Book a call with Carl J Cox
Book a call with Carl J Cox

Attention Business Owners!

Did you know that 90% of an Owner’s retirement is in their business and they are not getting the full value out of it?

40 Strategy™ reveals the risks that could be holding your business back, empowering you to maximize its value! We are deeply rooted in empowering businesses to achieve significant growth through strategic excellence. At our core, we revolve around designing and implementing world-class strategic plans that are not only visionary, but also help increase the value of your busines. Whether you want to maximize your business value to sell or to create a more secure future, we center ourselves on strategic clarity, actionable insights, and robust growth, making us key players in the field of business strategy and leadership.

Have you heard?

The 40 Strategy Growth Workshop is coming to Phoenix, Arizona on November 3rd and 4th, 2025! Spaces are limited. 

“Having the right partner(s) makes all the difference and having Carl as my guide and mentor, was an absolute game changer! Carl was always available to me anytime I needed him. Whether it was a late evening call to discuss an idea or a problem, or a hands-on leadership training that grew the bench strength of my team, Carl was an integral part of the company’s transformation and I am a better executive because of him!

The best advice that I can give to anyone who is considering a partnership with 40-strategy or 40-Accounting…DO IT! You, your team and your business will be better because of it! In my 25-years of reorganizing underperforming businesses, I have never come across another executive so well versed in every area as Carl. He can take you through a high-level sales strategy while simultaneously conducing a thorough analysis of the financial statements.

Within the business world, Carl is a unicorn as far as I am concerned and I cannot provider a higher recommendation than the one I gladly give for him!”

Please reach out to me any time if you would like additional details:

Don Lindsey

Don Lindsey, CEO & President, Precision Machine & Manufacturing

What We Do

At 40 Strategy™ we work with you, and your team, to increase business value.

Our customized approach means we take time to understand your business,

evaluate your risks, and then work with you to create solutions you need.

Growth  Assessment 

Strategic Planning

Performance Coaching

Did you also know that 90% of strategic plans fail?

A key reason is because the traditional tools for evaluating risk lack objective data. 

Tools like the SWOT analysis and Porter’s 5 Forces MISS THE MARK!

Our $4M Strategy™ Value Assessment identifies the strategies that you need to work on, and the $ value increase you can expect to get from each one. Work with us to develop a full strategic plan, or to focus on one priority per quarter.

How a land surveying company transformed its business (and profits) within 1 year

The Struggle:

CEO Kenny Green had already built his company, Terrane, into a thriving, well-regarded land surveying business in the Puget Sound region. But the organization had plateaued, thanks to long waiting times to complete projects (up to 140 hours from start to finish), no clear growth strategy in place, and uncertainty over which team members should be in which roles. Kenny admits he had some “tunnel vision,” and the company was just chasing revenue for revenue’s sake—without a comprehensive, structured plan to scale the business. Sometimes, it felt like Terrane’s only strategy for growth was just to work longer hours.

The Solution:

As we dug into Terrane’s processes, we almost immediately found the bottleneck keeping the company from scaling: the 140-hour wait time for a land surveying project. Members of the surveying team (high-value experts in their field) were routinely spending hours on admin/logistical tasks instead of simply focusing on surveying.

Thanks to regular accountability check-ins between Carl and the whole Terrane team, everyone got clear on their specific responsibilities, and Kenny clarified the Key Performance Indicators he needed to monitor to maintain future growth. We found spots in the surveying process to streamline, and worked on eliminating organizational bloat.

The Outcome:

Terrane used the 40 Strategy Trim method to, within 6 months, cut back their 140-hour land surveying process—into 40 cumulative hours. Surveyors were able to focus on their high-value expertise, while other Terrane team members stepped in to take admin and logistical responsibilities. With the right people in the right seats, everyone was more aligned—and it improved efficiency, created better customer service, and set the stage for scaling.

Thanks to that streamlining, Terrane created more space for new business, and increased sales by over 40%. In 2021 alone, Terrane delivered more than 500 surveys beyond their 2020 numbers. With processes dialed in, team members operating according to their unique strengths, and Kenny back to more strategic duties, the organization experienced a major shift within a year—but also set the foundation for long-term growth in the future.

Carl developed a principle-based, proven pathway for scaling organizations from startup to $40 million — and beyond, and called it CAPTAIN Strategy.

C

Compass [Alignment]: Learn how to get your whole team’s buy-in on a common goal. We teach you how to craft and communicate a vision everyone will actually get behind.

A

Aspire [Goal]: Define your next destination. We help you design stretch goals to change your behaviors to reach the next level.

P

Plan [Strategy]: Define the “how” — the milestones and action steps that will help you and your team achieve your goals. You’ll design a world-class strategic plan.

T

Trim [Focus]: Scaling your business means cutting the fat and shifting focus to your most high-value activities. We’ll evaluate where there’s organizational
bloat, and how to streamline your processes to eliminate waste.

A

Act [Launch]: We set clear deadlines for each step of your strategic plan. Then we help your team generate quick wins to build momentum.

I

Illuminate [Measuring]: According to the Harvard Business Review, companies that focus on the right leading indicators can triple their success. Here, we’ll help you determine which indicators you should measure. Then you can track your success and make more progress, faster.

N

Navigate [Learning]: A strategic plan is a hypothesis — not a fact. We’ll evaluate what’s working and not working, using those insights to adjust your strategy.

Meet 40 Strategy Founder and CEO Carl J. Cox

Carl is a business strategist, growth expert, trusted advisor to CEOs, and Gallup-certified Strengths Coach. He is a former C-level executive at five companies with operations in four continents. He has experience in strategic planning and operations, accounting, project management, sales, and lean manufacturing.

Through his career, Carl has grown multiple companies 3x to 5x—a rate of scaling he thought was normal. It wasn’t until he served as CEO-North America for an Australia-based strategic planning and software company that he realized this was not the norm. In that role, where he founded the company’s U.S. office, Carl consulted on hundreds of companies’ strategic plans. He quickly learned what separated failed plans from the top 10% that actually succeeded.

Carl is passionate about helping businesses—from startup to $40M—design great strategic plans and hold leaders accountable to actually get them done. After founding 40 Strategy, Carl’s CAPTAIN methodology has been proven to help organizations reach their goals 3x faster, skyrocket profitability, and quickly scale their business.

Carl’s roles as an author and podcast host reinforce the brand’s dedication to thought leadership within the business strategy space. His book “Lost at CEO” and the Measure Success Podcast serve as platforms where he shares insights and strategies, positioning both himself and 40 Strategy as authoritative sources on business growth and strategic planning.

How the CAPTAIN method helped Don 2x and even 3x parts of his Precision Machine & Manufacturing business.

The Struggle:

Don, the CEO of Precision Machine & Manufacturing in Oregon, came to me “stuck in the storm.” He was trapped in day-to-day execution, with no time for big-picture strategy. The organization lacked clear priorities, progress toward company goals was slow (or nonexistent), and Don was stressed out and overworked.

The Solution:

What Precision needed was some streamlining and team alignment. Through the Trim phase of the CAPTAIN process, we taught Don how to narrow his focus, and prioritize the work that truly drove impact and growth. We established clear priorities for the whole team—then outlined specific deadlines and milestones to reach those goals, along with regular accountability meetings. That level of focus—from Don, and his whole team—completely transformed Precision.

The Outcome:

Within 18 months, Precision’s sales orders doubled. They experienced 200% and 300% growth within multiple markets. With the extra revenue, they were even able to upgrade and expand their equipment and team. Now, Don spends his days focused on strategic planning, team development, and long-term visioning—not stuck in the weeds of day-to-day operations.

With the proven strategies of the CAPTAIN methodology, plus accountability and expertise from the 40 Strategy team, you’ll be able to:

Drive faster business growth:

Ditch the processes, tools, or services that are holding your business back from its true potential. Figure out which high-impact areas to focus on, and leverage them to make more (and faster) progress towards your goals.

Improve profitability:

Streamlining your processes means more efficiency, less wasted time, better customer service—and better profit margins.

Get back to true CEO duties:

Get out of the weeds of day-to-day operations. Return to big-picture visioning and strategic planning. And know that with the work you’ve done, your business is now set up to keep making progress on your strategic initiatives—even when you’re not in the office.

Actually accomplish your strategic plan:

Stop letting delays, lack of accountability, unclear plans, or fear of failure get in the way of reaching your goals. Lay out a clear path towards success, establish milestones and check-ins, and build momentum every step of the way.

Align your team around a shared vision:

You’ll finally get team members in the right seats, according to their unique talents. With clarity of the company vision (and how it benefits them), as well as their individual responsibilities, milestones, and deadlines, they’ll take ownership of their role. They’ll feel empowered to help drive company success.

The CAPTAIN Strategy Program provided me a solid understanding of strategic planning principles and taught me what is required to ensure success vs. failure.

I’ve been in similar workshops where everything is theoretical and appears to be disconnected from the realities of today’s business world. I loved that real world examples were used to reinforce the concepts which helped “make it real.” The collaborative environment allowed me to learn from the fellow participants as we went through the process.

The program is more than just a learning exercise: Coming out of the program I had solid strategic plan ready to implement. Whether you lead a team of 500 or are a one-person start-up, the CAPTAIN Strategy Program can be used to put your business on a path to greater success.”

— Bob McGlasson, Director at a Fortune 100 company

It’s time to identify and prioritize the things that will increase your business value!

Ready to get an experienced perspective on how to solve your business problem?

Wonder how to increase your value in ways you did not think you could?

Or are you ready to get the strategy, support, and accountability you need to finally scale your business?

It’s time to replace stagnancy with momentum.