Ernesto Mandowsky, Founder of CPD Advisors

Why do you do what you do?

After a decade of working in the restaurant industry, I recognize that I have a special gift of connecting the dots within businesses. While writing a book geared towards teaching the next generation of restaurant analysts about the expertise I had collected over the years, I realized the story was much bigger. I realized we are all bees extracting nectar across the different flowers of our lives - the jobs, experiences, and people - and transferring the pollen to help each other grow. The resulting honey that we create represents our unique perspectives and approaches to life. Entrepreneurs collect and combine insights they witness to create unique companies to change the world. Founders are often focused on the vision of the future and do not give enough attention to the infrastructure of their companies. This can cause extreme anxiety, frustration, and overwhelm for new team members as they come in. After recognizing my unique skillset at the intersection of business systems, culture design, and mindful living, I have dedicated my life to helping companies empower their stakeholders to share their honey with the world.

What does Social Sustainability mean to you and your organization?

Through Regenerative Business Systems, I aspire to transform companies into vehicles that can create opportunities for everyone within them to grow and self-actualize. In 2023, we plan to become a B-Corp, which demonstrates our commitment to the triple bottom line: pursuing profit, developing our people, and protecting the planet. We also like to align with the 3 SDGs that include Quality Education, Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Life on Land. We will be publishing our first Sustainability Report next year as we collect all the necessary data in 2023.

Who inspires you most?

Different people inspire me for different things. Both of my parents have inspired me to the concept of commitment. My father, Jacques, is extremely committed to his visions of designing homes, temples, and buildings as an architect. My mother, Daniela, is even more committed to her clients, helping them travel around the world as their travel agent (yes, they still exist). My grandfather, Maurice, has taught me about hard work and sacrifice. After escaping World War II and moving to South America, he started his own company fixing fishing boat engines. Eventually, he would help expand an American Fortune 500 manufacturing company through opening up their entire South American division. My uncle Raphael taught me how to create a company at the intersection of your passions and skills - his were dessert, fine art, and experiential activations. These are 4 of my main inspirational sources. Otherwise, there are the hundreds of books that I have read.

"Through pursuing my B Corp certification, I am building a tool that any small business can use to measure their monthly emissions, track the investments made in their team, centralize their policies, and also ensure the many other elements of the B Corp are handled.".

How do you guarantee success of your sustainability measures?

What gets measured gets managed.

Through designing recurring workflows that align with incentive structure (whether they be emotional, and/or financial), I guarantee the oversight of my sustainability measures.

Through pursuing my B Corp certification, I am building a tool that any small business can use to measure their monthly emissions, track the investments made in their team, centralize their policies, and also ensure the many other elements of the B Corp are handled.

What’s the purpose of your organization and how do you bring it to life?

My mission at CPD Advisors is to design and build Regenerative Business Systems to elevate every stakeholder so they can share their honey with the world. Think of the last company you worked at (or maybe your current company). How much time you spent being frustrated by the lack of communication, the confusion due to the sheer amount of tools, the anger towards the rework that is required due to a false start… Our Regenerative Business System framework is being thoughtfully designed to elevate communication across teams, streamline operations through automation, and improve the morale of organizations. Through designing the infrastructure that supports the business (team, tactics, and tools), we believe that the results that investors crave will take care of themselves.

"I am seeing that my ecosystem is starting to recognize the simplicity of using tools to build and grow our companies. By sharing more of my philosophies through amazing publications such as this one and my platform, I hope to be the change to inspire a new world".

Do you only communicate successes or also failures?

Failure can help you find alternative insight leading you to reorganize efforts.

I sincerely believe that success and failure is a construct of the ego.

All “failures” are just events that we internalize as negative experiences.

We can learn from these “failures” and take the feedback as lessons to move forward in life.

It’s all experience. Our negatively programmed society strives to make them “bad”.

Do you see a change in behavior in your consumers?

I am seeing that my ecosystem is starting to recognize the simplicity of using tools to build and grow our companies.

By sharing more of my philosophies through amazing publications such as this one and my platform, I hope to be the change to inspire a new world.

How do you integrate Diversity, Inclusion and Equity into your everyday?

Perhaps it’s not a formal integration of DEI, but I am extremely open and welcoming to all humans. The community I just launched has a Coexist in Harmony guideline which is listed 1st on the list.

Inclusion and Elevation are 2 key values I strive to embody when interacting with others.

What are your organization’s goals for the next year in terms of sustainability?

I intend to complete the B Corp certification.

I also intend to create a digital product that contains a B Corp tracking and implementation tool to help small businesses apply and manage all the elements to become a B Corp.

I also intend to partner with a Pollination Conservation organization to donate a portion of our proceeds to ecosystem preservation.

Who are you most grateful for?

I am most grateful for my parents and family!