About The Author

DOUGLAS CASTLE: PROFESSIONAL PROFILE


914.462.2299 (Direct Telephone)

914.514.1673 (Facsimile)

douglascastle (Skype, By Appointment)

douglas.castle@yahoo.com (Email - Preferred)

douglas.castle@icloud.com (Email - Large Document Transfers, By Arrangement)



Douglas Castle is a senior level expert in all matters of high-level corporate negotiations, deal structure and finance, strategic planning, international business, major project management and all aspects of business communication. He speaks, consults and writes frequently about these subjects, as well as about key aspects of leadership, crisis management and the Human Condition. He has authored a great many articles on a very wide variety of subjects. Mr. Castle is currently a private consultant to young companies in several different countries.


Mr. Castle has been, and continues to be a seasoned and acclaimed advisor, director and trustee to emerging enterprises and growing companies worldwide, across a broad variety of industries on matters of organizational development, strategic planning, financing (both institutional equity and debt), international incorporations and negotiating of joint ventures, licenses of intellectual property, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Castle’s current passions are centered upon leveraging his wealth of experience in high-stakes corporate negotiations, deal structure, organizational engineering, strategic planning, business communications, social media marketing campaigns and financing to foster innovation and entrepreneurial growth and success in promising early-stage companies.


Mr. Castle’s professional resume has encompassed: international banking, asset-based financing, merchant banking (equity), factoring, purchase order financing, trade financing, leasing, sale/leaseback transactions, credit enhancement and surety bonding, transactional structuring (mergers, acquisitions, LBOs, ESOPs, management buy-outs, transnational and domestic co-ventures), real estate investment syndication, and the creation and monetization of unique investment instruments.


He has written and presented operating plans for international and offshore banks, finance companies, leasing companies, guarantee (bonding and other credit enhancements) companies to various financial institutions and government agencies and ministries; he has chartered a number of international commercial and economic development banks and reinsurance companies in multiple offshore and international jurisdictions -- these institutions had a combined aggregate capitalization at their operating outset of in excess of US$12,800,000,000.00.


During the past thirty five years, he has also incorporated close to one hundred IBCs (International Business Companies) and formed more than a dozen APTs (Asset Protection Trusts) in conjunction with domestic and international legal counsel across many business sectors. He has worked as a turnaround expert for troubled US and UK companies, and has renegotiated loan terms with banks, other creditors, bondholders and shareholders for these companies, both as pre-bankrupts, and as debtors-in-possession or trustees-in-possession.


Some of Mr. Castle’s prior engagements have included: Chairman of Global Edge International Consulting Associates, Inc.; Executive Director of Global Business Intel™, an unincorporated Division of Global Edge Technologies Group, LLC; Director and Senior Consultant of The Castle Consultancy; Managing Director and Member of Global Edge Technologies Group LLC; Acting Chairman and CEO of TNNWC Group, LLC; Senior Financial Analyst In Charge Of Special Projects for National Westminster Bank, plc; Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Banking, Finance and Investments at the Hofstra University School Of Business; Director of Capitol Guaranty Surety Company Inc.; Director of First Empire Capital Corporation and First Empire Autolease, Inc.; Intelligence Contractor for Kroll International Inc.; Interim CEO for AGP Group (publicly-traded, subsequently privately purchased); Member of the Board Of Directors, Triangle Group International, Inc. (publicly-traded, subsequently divided into several private concerns, each one a Management Buyout); and numerous others.


Mr. Castle received his B.S. in Economics from Stony Brook University (1976), with Omicron Delta Epsilon honors (as well as a New York State Regents Scholarship), and he received his MBA in Public Accounting from The Hofstra University Graduate School Of Business (with a graduate fellowship) in 1979.


Mr. Castle is a passionate and prolific speaker and writer about topics relating to Internationalism, futurism, leadership, negotiation, communication, and a variety of other non-financial topics.


You can obtain more information about Douglas Castle’s personal, educational and professional background by visiting his Linked In profile, which can be found by going to http://www.linkedin.com/in/douglascastle



Douglas Castle

914.462.2299 (Direct Telephone)

914.514.1673 (Facsimile)

douglascastle (Skype, By Appointment)

douglas.castle@yahoo.com (Email - Preferred)

douglas.castle@icloud.com (Email - Large Document Transfers, By Arrangement)


This document is Copyright © 2017 by Douglas Castle, with all rights reserved.

Sunday, October 15, 2017

ENTREPRENEURS: YOUR CONTRARIAN ADVANTAGE




ENTREPRENEURS: FIRE-UP YOUR CONTRARIAN ADVANTAGE

As an entrepreneur (or even in an established business with a growth-oriented mindset regarding a new product or service), you must focus on your contrarian advantage rather than following the herd and being lost in a sea of competitive noise. If you spend capital and energy to do what everyone else is doing, you will be competing against impossible odds; if you focus on what you do best (i.e., your “contrarian advantage”), and those few powerful things that differentiate you from all others, you will stand out and have a better chance at attracting and converting more prospective customers and clients. Creativity is king, just as original content is.

You will not be the best at social media – so why try? Just do what you need to do to be in “standard maintenance” mode. You will never have the greatest offering or the most comprehensive variety of products and services – so why try? Specialize in what you provide with the greatest level of competence, experience and excellence. Don't follow the herd for your success – ride against the herd to stand out and be noticed. And if you do this, it will strengthen your brand, your name recognition and your revenue line.

Fight on your own playing field with your own rules of customer and client engagement. Be interesting. Be original. Avoid competition – you'll only blend in – be your own brand, with your own features, your own presentation (originality always wins), your own benefits, your own customer referral programs, loyalty programs and your own uniquely-shaped message. Stop blending in. Start standing out. This is something worth doing in a big way.

As always, thank you for reading me. - Douglas


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