David Oyadomari is the Managing Director at Ekklesia Capital. With over 25 years of experience in market, product, and organizational development, he previously served on the managing committee at the Bank of Hawaii. Oyadomari is also the founder of Ekklesia Capital, through which he helps business owners build, grow, and secure the value of their companies
Business Challenges
While serving on the management committee of a large regional bank, Oyadomari sought a way to help local businesses find capital and advice. He started a company to acquire local businesses and build their value over time.
However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he—like many other business owners—was forced to pivot. He began assisting business owners with stimulus and loan applications, but he lacked a clear path to guiding these owners to scale their businesses. He also began researching tools that would simplify the process so he could help more than one owner at a time.
The pandemic only exacerbated any problems these businesses already had. One problem emerged. Struggling business owners might not be able to pay a reasonable rate for his services. He needed to find another revenue source.
Finally, those businesses were hurting now. A company that had been locked down for months was unlikely to have the funds to sustain itself for a year while its owner learned how to grow it again in the new economy. To truly help them, Oyadomari needed to move quickly.
Why The Value Builder System™?
In order to minimize the cost to his client businesses, Oyadomari partnered with local business organizations: small business administrations, chambers of commerce, local banks, and county government offices. The Value Builder System™ and its proven track record lent the credibility that these organizations required. “All of this will raise your credibility,” Oyadomari says. But it also provided prebuilt content that simplified Oyadomari’s initial pitch and marketing. With templates and videos, he was able to convince these network hubs to work with him, but he also used it to create brochures and landing pages for their mutual clients.
These organizations footed the bill through their community development programs, but they also provided something more important: the business owners themselves. They know which of their clients can most benefit, so they connected them with Oyadomari, who could work with them one on one.
To move toward a more sustainable group coaching model, Oyadomari leveraged the concept of tanomoshi. In this traditional network, small business owners create a pool of capital to combine efforts and lend money within the group. Instead of capital, Oyadomari’s network shares knowledge. Oyadomari connects seven to eight local business owners in each of his mastermind tanomoshi groups. Together, they create a community to share ideas and confide in each other for mutual encouragement, support, and accountability. Instead of the typical coaching system’s single expert, the tanomoshi network provides a sounding board of eight other professionals facing similar obstacles.
Within the Value Builder Engagement, business owners have 12 modules to complete to increase the value of their businesses. However, with many businesses already stressed by a global crisis, Oyadomari modified the program and focused on four of the most relevant modules that he knew would make an impact on pandemic-stricken businesses. “People needed help now,” he says. “How do I shorten it and take them through some of the core pieces in about a month?”
He condensed the traditionally year-long Engagement to just four weeks. “Certain modules are more relevant sooner rather than later when you’re suffering,” he reasoned. “Looking at Cash Flow and Growth Potential is more urgent than other modules, like Hub and Spoke, which might be relevant later.”
He also supplied short overview videos of all 8 Key Drivers of Company Value—a small part of the prebuilt content—so both the business organizations and the owners could become familiar with the entire framework for later individual coaching. “When I take them through snapshots of the modules,” he says, “they see it.”
Results
In a time of crisis, Oyadomari had a unique approach, one that was traditional in nature but innovative in execution. The Value Builder System™ was the perfect solution. It first helped him quickly build credibility and trust with banks, commercial organizations, and governmental offices. Through his tanomoshi groups, Oyadomari leverages The Value Builder System™ and its repeatable steps for building company value. But he has also embraced its versatility. By focusing on the value drivers that are most relevant to his clients, he continues to make an immediate impact.
