Solving with Integral Strategy

Born in San Salvador on the 6th of June 1970. Entrepreneur. Founder of her own start-up Eleonora Escalante Strategy, an initiative project in Strategic Knowledge Reflections. Academic Writer, Professor and Author of the strategy blog Eleonora Escalante Strategy. Business development specialist, with previous international banking experience in development financing, energy investments, microfinance and remittances.  Academic Researcher in business modeling, ethics, and strategy frameworks. Her education includes a BSc in Civil Engineering (UCA, El Salvador); an MBA from Catholic University of Chile with MBA business studies at London Business School, England. Additionally, as a Fulbright Scholar, she holds a Master of Engineering Management from Cornell University. Since 2012, she dedicates her life to think about how to solve the business strategy frameworks, write, innovate about the new state of the art material in strategy management, while living in the middle of the natural lands of El Salvador.

1. What problem are you committed to solving? Helping solvers to solve integrally. I am committed to transform the mindsets of decision makers. To change & improve the conceptual strategy analysis frameworks.

2. What project are you proposing? " Eleonora Escalante Strategy, Solving Our Destiny with Integral Strategy" is a strategy knowledge reflection series of publications under the format of short term sagas, published online by episodes on a bi-weekly basis.

3. How could your project elevate humanity? Humanity is raised from inside out. To elevate humanity, people has to leave the old ways and change by themselves. People are changed through education, knowledge and impact awareness. As an author of different epics, my project is to provide a high quality instruction to think integrally, properly to tackle problems; to provide innovation guidelines with an "ethical-integral 360 mindset" and to help business owners, entrepreneurs and leaders in higher places.

The  specific problem I am trying to solve is to help the solvers to solve integrally. "Solving our Destiny with Integral Strategy" aspires to make you think differently. With the rising of disruptive technologies, we also have lost the capacity to discern on how to think properly and prioritize solutions properly. Business owners and leaders confuse causes with consequences, and have left out the ethical values when it comes to business modeling and tackling the urgent issues to solve them.  The lack of an integral corporate strategy analysis has triggered million of incorrect businesses which are destroying the humanity, species, the planet. 

At a general scope: More than 30% of the global population represents the economic active labor force, and the majority of them are self-employed, business owners or entrepreneurs.  If this blog is at least read by 1/7  of the active labor force (which is a fraction of business owners globally), this blog can really impact the business community at the individual level, from inside out.

At a specific niche: When business-economic professors read my blog, they can start to change the business frameworks and transform the minds of their students in the educational formation.

"Eleonora Escalante Strategy, Solving Our Destiny with Integral Strategy" is the first step to help decision makers and those avid business readers to think differently. By sharing academic material with a crispy-simple format of short sagas, I am using the on-line LIVE blog tools instead of writing books. My project is a learning tool-kit about how to use our brains with an integral mindset. By creating awareness, my sagas reflections provoke curiosity to think integrally. You can find my written sagas at www.eleonoraescalantestrategy....

Ideas on how to solve the current problem of entrepreneurship ecosystems and start-up financing have been unclothed in the saga “Entrepreneurs without Money”. A debate about the education issues in the context of disruptive technologies have also been exposed in the saga “Integral Education, Strategic Challenges and a Road-map ahead”.  More recently, I also published  “Losing our brains with disruptive technologies”, a navigation on each and all of the human activities and how the combo of NAIQI (Nanotechnologies, Artificial Intelligence - here I include automation and robotics- Quantum Supremacy and the Internet) have triggered a regression in our civilizations brain development. At the moment I am writing “On eagles wings: our recovery from Coronavirus”.

Eleonora Escalante Strategy on-line platform of sagas are for everyone. My publications are gratuit, free of charge. All can benefit from it. Nevertheless, it is written particularly for decision makers and problem solvers: for CEOs, founders and anyone who has a business or is attempting to have one. But anyone can read it: Leaders at the highest places (big corporations and governments); proprietors of micro, small and medium enterprises; business and economic professors can use to enrich their material to university students, and finally to problem solvers (other consultants). The purpose of my publications is to create awareness and change the mindsets of the business theories, who need a structural transformation on their business modeling premises, by considering integral value crucial constituents at the core of their analysis frameworks and decision making. Instead of maximizing shareholder value, I am proposing integral value. A model in which ethical values are at the core, plus the environment, family-legacy contribution to society and equilibrium (balance). In addition, I want create a change to do something to prevent and solve the most difficult issues of our civilization.

Since my project is related to knowledge learning and strategy reflection, all the sagas I publish are the funnel in which I express my academic research and innovation ideas about business-corporate strategy. 

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My project (publications) relates to the Elevate Prize directly, because it´s directly linked to change, and we can impact the brains of everyone who produces-buys-sells or is related to business.  I chose the second Elevate Prize dimension because the business community (which is the backbone of economic progress in every society) has big issues to solve.

“Eleonora Escalante Strategy, Solving our Destiny with Integral Strategy”, initially came up as a result of writing about the current business models and frameworks of the last 50 years. As a specialist in corporate strategy, I prepared and reviewed the subjects from the content of the “Volvo Ocean Race 2017-2018 Strategy Regatta"shown below:

Through all the process of writing this saga (from October 2017 to June 2018) I found out these frameworks were partially developed, or were cannibalizing the industries instead of adding economic value. Some of them, lacked of critical elements. The majority of all these frameworks were simply built without an integral view or were incomplete. Many of these frameworks have not considered the ethical values, neither cooperation for equilibrium and sustainability.  Our civilization is demanding a new focus on how to implement “free enterprise”, and the issue is not only at the environment or climate change level, it is at our brains level. When ignorance and lack of integral values ignite profits we end up with inequality long term problems. Eleonora Escalante Strategy has been building the concepts of theories transformation at a business conceptualization

Since I was a little girl, I was searching to find that activity which could me wonder with awe. Of course my utmost dream is to marry and have babies too. But at the professional level, with time I learnt, the only thing that can replenish and satisfy me, is to try to build an integral life which is the philosophy behind my proposal of integral strategy (term that I have coined in all my sagas). No person on earth can make a satisfied living without being convinced and innermost ignited by the love-passion of his/her daily actions. My past work experiences guided me to a point in which I started to do things not because of a salary retribution, but because I wanted to be content and improve others´lives. I am passionate about Eleonora Escalante Strategy, because is the beginning of the correct strategy for the civilization brains transformation, which has lost sight of what is the most valuable treasure we hold: to live with integrity and respect, caring for ourselves and for the rest of humans who are suffering. If we want a future, our minds have to change, to reset, and change again.

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Trying to figure out the things beyond the apparent. My education built the foundations of my mind.  My brain development started at a Jesuit High-School which later was key to overpass the higher-education requirements in civil engineering at UCA University. I built my math-analytical-problem solving skills as an engineer, under a clean technical approach that prepared me for the next scale in education. Through my master degrees, I proved myself that I was able to endure and gain self-confidence in comparison to other similar smart peers from all over the world. Global trips, voyages to other countries, international friendships and professional experiences as banking in ABB-Zurich, professor of business, finance and ethics, consulting mandates, business development in microfinance-remittances and recently as investments advisor to the World Bank; the tandem of them have polished my brain work in progress development. I found out that we had to re-learn how to change what is wrong, fix it if we want to sustain a future for the planet.

I never give up. If I am alive. I won´t give up.

El Salvador has limited opportunities, tons of distrust and political polarization. In this context, I am resilient and I defeat adversity, every time, again and again. Eleonora Escalante Strategy emerged from the ashes. Once my job as Investments Advisor for the IFC-World Bank expired, I couldn´t find a new one. I dropped my life-style and own apartment, returning back to live with my parents. I passed from a self sustainable salary to be unemployed with zero revenues, through a crucifiction of 4 consecutive years of non-fructified global job-searching (2012-2016). Then I began Eleonora Escalante Strategy with the perspective of offering consulting services, writing a blog to show my strategic capacities and abilities. With time, my publications became the core of Eleonora Escalante Strategy. I have evolved to make my publications on knowledge strategic reflections, the core endeavor of my life. Still I am in the start-up seed stage, but I know that by winning a prize as this one, I will be able to improve, polish and continue developing a self-sustainable business initiative that will impact many in their endeavors. 

When I was Investment-Advisor for the International Finance Corporation (IFC)-World Bank in El Salvador, my role was to coin the IFC in the heads of the local private sector.  I planned the IFC marketing strategy to the private sector in town.

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This job required that I did business development on a one-to-one basis with the relevant private sector CEOs and Founders. I had to elevate my speech and knowledge presentation skills as if I was representing Mr. Lars Thunell (former IFC Executive VP and CEO). To capture the attention of the private sector leaders was a odyssey. I rejected to be treated as an “accounts executive of an international bank”, and I sat up boundaries and limits (not accepting reunions with anyone less than the respective CEO). After two years, I proved that I was able to meet and speak at a respectable & honorable level with more than 150 leaders. The only way El Salvador private sector can transform itself is by self-change of those who lead the economy.  I did it with excellence, considering that it was the first time for a woman to perform it here.

Eleonora Escalante Strategy is a project of my own authorship endeavors. As a writer of sagas in the pre-seed and seed stage, I will evolve to an hybrid for profit mixed with the spirit of a non-profit organization. My aim is to begin not just to reach revenue streams and new sources of income (based in licensing, fixed or variable sponsorships or advertising support from academic entities), but once I cover all the expenses (Costs of Goods Sold, Sales-General Administrative, Financing expenses, etc), any net profit will be donated to education initiatives in emerging markets. 

Eleonora Escalante Strategy is a “new-to-the-world-product” because it is substantial academic knowledge in action. It has been originated to help people to think properly when it comes to corporate strategy. Our company defines corporate strategy as “what to do?” with our endeavors. When government leaders and business owners sit down to define their products and services, we land in decision making. In consequence, to do corporate strategy means to enter into a dimension of brain processes (or cerebral thoughts) that need to be shaped to constantly learn about how to think properly with an integral framework, considering all the contexts, with a 360 degrees approach. 

Eleonora Escalante Strategy publications are a fountain of innovation. Every saga or epic is different, every episode opens a door of opportunity to collective thinking. My project is full innovation in terms of designing, creating, testing and implementing a whole new dimension of thinking when it comes to new corporate and business strategy frameworks applicable to business.

My work is unique because it is targeting the real causes of the business community current problems. We must change the concept of maximizing shareholder value to the integral value creation

My work is disruptive because it is breaking the molds of the way we are educated to do business. It is shaking the roots of the business theories from the past, and it is offering a new business economics theory for the future.

If you wish to know more details or specific information in relation to the theory of change behind our business model, please read all the sagas that I have written since the year 2017. More than 481 episodes or publications show it. The list of the sagas I have written since I started my literary production is:

1. Volvo Ocean Race 2017-2018 Strategy Regatta
2. Entrepreneurs without money
3. Integral Education: Strategic Challenges and a RoadMap ahead
4. How do I wish a Country´s president to think?
5. Corporate Strategy as an Art (on hold until I can find academic sponsors)
6. Revenge Strategies: Wasting the power of your hate on the guiltless
7. Losing Our brains with disruptive technologies 
8. On eagles wings: Our recovery from Coronavirus 

Otherwise, contact me directly to eleonoraescalantestrategy@gmail.com or eleonora.escalante@gmail.com for specific information.

Historic Statistics until June 22nd, 2020: 

During the year 2017, Eleonora Escalante Strategy attracted 681 new visitors (2,424 views).

For the year 2018, 1,571 new visitors traveled our website (with 4,721 views)

Last year 2019, we reached 3,408 visitors (6,238 views).

Currently between January 1st and June 22nd of 2020, we are now counting 2,796 visitors (4,179 views). Our projections for December 2020, are to close the current operating year with at least 7,000 visitors (8,500 views).

In 5 years from now (year 2025), we expect to grow our visitors audience (organically) on a range between 200,000 to 350,000 new visitors. And the number of views to 1 million.

Number of people that our project will directly and meaningfully affect in 5 years if we win the Elevate Prize: If Eleonora Escalante wins the Elevate Prize, in ten years from now, our aim is to reach an audience of at least 5 million people using our scenario of escalated digital social media business model.

• Eleonora Escalante Strategy “Solving our destiny with Integral Strategy” publishes knowledge strategic reflection that provides inspiration to anyone who wants to improve the planet and the living conditions of all who live here. Our publications are written in such simple language, that anyone can understand them, from PHDs scholars, gurus professors, specialists of any science discipline, to students at the high-school level.

  

• From Inside Out: Our goal is to grow. It means to expand vertically and horizontally.  Our meaningful publications wish to attract a team of international intellectual and creative minds to team up with us. Our platform of business goals are to grow, to create economic revenues to provide employment to others, we wish to hire a a wise team of editors, strategists, digital designers, visual artists, academic researchers, economists, anthropologist and historians... 
• Our Clients are our readers. Our publications are made for everyone who wants to read and learn. To all the creative people with ability to formulate new solutions to problems (with an integral perspective) rather than depending on others to solve them. We want to help the solvers to solve with integrity.
• Expanding to new niche markets. If things work well and we continue growing, we may reach 1/7 of the global economically active labor force (which represent the entrepreneurs and business owners of emerging markets-including Asia). In addition, our blog is planning to publish content in different languages, under specific sagas of interest, for professors, high-school and undergraduate students.

• Financially, we have not been able to monetize our publications yet. We are still in the pre-seed/seed stage of our start-up development. 
• Technically, Eleonora Escalante Strategy needs resources to build a fantastic team, to pay for data information sources of high prestige and to improve the look and feel of our platform. At the moment I am doing the whole work (from beginning to end). For example: my publications need to be reviewed and edited by other people (not a machine).  In addition, I lack of the money funds to pay for academic and reliable data information sources, which are costly and are paid annually. When it comes to research, I also need to work with a multidisciplinary team to do our own analysis processes from scratch. When it comes to equipment and software, I also need some cash inflow to buy a server, a couple of good computers, a good cameras for filming, if we start to do our own videos to include in our publications.
• Legally: Eleonora Escalante Strategy is the brand of my own personal consultant endeavor. I must legally protect all the intellectual work that is being produced, and honor copy-rights of third-party work (other researchers) that is utilized in our analysis.

• Financially: Eleonora Escalante Strategy is exploring several revenue streams (variable and fixed). Given my status of pre-seed stage, I am searching for grants, research academic prizes, applying for non-reimbursable academic support out of El Salvador. I would like international academic stipends to at least cover the basics. I am also trying to get advertising digital sponsorship from consulting companies who wish to participate in this endeavor (such as Bain, BCG, Deloitte, PWC, etc). At the moment we have not found Salvadoran Support, particularly with the COVID19 Pandemic, our knowledge production industry has been hit the most. Given the stage of my start-up I won´t ask for a loan or credit, because I am not producing positive free cash-flows yet. In the future, once I prove to be self-sustainable with positive free cash-flows, I will be open to partner with others or raise capital in the bank.

  

• Technically: At the moment I am doing everything (data gathering, research, analysis, content conceptualization, sagas design, writing, editing, posting on wordpress, painting the aquarelles, meeting and interviewing with experts, etc). If I am able to win The Elevate Prize, I will be able to afford the operational and working capital expenses that will elevate my work.
• Legally: With the cash injection of this prize, I will be able to protect my company internationally; and protect the intellectual production properly in every continent.

The organizations that I will partner with are going to arise naturally, to make my business model successful during the next 5 years.

If you are interested to know about our business model details contact me directly to eleonoraescalantestrategy@gmail.com or eleonora.escalante@gmail.com

I have at least three possible scenarios of business models, which are different and complementary, and I would be happy to provide specific information if you contact me directly. These business models target three specific customer segment needs: the decision makers at the cooperation organizations world; the leaders from the private sector; entrepreneurs and problem solvers; and finally the academic community (professors and higher education students).

Eleonora Escalante Strategy publications are one of four pillars of my company. Revenue streams have been designed to complement each pillar. I describe them as follow:

1. Corporate Strategic Consulting Mandates to multilateral and United Nations network of organizations: I am applying to obtain short term mandates to UNICEF, development financial banks, IDB, universities.

2. Board of Directors Advisory: As an external member (without right to vote), I am expecting to be paid per BoD session.

3. Knowledge Reflection publications: this is the division that is introducing the  project “Solving our Destiny with Integral Strategy” to Elevate Prize-MIT. Which I expect to be  my first injection of capital to become self-sustainable in the long run.

4. Corporate Strategy as an Art: another research project that has been left on hold because of lack of financial sponsors. I expect to perform this new project with a multidisciplinary team of experts from different disciplines (anthropologists, art historians, historians, other business strategists) during the next 30 years and beyond. This project will be financed by top consulting firms and interested art-patrons philanthropists.

Fine Art America: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/eleonora-escalanteAside,  another revenue stream that I foresee is the selling of merchandising. I have started to sell the handmade watercolor illustrations that I produce to embellish my publications through Fine Art America. With time if I start to monetize these efforts, I would like to open my blog to other Salvadoran Visual Artists, who wish to use my platform for selling their art.

Not applicable yet.

As Eleonora Escalante Strategy is still in the pre-seed/seed phase, I have not yet generated revenues. 

Given the current stage of development of Eleonora Escalante Strategy, I am not looking for debt neither equity injection for the time being.

Eleonora Escalante Strategy is only seeking for grant allocation, academic research grants, fellowships, scientific management studies grants, consulting mandates or advertising sponsorships. No debt neither equity until the company proves to be self-financial sustainable. If you wish to know more details about Eleonora Escalante Strategy future raising funds relevant details contact me to eleonoraescalantestrategy@gmail.com or eleonora.escalante@gmail.com

If you wish to know my budget expected expenses, contact me directly to eleonoraescalantestrategy@gmail.com or eleonora.escalante@gmail.com

I am applying for the Elevate Prize because the following reasons:

1. Timing: Eleonora Escalante Strategy is still in the pre-seed/seed stage. I have not monetized any sale yet. In consequence I can´t knock the door to banks or private equity investors. This is the time to search for grants or gifts as the Elevate Prize.

2. Growing to success, protect and elevate my business model for the benefit of my readers. During the last 3.5 years, I have been testing the waters. I have been trying to identify my clients, what makes them interested to read my website on a constant basis; not just in terms of content, but in terms of frequency per week, whole span duration, etc. In addition, I have been trying to define the future of this market after the Corona Pandemic; identifying potential revenue streams in the context of technological disruption for the industry. From the point of view of customer segments, I still need to find the one that needs more help, since my publications are clearly designed for different market niches (decision makers at the cooperation segment, public service representatives, professors, students, and private sector leaders).  I believe that if I win the Elevate Prize, I will have a clear “stamp of approval”, to access mentors and potential key partners that might help me to initiate and drive the business into the right path for prosperity. My commitment is with delivering beautiful corporate strategy content for the generations of tomorrow. 

Eleonora Escalante Strategy needs key high-ethical partners to support me in several lines of action:

a) Reduction of risk and uncertainty for my business model.

b) Stamp of approval for my contents that can positionate Eleonora Escalante Strategy as a solid academic and research organization in corporate strategy.

c) Support me to grow steadily and slowly, by helping me how to make the most out of what have already done. I deeply wish to help others in their own problem solving decision making activities, so each saga is an opportunity for me to help them with intellectual capital thoughts.

d) Eleonora Escalante Strategy wishes people to read. It is crucial to offer excellent writing content for people to read. In consequence any partner from the publishing industry is more than welcome.

I do not have specific names of potential partners yet. I just wish the most authentic, respectful and ethical academic and research sponsors, consulting partners for my business, who will help me not just to protect and elevate my work; but to make an impact in the lives who read me. My aim is to help people and particularly the youngest ones to think differently, to help the next generations to find a purpose in its economic endeavors, beyond the premise of “maximizing shareholder value”or crazy disruptive technologies. It is valid to live well, but it is better to live integrally and with integrity. The self-fulfillment only comes when we do daily our purpose of ethical virtues in action. Generation X and the following ones share a sensitive expression, directly written by  Henri J.M. Nouwen in 1972: “Many young people feel and share a fundamental unhappiness in their world and a strong desire to work for change, but they doubt deeply that they will do better than their parents did, and almost completely lack any kind of vision or perspective". Nouwen continues: "Within this framework I think that much erratic and undirected behavior is understandable. A generation who feels caught like an animal in a a trap may be dangerous and destructive, because of its undirected movements caused by its own panic”. It is time to do something to help us. Eleonora Escalante Strategy is here to help the problem solvers of tomorrow.