Abstract for: How a CEO Can Create a Sustainable Competitive Advantage by Modeling the Company as a Dynamic System

Modeling a company as a dynamic system is a powerful tool to guide business improvements. Models provide "insight into the physics" of nebulous bottlenecks that restrict growth. This has been demonstrated repeatedly at DPS Telecom, where models have been successfully used to grow the company from $6 million to $13 million with no increase in staffing. Insights into client churn, product quality, company culture, and profitability were all modeled, understood and improved. The final model, dealing with self-regulation within the Sales Department, resulted in a multi-million-dollar decision to buy out one of the partners. This paper starts by explaining why the CEO is uniquely well positioned to lead modeling efforts, and it gives a quick outline describing how to get started. Next, four models are introduced that helped DPS more-than-double sales, double sales per employee, and more-than-quadruple operating profits. Three of the models talk about sales and revenue. The fourth shows how modeling can help in soft topics like staffing and culture. Finally, a simple learning and execution flowchart is given to allow a CEO to hit the ground running and begin using this technology.