Carlos Dias:

Former Multinational CEO, Successful Entrepreneur, Multicultural Business Consultant, Speaker, Author, Coach, Mentor, Devoted Father, Colleague, and Friend

I’ve always been fascinated with systems. I love figuring out why and how things work, whether it’s a piece of machinery or a corporation. That is perhaps what drove me to complete my undergraduate degree in industrial engineering at the age of 21 in Patagonia, Argentina - far away from the rest of the world.

However, the simple, secluded life of an oil engineer wasn’t my destiny. Soon after graduating, I moved with my family to France, where I lived in Strasbourg at the center of Europe, for the next 24 years, and were I founded my own family. Living a multicultural lifestyle seemed natural for me.

Before I tell you about my professional life, there is something important you should know about me. I love what I do. I am so passionate about my clients, sometimes it’s all I think about. I read, research, and investigate new ideas and concepts in my spare time. Ask my wife, my son, who worked with me for two years after college graduation (and is now very successful on his own), and my daughter, a successful businesswoman today. All three will attest to my devotion to my work and my clients.

I started my European professional career with Adidas, back when they were a fairly small athletic shoe company. I had the privilege and pleasure of working directly with Horst Dassler, the president of Adidas during my time at Adidas. I soon became a Divisional Director, and went on to become the Director of the Latin American Division at the age of 32. I also co-founded in 1973 with Horst Dassler and my friend Alain Ronc a new division to Adidas - the bathing suit manufacturer Arena (with Mark Spitz as our primary image). Arena was eventually sold and is now one of the world leaders.

I learned what it took to succeed in business, and of the immense value of strategic thinking from working with quality executives like Horst. I was an integral part of the staff who helped Horst take Adidas from sales of $50 million in the late 60’s to more than $1 Billion in the late 70’s.

With the encouragement of Horst Dassler, and other executives, I founded in the late 70’s my own France-based management consulting company, specializing in executing strategies for French, German, Spanish, and Swiss companies who wanted to expand into Latin American markets. It was during this time, I had the extreme pleasure of advising Henry Racamier, President and founder of Louis Vuitton, helping him develop strategies to dramatically expand his business in Latin America. Louis Vuitton went from a few million in sales in the 70’s to more than a Billion in sales in the 80’s, before being sold to the French Group LVHM.

By 1986, Le Figaro and Les Echos considered me one of the leading Latin American business strategic gurus in France. (Click here to see one of the articles – in French, of course). I was flattered, and did all I could to prove myself. I know that I owe much of my success to all the brilliant business people with whom I worked. Over the next 10 years, I orchestrated strategic engagements and structured over 75 licensing contracts between European and Latin American firms, including Louis Vuitton, S.M.R. (Renault), Thomson, La Chemise Lacoste, Aerospatiale (Airbus), and Omega.

I also advised on and negotiated 15 venture agreements for European companies investing in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, such as the retailer Carrefour in Argentina. The French government recognized my contribution to expand French companies into Latin America and the United States by appointing me in 1987 to be the French Trade Counselor for three years. My task was to advise the government regarding all issues related to international businesses.

It was time for me to expand my business awareness and experience. I moved to the United States in 1987, where I founded Executive Learning Systems and began consulting to small, medium and large companies such as Stride Rite, Keds, Pentland Group and Johnson & Johnson. One of my greatest thrills was working with Brian Tracy, perhaps the most widely read author and motivational speaker today. Holding the Latin America master franchise for Brian Tracy International Sales, I trained thousands of executives to become more profitable by applying Brian’s sales and motivational concepts, together with my strategic and innovation concepts I’d developed over the years.

In 1994 I was hired first as the Executive Vice President of the British multinational Pentland Group, and then as a CEO to develop the Pentland Miami-based Latin American Division, with the well-known brands of Speedo, Pony, Mitre, and Ellesse. Stephen Rubien, the president of the Pentland British group, was a master of strategy, investing only $100,000 into Reebok and selling it ten years later for $950 million! I learned much from him, and had another opportunity to apply this learning when my Executive Learning Systems company became an affiliate of Decision Processes International. I helped them to establish their Latin American Hispanic market, empowering corporations with the tools of strategic thinking.

In 2000 I co-authored the Spanish version of a book detailing the Decision Processes International strategic thinking process. The book was published by McGraw-Hill Mexico under the name of "Estrategia Pura y Simple", (Strategy Pure and Simple). This helped to make the company fairly well-known throughout Latin America and Spain.

"Having lived one third of his life in Latin America, one third in Europe, and one third in the United States. Carlos is regarded as a leading expert on corporate business with an extensive knowledge in managing multinational companies."

A few of my favorite accomplishments include advising the Brazilian company Grendene, seeing and helping them grow to more than $400 million in sales in less than 15 years; and founding 14 successful companies during my career on my own.

I formed Carlos Dias & Associates in 2003 to leverage all my knowledge and experience, providing entrepreneurial companies with customized face-to-face insight, tools, and support they need to consistently increase their growth and profitability. I’m still constantly engaged in research and analysis of the top business leaders and winning organizations. I write, speak, and talk to people about strategy every change I get.

On the personal side, I have lived in Miami with Rosemarie, my long time wife and partner, since 1987, and I continue to travel, invited as key-note speaker by companies and universities, around Latin America and Europe monthly. I am very proud of my son and daughter, who are both married and living very successful and happy lives in the United States. My family, as you might guess, is very important to me.

I believe in a bright future for everyone

I will leave you with this thought. What if every young person in the world had the opportunity to design their own life strategies, and were given the skills and tools to set and reach big goals?

This is an idea to which I have given, and will continue to give, much of my free time. I have designed a one-day strategy boot camp specifically for teenagers that I provide for free to universities and colleges in Europe and Latin America, particularly where my clients are located. My own goal is to write a book about all my fantastic experiences with these amazing young people. They have been an inspiration to me, as they will be to others.