For over 20 years, Claudio Avila Tobias has consulted with organizations to develop their capacity to improve and sustain business performance. He has also done extensive work in operations' restructuring and integration. Clients particularly appreciate his ability to understand and evaluate diverse goals and objectives, synthesize them into a coherent, persuasive vision of the future, and devise practical strategies for achieving them through results.
Prior to working with Schaffer Consulting, Claudio spent ten years as a consultant in many different areas and countries for CEMEX, the world's third largest building solutions provider. While in Mexico, he helped reduce costs and improve productivity by implementing production and management best practices in several manufacturing plants. He contributed to their HR function by redesigning their management development program and integrating results focused projects into their academic curriculum. During the first year of this application, senior management tested some of their corporate strategies, and achieved bottom-line results of US $70 million.
Claudio also worked closely with the shareholders and CEO of La Fragua, a Central American retailer. He helped to develop and launch a growth strategy into the regional markets. Years later when it became part of WalMart, he helped in the Board decision to divest some related companies.
At Banorte, Mexico's fourth largest bank, Claudio guided various managers to improve products and financial services for its customers, including personal loans, commercial loans, automated payroll systems, and ATM operations. In six months, profits from these improvements were increased by US $10 million.
At Zurich Latin America, a subsidiary of the European insurer, Claudio worked with the senior management from different countries and functional areas to achieve the company's strategic goals rapidly. In a period of two years, sales from both new products launched -- and from new segments -- grew to more than US $200 million.
Claudio worked for more than ten years for Grupo Progreso, a company which leads the building materials market in Central America, to achieve their growth strategy. He helped different businesses improve performance, integrate newly acquired companies, and bring in new managers.
Claudio's other recent clients include BMW, HSBC, PEMEX the Mexican state oil company, and the Guatemalan tax collection agency.
He has published several articles in Latin American journals, including "Learning Through Results" (Harvard Business Review Latin America, December 2006). He contributed several case studies to the firm's book Rapid Results! How 100-Day Projects Build the Capacity for Large-Scale Change (Jossey-Bass, 2005).
Claudio received his BS in Chemical Engineering from the Instituto Technológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (México). He earned an MBA with honors from the Instituto Technológico Autonomo de México. He currently lives in Mexico with his wife and three children, and is dedicated to running, and seeking out what he considers to be the perfect combination of great food with great music.
