“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

March 24, 2020

To my family, friends, clients, trusted partners, former co-workers, coffee companions and my 10,000+ LinkedIn connections,

Welcome to my first unofficial email / blog post. I am calling this my unofficial email blog post because today I am formally asking for your permission to be included on future emails. I will not add you to the blog list without your OK.

If you are interested, please simply respond to this email and say yes. Or you can sign-up on my official website here with your email at the bottom of this webpage or sign-up here.

So let’s get started…

The Beginning: If you are not aware, I started 40 Strategy Inc at the beginning of January, 2020. The primary reason for the new venture – is that I found that I have a passion for helping organizations navigate their strategy with purpose. Through most of my career, I have been in a strategic finance and operations role helping multiple organizations increase in size (and deal with recessions.) After opening the US office for an Australian based software company called Cascade Strategy in 2016, our team helped grow the US office from 50 clients to over 350 clients in 3 years. This helped provide me with practical knowledge on best practices for multiple types of organizations. Cascade Strategy provided an “MBA” type experience of focusing on strategy and seeing so many different organizations navigate strategy well…and some not so well. After working with a number of clients on the consulting side and receiving very positive reviews, I made the difficult decision to leave Cascade Strategy and exciting decision to start my own venture to focus on the People and Process side of Strategy; rather than the System or Software side.

Why are you called 40 Strategy? Most organizations spend about 2% of their time on strategy and this equates to about 40 hours per year. And this is how the name 40 Strategy was created. (There are some other reasons…but you will have to sign-up for the blog to learn more.)

What do you do?

My expertise is understanding the basic fundamentals of strategy and how to apply those concepts to any organization. As a result, I am NOT an expert in any industry; but I can help FACILITATE the leaders concepts into a Strategic Plan that is focused and actually works. I TEACH the core strategic methodologies that works best for each organization so that everyone can be on the same page. Over 70% of strategic plans fail – my passion is to help organizations be on the winning side of that equation. It’s not luck, but with the right FOCUS and EXECUTION – it can be done successfully. With my CFO background, I tie together the right KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure the outcomes of the strategies. Strategy + Navigation = Success.

Why do a blog?

COVID-19 has created an opportunity. My business and family had 7 trips scheduled and they were ALL canceled. I now have time to get this blog started. The second reason is I love to stay connected with you. Life is short and having coffee and lunch with each person on a monthly basis is simply not practical in person I am hoping you will respond and let me know what you like and don’t like. Provide me feedback. Let’s learn together and stay connected.

What will this blog cover?

#1 – Strategy – Every email will include research, facts and/or best practices on designing and executing strategic plans. These concepts will be useful for your work and personal life. As my friend David Solomon used to say, “Facts are our Friends.”

#2 – Personal / Story Insight – This will include a brief story / insight on how applying strategic concepts can work (or fail).

#3 – Strategic Books – Latest update / insight on recommended articles and books.

#4 – Strategy Quote – Every blog will have a strategic quote to keep you motivated.

#5 – Humor – Just a little bit of humor. I started out as a bean counter after all.

#6 – Links to Top Articles / Ideas – This will have from one to many links to articles and ideas that you may want to consider reading.

#7 – Recommendation – Every email will have a recommendation for a partner, service or product that may make a difference for you.

My ask. Give it a try. If you like it, share it. If you don’t, you may unsubscribe at any time. Sign-up here!

Very best –

Carl

Newsletter email: catch@40strategy.com
Personal email: carljcox@40strategy.com

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Carl J Cox
CEO
(503) 709-8762
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www.40strategy.com