About Ci-X Strategies

At Ci-X Strategies (pronounced “six”) we recognize that community-driven businesses confront more challenges and trade-offs than solely profit-driven ones. The X in Ci-X reflects the X factor of working for the public good. Ci-tizen. Ci-vic minded. Ci-vilian. Our goal is to provide mission-driven leaders with the foresight and confidence to turn their values and ideas into sustainable business strategies that let them serve their mission for the long-haul.

As a cross-industry strategic firm, we enable transformational leaders to take confident action and meet the pressing needs of the communities that rely on them. At Ci-X, we’ve driven the development and execution of high-impact initiatives that create impact and transform community vision into thriving organizations. We focus our work on leaders and organizations across media, information + civic infrastructure, community innovation, and equitable capital access.

 

Work with Ci-X

Business Advisory

Make informed decisions, strengthen your mission and meet your goals
Starting from a mission-driven approach, Ci-X Strategies supports executive leadership in finding and acting on the right opportunities that turn your mission and values into an undeniable asset: a culture of execution that’s truly aligned with your mission and values.

  • Business Management

  • Strategy Development and Facilitation

  • Mission, Vision and Values Development

  • Business Model Analysis

  • Interim Executive Services

  • Executive Coaching and 1:1 Mastermind Sessions

Innovation & Growth

Right-size your opportunities, and make meaningful impact
Growth isn’t just looking for the “hockey stick.” Meaningful growth plays on your organizations strengths, bolsters your reputation and improves how you deliver for your constituents. Ci-X supports executive leadership in assessing, planning and launching new products, ecosystem initiatives, and strategic growth initiatives that strengthen your impact.

  • New Business + Product Line Development

  • Equitable + Inclusive Multi-Stakeholder Facilitation (for multi-org initiatives, and ecosystem development work)

  • Business Case Development + Narrative

  • Feasibility + Market Entry

  • Team Cohesion Strategies

  • Risk Mitigation

Change Leadership

Assess and pivot, while strengthening trust
Change is needed, but where to begin? Ci-X Strategies’ approach to change is rooted in trust and transparency. We believe in finding a path forward that honors what worked, accepts what didn’t, and charts a shared approach forward. Change leadership principles can be used to wrap up and re-design initiatives, or to change course for the organization.

  • Relationship Management Strategies

  • Product/Initiative Sunset + Retrospective

  • Organizational Assessment + Redesign

 
 

AbOUT THE FOUNDER

 Lillian Ruiz is a start-up executive, consultant and executive coach working at the intersection of information, social innovation and civic identity. She started Ci-X Strategies as a way to to support innovative mission-driven businesses in operating at their highest levels and strengthening their constituent relationships. Ruiz’s business advisory approach puts mission front and center, ensuring strategy, execution and culture of execution serve the organization’s North Star.

Prior to Ci-X, she was COO and co-founder at the National Trust for Local News where she oversaw operations, portfolio strategy, acquisitions, project financing and ecosystem sustainability. As co-founder and COO of Civil Media – a technology company experimenting with blockchain technology as a vehicle for alternative business and revenue models for local and investigative news – she led operations, startup investments, risk management strategy and special projects. Having started her career at the intersection of marketing, community building and growth, her guiding principal has been to foster and support the development of products and spaces that communicate respect, harmony and civic cohesion.

She serves as Vice Chair of the Tiny News Collective, advisory member to the Legal Clinic Fund for Local News and is an instructor at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism’s J+ Program, where she teaches “Operations and Execution: Acting on Your Mission and Values.” Her 2022 research, A Deep Dive Into the Sustainability Needs of Community Media Outlets, was written while a Senior Fellow of the Lenfest Institute and has been cited numerous times in both national press and ongoing academic scholarship on local news, equitable capital access and succession planning.

 
 

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