About 838 Strategies
Big Goals, Bold Strategy, Sustained Results
838 Strategies, LLC
838 Strategies is a Texas-based business consulting firm founded to help first- and second-stage companies — family-owned businesses, nonprofits, and private equity-backed firms — implement the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and progress into SEOS, the firm's Sustained Excellence Operating System.
The firm's defining philosophy, Beyond BHAG, was forged through an eight-year personal journey: from self-implementing EOS inside a 70-year-old family business across 40 consecutive weekly sessions, through the Edward Lowe Foundation's CEO Round Table, System for Integrated Growth engagements, the American Academy of Entrepreneurs, Big Rock Leaders Founders Circle, and ultimately the Edward Lowe Legacy Council — where the language of Retirement and Sunset was replaced permanently with Reward and Sunrise.
838 Strategies exists for one purpose: to help companies that have already reached the mountain top learn how to stay there — competing for the championship every year, not just the year they got good.
Founded
2026
Headquarters
Longview, TX
Delivery Reach
National (via foundation network)
Experience
25+ years operating & ownership
The Beyond BHAG Philosophy
BHAG — Big Hairy Audacious Goal — is the summit every ambitious company aims for. Beyond BHAG is what happens after you get there. It's the operating framework for companies that refuse to drift back down the mountain.
The Descent Trap
Vision Drift
The original Why fades into habit and process.
Culture Complacency
Standards soften, accountability disappears.
Execution Fatigue
Priorities multiply, focus collapses.
Celebration Deficit
Wins go unacknowledged, momentum stalls.
Wrong Seats
GWC misalignment (Gets it, Wants it, Capacity) tolerated too long.
The Cignetti Standard
Borrowed and adapted from the coaching transformation that took Curt Cignetti from IU Pennsylvania to IU Indiana, the Cignetti Standard frames the operating cycle that sustained competitors use — and it never stops:
1
Rebuild
Install culture and vision
2
System
Build execution infrastructure
3
Sustain
Protect the standard
4
Repeat
The cycle never ends
The Growth Path: From EOS to SEOS
EOS gets you to the top. SEOS keeps you there. This progression is 838 Strategies' formal growth and sustainment model.
Stage 1
EOS — The Climbing System
The Entrepreneurial Operating System gets a company to the top of its first mountain. It installs the Vision/Traction Organizer, Rocks, Scorecard, the Accountability Chart, and the weekly L10 meeting rhythm — the infrastructure a first- or second-stage company needs to align its leadership team, set priorities, and start executing with discipline instead of chaos.
EOS answers: How do we get there?
Stage 2
SEOS — The Staying System
SEOS — the Sustained Excellence Operating System — is 838 Strategies' proprietary extension of EOS, built specifically to answer the question EOS was never designed to answer. It layers in Sustained Vision Review, the Annual Scorecard Audit, the Celebration OS, and the Cignetti Cycle — the four components that specifically defend against drift, complacency, fatigue, and the celebration deficit.
SEOS answers: How do we stay there?
Foundation Partnerships
838 Strategies operates at the intersection of three forces few competitors can replicate: a proprietary methodology, trusted institutional access, and founder credibility earned through 25+ years of operating leadership.
Giving back is built into how we operate. Both 838 Strategies and our clients donate back to these foundations — because the organizations that helped us reach the top deserve to help the next generation of companies do the same.
Edward Lowe Foundation
Direct relationships through the CEO Round Table, Strategic Issues Group, American Academy of Entrepreneurs, and the Edward Lowe Legacy Council.
Visit WebsiteBig Rock Leaders Foundation
Trusted access to a network of growth-stage company leaders — relationships built over years of genuine engagement, not cold outreach.
Visit WebsiteReady to Go Beyond BHAG?
Start with an 838 Business Review — a real outside diagnostic of your business for $838 flat.