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In this episode of Mission Matters, host Adam Torres welcomes back Arthur Cavazos—now a published author in Mission Matters Volume 11—to discuss how organizations can unlock success by mastering the art of “gap closing” in business. From operational inefficiencies to AI integration, Arthur walks us through proven frameworks and real-world strategies that turn potential into measurable performance.
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About Arthur Cavazos
As a C-Level executive with over 25 years of experience in operational leadership, he has built a leadership philosophy centered on servant leadership, team development, and strategic growth. His core strength lies in identifying and closing operational gaps, and he is comfortable working within these gaps to deliver sustainable solutions that drive success.
One of his key strengths is adopting a servant leadership approach—placing the needs of his team first to build high-performing, motivated, and engaged teams. By creating a culture based on trust, collaboration, and respect, he is consistently driven employee engagement, productivity, and loyalty, which are essential to building a foundation for organizational growth.
About DigitalFusion Consulting Group
They focus on fusing innovation and cutting-edge technology with traditional data-driven insights. They utilize the latest tools to optimize their clients’ operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive growth. Their agile and flexible approach enables us to adapt quickly to changing market conditions and deliver results that exceed expectations.
At DigitalFusion Consulting Group, they are passionate about empowering the clients’ organizations to seamlessly close the GAP(s) and achieve their best results. By fusing traditional consulting practices with digital solutions, we are transforming the way businesses operate in the modern world. Let them help you achieve success in today’s accelerated business climate.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show. Just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today I have Arthur Cavazos on the line, and let me tell you, this is a Return guest.
He’s a principal over at COO and Digital Fusion Consulting Group and and I’m proud to announce an author in our most recently released book, mission Matters Volume 11. Arthur, first off, welcome back to the show. Thank you, Adam. Such certainly a pleasure to be here. Appreciate your time as well. Oh man.
So how does it feel? Brand new author just released. How do you feel? Come on, that that new book smell It is certainly the new book smells like driving a new car all of a sudden. Adam, it’s fantastic. The highs gonna last for a little New York minute or two and then we’re gonna move on to the next best thing, right?
Fantastic. Well, we’ll start this episode, Arthur, the way that we start them all with what we like to call our mission matters minute. So at Mission Matters, our aim and our goal is to amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives and experts. That’s what we do. Arthur, what mission matters to you? Adam, thank you for the platform.
I appreciate the opportunity At Digital Fusion Consulting Group, our mission is to empower organizations to achieve sustainable growth. By bridging two components, the gaps of the expert consultants and the innovative digital solutions. Mm-hmm. We’re gonna partner with our clients to deliver tailored strategies that drive measurable performance and long-term impact across all industries.
Yeah. Wonderful. Well, great having you back on and love bringing mission-based entrepreneurs on the line to share why they do what they do, how they do it, and really what we can all learn from that to grow and, and get better. So thank you for that. Let’s just dive right into the book. So Mission Matters, volume 11.
Your title the title of your chapter in the book was Unlocking Success, mastering The Art of Gap, closing in Business. Speaking of gaps, like what are some of the common gaps that you know hold businesses back? I. Well, that’s a great question, Adam. Everybody has ’em. And whether we admit to it or not, we all have ’em.
Even we have ’em, right? So we’re constantly looking for those gaps. And one of the biggest gaps that we see in business today is the disconnect between strategy and execution, right? That, that we struggle with, that many organizations have ambitious goals. The disconnect is when the employees don’t understand the activity that, that they can’t implement effectively due to unclear processes, poor communication, or outdated systems, right?
We’ve all seen that. Another common gap is in customer experience, or companies absolutely fail to align their processes or products or the given products. With evolving customer expectations, right? If you’re not tuned into their forever ebbs and flows, then it creates a problem. At Digital Fusion Consulting Group, what we do is we take a structured approach to closing those gaps by focusing on three key principles.
That’s, one is visibility. The second is the discipline, and the third is accountability. So in the visibility realm, we, it ensures that the leaders. Have real time access to meaningful data, not just vanity metrics. Right? We, we’ve all kind of have seen some of that, sometimes that, yeah. Quote on vanity and it’s, they’re not real.
The second component is that we establish an order of discipline, which aligns employees with company policies, performance standards, and continuously encourages the will for all employees to continue to develop their skill. That is absolutely imperative. And then the accountability component. Where it fosters a culture where every team member is aligned with business objectives at the end of it, when business businesses master these given elements, they don’t, just those gaps, they absolutely unlock exponential growth.
That’s today. It’s true. Today. It’ll be true tomorrow and forever. Yeah. Going further down that line, can you share maybe a case or case study where your gap closing strategy delivered, you know, some results. Oh, absolutely, Adam. That’s a great question. At the end of the day, right, we’ve got a recent example where a client in the construction and industrial supply chain industry, they were struggling with operational inefficiencies.
Mm-hmm. The orders were delayed, their inventory tracking was inaccurate, and the customer retention, as you can imagine, was dropping like a lead balloon. Hmm. It started by conducting what we call a gap analysis. Right. Many of us understand what that means. And we were looking at where their operations were breaking down the main issue, the supply chain and internal teams were not in sync due to poor system integration and adoption.
So our approach included, again, the three-pronged elements that we spoke of just short a minute ago, is that we implemented process automation to streamline order fulfillment. Those were what is already available. We just kind of learned a new order of discipline. The second we restructured communication flows between procurement, sales and the fulfillment teams, right?
Communication is key. And then the third component of of our solution was redefining the KPIs, the real measurable KPIs that that’s not based on wish wishes, right? They’re real KPIs that MA measure and track performance effectively. Hold the teams accountable. Mm-hmm. So those are the three components.
What we got at the end was that within 90 days, the order accuracy improved by 30%, which is fantastic. On time delivery improved by about 40%, and customer retention rate climbed significantly as you can imagine. The customers got what they were needing and they were happy. Mm-hmm. These are the types of transformations that we specialize at within digital Fusion Consulting Group.
They’re real and it’s measurable impact for us. Yeah, those are some pretty big numbers. Like I’m imagining, like this is, that’s a game changer for the, for the for the company, right? Absolutely, it is. And it’s true of all, you know, if, if a company will embrace those types of changes, right? And be real about what the need is, understand what the real gap is.
And not focus on these vanity metrics. So where does where does AI play a role in all of this? Like, how, how, how is, how are you tackling that from the consulting side? I. Well, the biggest challenge today is that many businesses are reactive instead of proactive, right? Mm-hmm. They don’t know what to do with it.
When it comes to AI or digital transformation, they’re kind of stuck sometimes. Mm-hmm. They either wait too long to adopt a new technology or they implement without a clear integration strategy, which does what It leads to wasted resources. A frustrated employee environment, right? So your morale goes to pot.
At Digital Fusion Consulting Group, what we do to help is we navigate that shift by demystifying AI and automation instead of overwhelming the companies with tech jargon. What we do is we focus on practical AI integration that actually improves operations, right? Mm-hmm. For example, what we help clients with is we use AI driven data analytics to make better decisions, right?
We AI with BI is technically what we’re doing there. Yeah. And it gives us better analysis. The automation of repetitive workflows, right? When we’re talking the basics, the fundamentals of automating some of these workflows, reducing human error and freeing up teams for high value tasks. Can you imagine if you learn how to do that, then you’re not eliminating the workforce, you’re enhancing it and you’re repurposing it for greater good.
Mm-hmm. The third component there was to enhance customer engagement through AI powered insights and personalization. Hmm. Key takeaways, right? At the end of the day is that AI should be a tool for operational excellence. Mm-hmm. Not just buzzword, right? A lot of people just, oh, ai, ai this and that. Not, yeah, it should be a tool, but as we all know, you give a, a kid a hammer and all of a sudden everything becomes a nail and companies are at fault of doing the same thing.
So business that embrace the smart automation and data driven decision making. We’ll always outpace the competition today and in the coming times. Yeah. And so looking at this, because this isn’t going away for those that and I don’t wanna assume here, for those that are not embracing ar are not really playing ahead for this, there, there’s some real business risk there, isn’t there?
There is. Right at, at the end of the day, it’s that front end. So let’s talk about industries. Yeah. It’s. The impact is, is gonna be, is gonna happen at different industries, at different times, so, mm-hmm. Let’s talk about somebody who owns a landscape. If you can mobilize AI into the front end of your business, AI’s not gonna go, you know, to the field and cut the ground.
Yeah. Not gonna do that. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. It’s coming. Right. You got one of those big John Deere like, you know, it, it is working in farming and agriculture. Maybe not your front lawn yet. That is absolutely correct. And I’ve even seen the little tractors that are for your front lawn. Yeah. Or something stuff.
But, so what you’ve gotta do is you’ve gotta just be tuned into what it is you’re needing. And where you can pick out those nuggets. And again, surgical scissors are a sharp instrument that can cut grass, but that’s not the tool to use. So AI is not gonna be for everything for everybody at this given moment.
It’s gotta be redefined and there’s gotta be some structure still developed. Hmm. What kind of trends are you following right now, whether it’s technology or otherwise, like what in your world of consulting and working with different clients, but what kind of trends are you following? At the end of the day, you know, the biggest scare is, and you hear it in the media, right, is AI’s gonna take over your job and basically eliminate, you know, X, Y, and Z, and they kind of outline it.
The reality to it is that AI is complimentary, and so AI is still very dependent on us, the way it’s been introduced to the public. It’s still very dependent on us prompting it for questions. And so basically what you’re doing is you’re going through an encyclopedia of information and it deduces the information or it deduces the images or it deduces the script or deduces, you know, the programming language, et cetera.
But it’s going through and just phishing for data. So the retrieval of that data is, is done exponentially and much faster than we could possibly do it individually. The idea of it going any further than that today is not really, has not been introduced to the general public. Mm-hmm. So what we’re doing to you know, stay ahead of it, is we’re keeping our, our eye on the ball to ensure, you know, where has it moved today?
Because it’s not moving in. Computers used to be outdated in about five years, and then it moved to three, and then it moved to two. Now it’s like every 30 minutes something new is being developed. Yeah. And introduced. AI is moving at a rocket pace. So you’ve gotta keep your ear to the ground to kind of understand where it’s at.
And, and we we’re just tweaking as we go along, ultimately, you know, going to and building these AI chatbots and things of that sort. Not every company needs that today. Mm-hmm. And in fact, you and I have interacted with many of chatbots that they’re just frustrating ’cause they’re not done, they’re not done with flavor and it’s like, well press this and what would you like to need help with, et cetera.
I. And you respond and it says, well, what was your name again? And it’s like, completely off the chart and it’s just so frustrating. But we, we just gotta make sure that we’re keeping our ear to the ground to make sure that as AI moves forward and, and new technologies evolve into business, that we can help our client base adopt those new technologies.
Hmm. Well, Arthur, man, this has been great having you back, and I’m so excited and thrilled that you’re now in our Bestselling Business Leaders series. So Mission Matters volume 11. Excited to continue to promote this book with you and your work. What’s next? I mean, what’s next for you? What’s next for your company?
What’s next for your, your book as an author? Adam, thank you for the platform. Thank you and your team for doing what you guys do best. And that is allowing mission-based leaders to share their stories. And that’s what we’re doing, right? It’s, it’s about getting that exposure. So thank you for that.
What’s next for Digital Fusion is scaling our impact, right? Is no different than what you guys are doing and driving to do. And we’re partnering with bold leaders that aren’t afraid to take challenges in the status quo, right? We’re wanting to leverage the AI component and the operational strategy to close gaps between potential and performance, right?
Mm-hmm. Those two, there’s a big gap there in in many businesses. To take out the AI variable and that existed. Now you add the AI variable and it really exists. It goes to the deep end of the pool. And for me personally, Adam, I’m just getting started. If the mission matters, we’re showing up. Yeah.
Amazing. Well Arthur, if somebody’s listening to this and they wanna also follow up to learn more about digital Fusion Consulting Group, how do they connect with you and your team? Well, you can visit our website at www.digitalfusionconsultinggroup.com. You can find us on all the handles, you know, the social media handles.
So you can also visit our website and connect with us via phone. So if you want the live person to, to talk to and not an AI agent mm-hmm. You can actually do that with us. So feel free to give us a call. We’re best in person and we’re best boots on the ground. Wonderful. And for everybody watching, just so you know, we’ll definitely put a links in the show notes so you can just click on it and head right on over.
And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show. Each and every day are bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Arthur, thanks again for coming on the show, Adam. Thank you too. I appreciate you guys. Be blessed.