Corporate strategy · Innovation · Transformation

Advice from someone who has done it, alongside those who decide.

I work with CEOs, founders, and boards to turn complex decisions into real growth. From diagnosis to value capture.

Where do we start? WhatsApp

20+ years7 sectorsMaster's, FIAMBA Insper

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How I help

Four ways to work together.

Every engagement starts with a diagnosis of the real problem. The right format comes after that.

01

Advisory & Strategy

For companies that need an external and recurring strategic perspective, without the cost of a fixed board.

FormatMonthly or bi-monthly follow-up on critical decisions, plan reviews, and value capture.

Book a call
02

Executive mentoring

For founders, executives in transition, and leaders stepping into new roles.

FormatOne-on-one sessions focused on strategic clarity, based on each person's real context.

Schedule a session
03

Advisory board

For organizations seeking diversity of perspective and results-driven governance.

FormatIndependent board member focused on strategy, innovation, and digital transformation, with a long-term commitment.

Discuss board roles
04

Fast Forward Design

For teams with an idea that needs to prove it holds up.

FormatA session that blends design, AI, and real-time research to validate the idea with the audience in the room.

Explore the method

Track record

From the hospital to the Santos Basin.

A selection from the many strategy and transformation projects in my career.

  1. Patient Billing Transformation

    Challenge
    Billing process with high operational friction and a poor patient experience.
    Work
    End-to-end redesign focused on digital transformation and user experience.
    Result
    Redesigned billing process, with less friction for the patient.
    • Digital transformation
    • User experience

  2. Hospital Operations Model

    Challenge
    Standardization and operational efficiency in a large-scale hospital network.
    Work
    Structuring an integrated operating model across units.
    Result
    An effective EBITDA gain and an operating model playbook for every hospital in the network.
    • Operational efficiency
    • Operating model

  3. Digital Products Structure

    Challenge
    Create a scalable digital product structure for the affinities vertical.
    Work
    Portfolio design and governance of digital products.
    Result
    Discovery and development of an affinity product line (mobile phone insurance).
    • Digital products
    • Governance

  4. Corporate University Redesign

    Challenge
    Modernize and reposition the corporate university for the context of digital transformation.
    Work
    Redesign of the pedagogical model, learning paths, and platform.
    Result
    A new Unibrad model, with improvements implemented in processes, governance, and technology.
    • Digital transformation
    • Corporate education

  5. Operations Efficiency

    Challenge
    Operational efficiency gains in an environment of high cost pressure and corporate restructuring.
    Work
    Diagnosis and structuring of efficiency initiatives.
    Result
    GOL: leadership in on-time performance in Brazil, Latin America, and the world. Azul: optimized operations.
    • Operational efficiency
    • Strategic diagnosis

  6. Digital Transformation Strategy

    Challenge
    Define a digital transformation strategy in a fast-paced competitive context.
    Work
    Strategic diagnosis and roadmap construction.
    Result
    A digital transformation strategy defining the purpose and the avenues for value capture.
    • Digital transformation
    • Strategic diagnosis
    • Roadmap

  7. R&D · Ultra-deep Wells

    Work
    Development of local content for ultra-deep well exploration in the Santos Basin.
    Result
    2 patents and an approved proof of concept for localizing ultra-high-performance materials for drilling and production in ultra-deep wells.
    • R&D
    • Local content

How I work

Strategy without execution is a hypothesis.

The value lies in turning well-founded decisions into real movement, and measuring the result.

  1. 01

    Immersion & diagnosis

    Identification of the root business problem and assessment of the organizational context.

  2. 02

    Strategy & scenarios

    Design of executable action plans, with risk mapping and mitigation.

  3. 03

    Execution & capture

    Continuous follow-up to ensure the strategy turns into tangible results.

Ideas

What I think, out loud.

I write about corporate strategy, innovation, digital transformation, and leadership, with solid references and no ready-made formulas.

Video

  1. When clients want more than advice

    Traditional consulting focuses on delivering reports and diagnoses. But in day-to-day corporate reality, the line between advising and executing often blurs.

    Read the full opinion (PT) →

  2. A journey of practical application

    Theoretical models and business frameworks are excellent compasses, but they are ineffective if they are not adapted to the organization's real culture and constraints.

    Read the full opinion (PT) →

  3. Avoiding bias

    The groupthink trap is real on advisory and corporate boards. When all members share the same background, decisions tend to overlook critical blind spots.

    Read the full opinion (PT) →

  4. Structure, data, and governance as a growth engine

    Santas Casas and philanthropic hospitals handle 61% of high-complexity hospitalizations in SUS, Brazil's public health system (CMB, 2023 data). Brazil's new clinical research legislation removes barriers that had held this potential back for years.

    Read the full opinion (PT) →

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Studies & projects

Beyond advisory, projects of my own.

Tools, research, and business, at different stages of maturity.

Tool · diagnosis

LIDAR

A free diagnostic of your company, built from the answers of the people who live its day to day.

Run the diagnosis
rysOS triage screen in the notes vault
Tool · essay

rysOS

The executive assistant I train on my own Raspberry Pi. It reads calendar, email, and meetings, writes to a vault of notes, and learns from corrections.

Read the essay
Research

Projeto Maria

A global health monitoring platform: data analysis and market intelligence for biotechnology, pharmacology, and public health.

View platform
Wine tasting at a shared table
Business

Wine Experience

Private Wine Clubs as a Service, corporate experiences, and advisory. Lasting, valuable relationships, built around wine.

Discover

About

Rodrigo Yuji Sato

More than 20 years in strategy, innovation, and transformation across healthcare, aviation, financial services, retail, oil & gas, agribusiness, and technology.

Co-founder of Dixter and Aliansa, mentor at NZ3 and START2.

Experience
20+ years
Education
FIA · InsperMaster's (FIA) and MBA (Insper)
Co-founder
Dixter · AliansaAliansa, closed
Mentor
NZ3 · START2
View LinkedIn profile

Frequently asked questions

Before the first conversation.

  1. We work with flexible agendas focused on the client's specific challenge. This can range from an intensive targeted diagnosis to long-term follow-up (monthly/bi-monthly) to ensure governance.

  2. Strategy and diagnosis projects last from 4 to 12 weeks. Board or Mentoring engagements typically run from 6 to 12 months.

  3. Since I operate at the most strategic layer of the company, signing bilateral NDAs and keeping information absolutely confidential are prerequisites before the first technical conversation.

  4. Planning means making a well-founded bet on the future of the business. But that bet only proves itself right when it is tested against operational reality. That is where most companies confuse having an approved plan with capturing results, treating strategy as a document rather than a living process until the numbers show up.

  5. Because everyone buys the framework and nobody buys the scar tissue. The pretty model on the slide works perfectly until it touches the real culture of the company, the people who will actually run the change, the habits nobody puts on the diagram. Anyone who has never run an operation from the inside simply does not know where to push to unblock it.

  6. A plan that actually happens starts from a true diagnosis of the organization's real problem, framed before any solution is proposed, rather than a generic framework applied without adaptation. And it carries, from the start, the capture indicators that connect strategy to the bottom line. A plan that only measures schedule adherence can look positive internally, and keep looking good in the presentation without ever becoming impact the business can feel.

  7. Safe innovation comes from cognitive diversity inside the company's governance. Technical profiles alongside business generalists; seasoned operators alongside more disruptive minds. Boards and committees made up of people with the same background fall into groupthink, and miss the very blind spots that put the organization most at risk.

Contact

Shall we talk?

Let's grab a coffee and discuss how I can help with your challenges.

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