Hi, I’m Ruben Ugarte
I help leaders and organizations create their future by making more innovative decisions.
If you’re new here, you can start with latest essay ideas, the weekly newsletter or how to work with me.

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How I Can Help You Make Superior Decisions

Workshops, Training and Speaking
I can design custom training and workshops for your team and help you make better decisions.
The training can cover a wide range of ideas including decision speed, frameworks, dealing with risk, strategic decisions and more.
All training includes personalized examples from your own company to ensure the ideas resonate with your team, can be rapidly applied internally and are highly pragmatic.

Sentient Strategy®
I’ll help your organization and team formulate an effective strategy in six hours, in-person or remotely.
Don’t spend weeks or months formulating strategies that are out of date as soon as you put the finishes touches on the document.
Bring together your management team and think boldly about the future. You will also learn how to maximize the success of the strategy implementation and what common pitfalls to avoid.

Ruben’s Just-In-Time (JIT) Advisory ™
Work with me to build your Decision Confidence in real situations over 90 days. The JIT Advisory™ provides your with rapid advice on your most difficult situations and decisions.
Get an objective sounding board, accountability and support when you need it the most.
This is the best way to build your Decision Confidence over the long term for yourself and your team
LATEST Essays

Stop Thinking Only About What is Good for Your Organization
Every decision that we make has “unspoken assumptions” that shape the final outcome. These assumptions range from personal desires e.g. I want to look good in front of my colleagues, to professional desires e.g. I want the organization to achieve 10% growth this year. For example, you may greenlight certain projects inside your company because…

Strategy is About Finding Your Organization’s Identity
I recently drove by the location of the last Sears in Vancouver. I remember going into the store as a kid, being amazed at everything it had on shelves. I never shopped there as an adult, instead choosing modern alternatives such as Amazon or Walmart. Much can be said about the poor strategy Sears adopted…

You Can’t Put Arbitrary Limits on the Future
Fedex is in the process of negotiating a new union contract. At the same time, Fedex is trying to deal with fundamental changes to their business. The increase in demand from the pandemic is waning and they now have a glut of pilots, around 700 from a total of 5,800. The future of Fedex will…

Making Decisions like the Soviet Union
Welcome, comrade! Even though the Soviet Union collapsed more than 30 years ago, its legacy can still be seen today. I’m not talking about the modern Russian state but how some organizations make decisions. As you’re well aware, the central planners of the Soviet Union believed they could make all the decisions for the economy….

Sometimes You Just Need to Talk It Out
One of my favorite exercises from workshops is helping others write out their decision-making process. For many people, they have never consciously thought about how they make decisions and the steps involved. By asking them a series of questions, I can map out their decision process into clear steps. Once we have that, we can…

Don’t Let Strategy Get Stuck on Mission Statements
When I help organizations formulate strategy, we start by looking at their mission statement. For most organizations, they don’t have to make any changes. After all, mission statements are broad by design and don’t usually capture specifics. For the remaining few organizations who need tweaks to their mission statement, I put specific guardrails to avoid…
You Make 35,000 Decisions Every Day. How Many Do You Get Right?
We are told from a young age that we should strive to make the right decisions, but we aren’t taught how to do this. I’m excited to announce Bulletproof Decisions: How Executives Can Get it Right, Every Time to help business leaders close this gap. Download chapter 1 for free using the form below.
Download Chapter 1