then create a Strategic Vision that will guide your organization through its transformation.

For each issue, identify the ideal final result you want to achieve, a leader, the steps to reach the ideal final result, a final date, and schedule.

Activity 7 Outline the strategic vision for your organization

Create and document a shared statement of your strategic vision, purpose, core values, principles, and beliefs.



Predictive Scenario Builders for Your Business: What-If Scenario Calculators™

What-If Strategic Calculators™ used in Module 1

Our proprietary online calculators have been designed to work individually or in combination, to analyze different scenarios leading to strategic conclusions. For best results, use them in conjunction with the step-by-step Learning by Doing™ strategic-thinking framework of processes and tools found in the eLearning programs and related leadership materials we offer to our clients.

● Cash Flow Strategic Calculator™

● Compound Annual Growth Rate Strategic Calculator™

● Laser Sales Strategic Calculator™ — Only 3 Ways to Grow Any Business

● Customer Lifetime Value Strategic Calculator™ — The Most Important Business Metric: It tells you what each client is worth and how much you can invest to get an identical client. Knowing this key data has the power to create an incredible edge

● Return on Strategic Effectiveness (ROSE) Calculator™ — The New Way to Measure What Really Counts in a Fast-Moving World

● Price Change Strategic Calculator™ — Knowing How to Determine (Instantly) Your Best Strategy: Cut or Increase Your Price (the result will surprise you)

● Assets Velocity Strategic Calculator™

Documents

WzW-The Strategy of Preeminence in Action