Dr. Miguel Cerna

Strategy Advisor

Transform your organization

from fragmentation to fusion.

Explore my Services

Organizational Integration
white and gray optical illusion
white and gray optical illusion

Unify your organization for a single purpose, to rapid respond to market shifts. Eliminate departmental friction and silos that drain profits.

yellow, beige, and red dragon print textile
yellow, beige, and red dragon print textile
A close-up view of a globe.
A close-up view of a globe.
China Relations Advisory

Navigate China's complex landscape to transform significant risks into unparalleled international benefits.

Capture global opportunities with strategic partner selection and reduced risk for accelerated international expansion.

Internationalization of Business
Conflict Mediation
Two people are shaking hands.
Two people are shaking hands.

Resolve high-stakes disputes efficiently to minimize disruption, safeguard reputation, and foster long-term collaboration.

two women sitting on leather chairs in front of table
two women sitting on leather chairs in front of table
a blue abstract background with a circular design
a blue abstract background with a circular design
Global Talent Development

Cultivate an adaptable, future-ready global workforce to secure competitive advantage and leadership excellence.

Ensure a unified, culturally relevant message to prevent brand erosion, inefficiency, and revenue loss across global markets.

Corporate Narrative Localization

There's more:

We can arrange an initial meeting to learn about your specific needs.

I may have the solution.

a graduation cap and a green tassel on a piece of wood
a graduation cap and a green tassel on a piece of wood
Academic Integration Solutions

Cultivate emerging talent and empower professionals with applied global strategy and cross-cultural leadership skills through tailored academic programs.

This is my main service, the key to sustainable organizational success. It encompasses taking into consideration every element of an organization. A poorly or non-integrated organization falters in the face of even minor systemic disruptions.

My work involves streamlining structures and processes, pinpointing potential or existing disruptions, developing customized alternatives for action, supporting your implementation phase, and ultimately unlocking peak performance across your entire enterprise.

Organizational Integration

With this service, I help you address and eliminate the following challenges:

  • Internal Friction & Silos:

    The constant drag of departmental conflicts, misaligned objectives, and inefficient workflows that stifle innovation and slow execution.

  • Wasted Resources:

    Duplicated efforts, bureaucratic bottlenecks, and fragmented strategies that bleed profits and dilute impact.

  • Lost Opportunities:

    The inability to respond quickly to market shifts due to internal sluggishness and lack of cross-functional synergy.

You can leverage the saved hours and resources:

  • Strategic Innovation:

    Reallocate executive attention and team bandwidth to high-value initiatives, product development, and disruptive innovations.

  • Market Expansion:

    Focus on capturing new market segments, competitive intelligence, and accelerating global penetration.

  • Future-Proofing:

    Invest in advanced R&D, cultivate emerging technologies, and proactive risk mitigation.

Undoubtedly, China is one of the most important partners in the world. They have the manufacturing capability, experience and workforce, the advancement of technology, the market size, and the willingness to cooperate. However, the immense potential benefits are matched by significant risks.

I lived in China for 28 years; that is how I understand this nation to the heart of its culture. This deep immersion allows me to provide strategic counsel and profound cultural insights essential for successfully navigating the complexities and seizing the vast opportunities within the Chinese market, as well as leveraging China's technological advances.

China Relations

With this service,

I help you prevent:

  • Costly Misunderstandings:

    Cultural gaffes, communication breakdowns, and strategic misalignments that jeopardize partnerships and prevent you from entering, and remaining profitable in that market.

  • Regulatory Pitfalls:

    I can help you to Navigate the complex and rapidly evolving regulatory landscapes of China, which, without expert guidance, will most certainly lead to fines or operational shutdowns.

  • Missed Opportunities:

    The inability to identify and capitalize on opportunities within one of the world's largest and most dynamic markets, stemming from a lack of deep knowledge about Chinese business culture. This level of expertise is acquired only through extensive, long-term interaction and immersion, which I possess and can now leverage for your benefit.

You can leverage the saved hours

and resources:

  • Accelerated Market Penetration:

    Rapidly establish trust and effective operations within the Chinese market.

  • Strategic Partnership Building:

    Forge deeper, more resilient relationships with key Chinese stakeholders and collaborators.

  • Localized Innovation:

    Unlocking significant growth potential by focusing on developing products perfectly tailored for the Chinese consumer, or other markets for which you need access to the evolving China's technological advantage and experience.

I help you prevent:

  • Costly Missteps:

    Expensive errors in market entry, legal compliance, or cultural integration that lead to financial losses and reputation damage.

  • Delayed Growth:

    Protracted research phases, bureaucratic hurdles, and uncertainty that stall expansion into lucrative new territories.

  • Competitive Disadvantage:

    Operating without deep market understanding, leaving you vulnerable to more agile local or experienced global players.

a bunch of flags that are flying in the air
a bunch of flags that are flying in the air

Internationalization of business

Internationalization is about cooperation, where 'who' is the most critical factor. Working with your cross-functional teams, I guide global expansion and the selection and evaluation of potential partners, enabling you to capture new opportunities and navigate complex international landscapes with reduced risk.

You can leverage the saved hours and resources:

  • Accelerated Market Penetration:

    Rapidly establish profitable footholds and scale operations in new international markets.

  • Strategic Partnerships:

    Dedicate time to forge stronger alliances and ecosystems abroad.

  • Global Brand Building:

    Focus on cementing your brand's presence and reputation on an international scale, rather than troubleshooting basic entry issues.

Disagreements, failed contractual promises, and payment delays are all part of the reality for decision-makers. My service specializes in resolving high-stakes internal and external disputes swiftly and with accurate judgment, minimizing disruption, preserving critical relationships, and restoring focus to your core business objectives.

Conflict Mediation

This service will help you prevent:

  • Crippling Disruptions:

    High-stakes disputes (internal or external) that derail projects, halt operations, and consume invaluable executive bandwidth.

  • Reputation Damage:

    Negative publicity or eroded trust that can severely impact market standing and stakeholder relationships.

  • Legal & Financial Drains:

    Protracted litigation and associated costs that divert capital from strategic investments.

You can leverage the saved hours

and resources:

  • Uninterrupted Strategic Focus:

    Redeploy executive attention and resources immediately back to core business growth and innovation.

  • Relationship Fortification:

    Strengthen critical internal and external partnerships, ensuring long-term collaboration.

  • Resource Reallocation:

    Divert funds and personnel from dispute resolution to profitable ventures and strategic initiatives.

Without stable human capital—people who stay with you in the good and bad times—organizational integration and survival are impossible. My work in this area focuses on cultivating and optimizing your worldwide human capital, ensuring you build an adaptable, future-ready workforce and secure a robust leadership pipeline for sustained competitive advantage. But every hire is an investment, and my commitment to building exceptional teams drives this service.

Global Talent Attraction, Development, and Retention.

This is a passion for me.

For you, it signifies preventing:

  • Talent Scarcity & Turnover:

    The perpetual struggle to find, retain, and develop the right skills globally, leading to leadership gaps and high recruitment costs.

  • Skills Obsolescence:

    A workforce ill-equipped for future challenges, undermining innovation and adaptability.

  • Disengaged Workforce:

    Low morale and productivity stemming from unclear career paths and inadequate development opportunities.

You can leverage the saved hours

and resources:

  • Leadership Succession:

    Invest in robust succession planning and top-tier leadership development programs to secure future stability.

  • Culture Transformation:

    Cultivate a high-performance culture that attracts and retains elite global talent.

  • Strategic Workforce Planning:

    Proactively align talent strategies with long-term business objectives, ensuring a competitive edge.

Working with trusted partners in the language industryI free you from:

  • Costly Cultural Missteps & Brand Erosion:

    Preventing severe errors in messaging that can offend local sensibilities, damage brand reputation, and erode trust in new markets. This avoids the high cost of re-branding or recovering from public relations disasters.

  • Ineffective Market Penetration:

    Eliminating the barrier of generic or poorly adapted content that fails to resonate, leading to sluggish market adoption, missed sales targets, and wasted marketing spend in new territories.

  • Operational Inefficiency & Delays:

    Freeing your internal teams from the time-consuming, complex, and error-prone process of managing disparate translation vendors, ensuring rapid and accurate adaptation of all global communications.

  • Legal & Regulatory Non-Compliance:

    Mitigating the significant risks of fines, legal disputes, or market exclusion due to inaccurate or non-compliant translations of contracts, product labels, and regulatory documents.

  • Lost Revenue Opportunities:

    Overcoming the invisible wall of language barriers that prevent deeper customer engagement, conversion, and loyalty in diverse global markets.

happy st patricks day
happy st patricks day

Corporate Narrative Localization.

Nothing is more important for true integration than having a single message everyone in and outside the organization can understand and relate to culturally. This is where localization comes to play a critical role, and I manage this process for you.

You can leverage

the saved hours

and resources:

  • Accelerated Global Market Entry:

    Rapidly launch products, services, and campaigns with full cultural relevance, significantly reducing time-to-market and gaining first-mover advantage.

  • Enhanced Global Brand Equity:

    Build deeper trust and cultivate stronger relationships with international customers by consistently communicating in a way that feels authentic and local.

  • Optimized Resource Allocation:

    Redeploy internal teams and budgets from managing complex localization workflows to higher-value activities like core product innovation, strategic partnerships, and advanced market analysis.

  • Superior Competitive Positioning:

    Outpace competitors by demonstrating a deeper understanding and respect for local markets, leading to stronger customer loyalty and a more robust global footprint.

  • Informed Strategic Decision-Making:

    Ensure accurate and contextually relevant interpretation of global market intelligence, enabling more precise strategic planning and investment in new regions.

It is a deeply humbling experience to help cultivate emerging talent and empower established professionals and executives who are knowledgeable, creative, proactive, and adaptable, ready to drive meaningful integration in complex organizational landscapes. Here is I help to forge professionals with a holistic view of organizational life.

Beyond my direct advisory work, contributing to higher and continuous education is a profound passion. I offer tailored lecturing and curriculum development for both onsite and online courses, infusing programs with my multidisciplinary insights and extensive international experience, which makes these offerings highly practical without sacrificing academic integrity.

Academic Integration Solutions

Academic Excellence and Field applicability.

What Institutions Gain:

  • Foundational Global Mindset:

    Students gain early exposure to multidisciplinary perspectives and critical international business insights, preparing them for an interconnected global workforce from the outset.

  • Enhanced Career Readiness:

    Curriculum is infused with practical applications and real-world case studies, helping students develop the adaptable and proactive skills demanded by modern organizations.

  • Advanced Applied Global Strategy: Programs are enriched with sophisticated analyses of international market dynamics and organizational integration challenges, enabling students to develop tangible, implementable strategies for complex global contexts.

  • Cross-Cultural Leadership Skills: Students acquire nuanced understanding and and practical tools for leading multicultural teams and navigating diverse organizational cultures, crucial for senior roles.

woman wearing blue denim jacket holding book
woman wearing blue denim jacket holding book
woman wearing academic cap and dress selective focus photography
woman wearing academic cap and dress selective focus photography
  • Elevated Research Impact:

    Ph.D. candidates benefit from guidance that integrates behavioral science and multidisciplinary insights into their research, ensuring their work addresses real-world organizational and global complexities.

  • Preparation for Global Thought Leadership:

    Cultivating advanced critical thinking and the ability to generate original insights that transcend traditional academic boundaries, preparing them for influential roles in academia or industry.

man teaching woman while pointing on gray laptop
man teaching woman while pointing on gray laptop
Bookshelves are filled with colorful books in a library.
Bookshelves are filled with colorful books in a library.
  • Immediate Strategic Application:

    Professionals gain actionable tools and frameworks for immediate application in their current roles, enabling them to solve real-time organizational integration and global challenges.

  • Enhanced Leadership Agility:

    Programs provide critical insights into adapting to dynamic international markets and fostering integrated teams, empowering leaders with the agility needed for sustained professional growth.

For Undergraduates

For Master's Candidates

For Ph.D. Candidates

For Continuous Education Programs