About Stéphane Joanis
Founder & Principal of SJ Performance, LLC
A story of transformation
Stéphane has a master’s in business administration from Robert Morris University, a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Ottawa, Canada, and PMC-III certification from pragmatic institute.
Overcoming Shyness
As a teenager he was both shy and personable and because of his shyness he rarely initiate a first contact with a stranger but would warm up quickly once invited into a conversation. He was sixteen when his sister registered as as an altar boy for her confirmation which ended with Stéphane fainting at the altar. He then forced himself to overcome his shyness by participating in more public activities and volunteering to play the piano at a talent show. He would be nominated and elected as president of the high school band winning gold at the nationals at Musicfest Canada. Initiated the creation of a jazz band and was selected by his teachers to deliver the valedictory at his high school graduation ceremony.
Answering the call of leadership
He lost his father to pancreatic cancer at the age of 23 years old. He stepped up to assist his mother in maintaining the business that she and his father had built together. He designed his own training program to build new relationships and registered two individuals per month for the next ten months earning him the respect of senior leaders in the organization. He would then read one book per month on leadership and personal development based on recommendations from his mentor and has maintained the habit of reading.
He delivered impassioned speeches on stage to thousands of people in ways that inspired them to grow their own business. He gave opportunity presentations in hotel rooms on a weekly basis with an attendance that grew to around one hundred and fifty people with many leaders rallying behind his support.
Overcoming Challenges
For years, he dedicated his efforts without income in support of his mother. Soon after meeting the woman of his dreams, he looked for a job in customer service, a strategic move enabling him to continue to pursue his business objectives after work. In the early 2000’s his mentor and many of his mentor's leaders parted ways to pursue other interests. Stéphane persisted to lead his team and the other teams who had rallied behind him. People gradually moved on to pursue other interests as they lacked evidence and belief that they could succeed in a declining market.
A New opportunity
In January 2006, Stéphane began looking for new opportunities and began a new experience performing door-to-door sales. Four short weeks later he received a call from one of his previous mentor’s leaders who asked to visit him and his wife. This person drove over two hours to share a new opportunity in relational marketing and Stéphane and his wife got excited and built a new organization from zero to over 250 clients within six months. He and his wife were recognized as the manufacturer’s top pacesetter earners that year.
Then, in late 2007, the leadership team that he had chosen to follow started to break apart.
Stéphane worked as a pricing analyst for Fisher Scientific at that time and made a conscious decision to pursue a career with this company. He reached out to Raymond Perras in 2008 requesting for some personal coaching to help him reach his goals faster. Coach P introduced him to relaxation techniques to slow down his brain, encouraged him to take inventory of his prior accomplishments to instill self-belief, and showed him other elements of what would eventually become the peak performance™ framework.
A Transformation with Peak Performance™
In 2010 Stéphane was offered an opportunity as Sr. global strategic pricing analyst for Thermo Fisher Scientific’s new corporate global strategic pricing team located in Pittsburgh. He moved his family from Canada to the United States in 2011.
In 2013 he was offered an opportunity to lead strategic pricing for the chemical analysis division, an analytical instrument manufacturing division made up of five business units and representing $1.0B of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s $11.55B in annual revenue. This division was suffering from a lack of visibility at the corporate level with the most negative price performance of all divisions within the company. He designed new data structures that harmonized data from a dozen ERP systems into a single data warehouse. This enabled business units to use a new price metric that he recommended. He then led a cultural transformation to use price more strategically as a lever to profitability and revenue. This lead to the introduction of a new annual list price review process with checks and balances to hold himself accountable to business goals and inspire trust.
In 2015 he introduced price workshops that helped to align finance, marketing, sales operations, business development, and commercial teams to use pricing more strategically. He became a go-to resource for over sixty price owners/product managers and recommended prices for the introduction of over thirty new chemical analysis instruments. He travelled to each manufacturing site and his deep knowledge of business processes enabled him to develop a response plan for Brexit and lead the implementation within a few short weeks (faster than any other division).
In 2017 he accepted an opportunity in product management for optical safety and security instruments as he pursued his MBA. He introduced successful business cases that led to the introduction of the Defender Omega handheld Raman analyzer and the addition of low-dose identification on Gemini to help US customs and border patrol identify fentanyl and opioids in lower concentrations using SERS technology.
In 2018 he completed his MBA with honors at Robert Morris University.
In 2019 he accepted an opportunity as Sr. commercial finance/business intelligence manager and led AOP alignment discussions between regional commercial teams and business unit management teams operating in a matrix environment. He also built a new global commercial forecasting process and contributed to the development of new data structures to provide visibility to backlogs using through new business intelligence dashboards that he designed for the leadership team.
In 2021 He was promoted to Sr. Manager of Market Intelligence. He built a new market intelligence reporting process and gained support from the new president who requested that the information be shared to his leadership team through the introduction of new quarterly business intelligence reviews in the future.
These experiences served Stéphane in improving his business acumen to enable him to provide greater value as a coach and advisor to the clients that he now serves.
Moving Forward to Greater Heights
In 2022, he started his own business focusing on strategic pricing and quickly expanding to leadership development. Since, he has provided price training, recommended prices for new instruments, provided personal coaching and strategies for growth. He has captured the voice of customer in the safety market that have led to the development of new products and strategic expansion to new markets.
The Peak Performance™ framework
Stéphane’s application of the peak performance™ framework during his professional career has helped him to lead breakthrough transformations. He contributed to the company’s success by developing new processes and influencing transformations that have provided tens of millions in profit through global strategic pricing initiatives, millions in revenue growth with the introduction of new products and product improvements, and millions in productivity improvements through enhanced pricing, business intelligence, and competitive intelligence process efficiencies.
We help make your dreams a reality.
We are dedicated to partnering with clients to create a breakthrough transformation in their quest for excellence in business. By combining our technical know-how with our coaching expertise, we help organizations and individuals achieve effort-less effectiveness while reducing stress. We facilitate the transformation to a team that thrives on change through a strategic, open, and targeted communication process.
We define peak performance as: "the right stuff, in the right amount, at the right time™ ”.
We partner with your organization to create a breakthrough transformation to new levels of excellence in your professional and personal lives.
Every journey starts with a first step
Achieve a Breakthrough Transformation
Learn the concepts of Peak Performance™ to achieve a state of Effort-less Effectiveness™.
The material is organized strategically towards achieving a breakthrough transformation with maximum efficiency.
We guarantee a significant shift to Peak Performance™ within 6-8 weeks from the start of a chosen implementation pathway.
Testimonials
I have had the pleasure of working closely with Stephane for two years, I can confidently attest to his unwavering dedication to delivering insightful and data-driven solutions.
Stephane's proficiency in market analysis is truly commendable. He possesses a keen eye for identifying emerging trends and opportunities, allowing our team to make informed decisions that have consistently resulted in increased market share and business growth. His ability to gather and interpret market data with precision has been invaluable in driving successful strategic initiatives.
Furthermore, Stephane's expertise in customer insight has been instrumental in enhancing our understanding of customer behavior and preferences. He employs a meticulous approach to gather customer feedback and conduct in-depth research, enabling us to tailor our products and services to meet the unique needs of our target audience.
Jonathan Frattaroli
Chairman and CEO, RedWave Technology
Outward progress is a result of inward growth.
In working with Stephane now for about a year as a professional coach, I have noticed that I have a greater capacity at work to deal with challenging situations along with a greater perspective. Stephane has consistently been my advocate and mentor, challenging me to create and maintain a vision, not only for my products and company, but also for myself. His approach simultaneously works to improve inner dialogue while also identifying real tools (whether emotional or practical) for solving problems and creating vision.
As a Professional Coach, Stephane combines years of experience in the Med-Tech space with a bright mind and heart and genuine care for the individual, making his guidance relevant both professionally and also personally. It is with a changed inner dialogue, as a result of working together, that is giving me more patience, inspiration and compassion in my workplace along with increased clarity about how to productively influence situations that are challenging and could lead to loss for the company - whether that is loss of revenue, loss of a project or loss of personnel.
Working with Stephane is protective for the mind and heart and therefore business. I recommend working with Stephane for anyone wishing to achieve increased clarity, vision and productivity in any work environment.
Marie Terrill
Director, Product Management, Persyst
Stéphane came in to help our small business get a grasp of our pricing situation. With labor costs, raw material costs, and inflation all on the rise, we felt like we were in a rough situation in determining how to adjust our prices to help offset these costs, and how to communicate those prices to clients. That's where SJ Performance came in. Stéphane was able to guide us from a qualitative perspective of when the best time for us to raise prices and how to set up a process of revisiting pricing multiple times a year. He visited our office and worked hands on with our front office staff and engineers to improve their pricing and customer communication skills. In particular, our staff valued the fact that Stéphane was previously an engineer and could relate and speak to them in technical terms and wasn't just a "spreadsheet guy".
Stéphane also helped us from a quantitative perspective by digging into our pricing and product data, identifying where we had potential for pricing increases, and helping us set new target prices for various products.
Overall, I appreciate the work Stéphane provided for our company - he was flexible, easy to work with, and responsive. I would highly recommend his team for anyone that needs pricing support.
Ryan Steffen
Manager at Deloitte Consulting / NorthField Precision Instruments
I've worked with Stephane on several projects involving business development and new product development. Stephane been a key part of our team, helping to identify new markets, quantify market potential, determine customer needs and work with partners on new business opportunities. His contributions have been meaningful to our business and have helped our company scale up in a time of growth. He has excellent business knowledge and data analysis skills.
Stephane provides very good communication and excellent customer service. He continually checks that his contribution is providing value to the business and always works with the highest integrity.
Dr. John Seelenbinder
Analytical Chemist, Vibrational Spectroscopist, and Business Development Specialist, RedWave Technology
Stephane possesses a remarkable grasp of complex financial data and a keen ability to analyze it with precision. His insightful approach to understanding data patterns and trends significantly contributed to the success of our project. Stephane's ability to discern essential information from vast datasets made a profound impact on the decision-making process, enabling us to make informed and strategic choices.
One of Stephane's most remarkable qualities is his talent for effectively translating leadership's vision and requirements into actionable tasks for the team. He bridged the gap between management's expectations and the technical aspects of the project flawlessly, ensuring everyone was on the same page and fostering a cohesive work environment.
Stephane's exceptional communication skills were a true asset to our team. Whether it was conveying intricate data concepts or presenting project updates to stakeholders, he had an innate ability to articulate complex ideas in a clear and understandable manner. This played a crucial role in maintaining open channels of communication and building strong relationships with everyone involved.
John Maltais
Sr. Staff Data Architect / Business Intelligence Manager, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Frequently Asked Question
What is the first step to achieve a breakthrough performance?
Define your vision (where you want to go)?
In our book, achieving a breakthrough transformation, we introduce the Ikigai concept to finding your reason for being.
What is the mindset to achieve Peak Performance™?
GrativatE™
Embrace Gratitude, Elevate your mind to instill Self-belief, and seek Excellence.
How do I become more mindful, intentional and present?
Tapping into the MIP™.
Slow down your brain to manage your activities and energy to align with your purpose.
I recommend 1-4-2 box breathing as described by Raymond Perras in is book, Aim for life mastery™.
When do you know that you reached excellence?
You do not reach excellence. It is not a destination but a mindset.
You live excellence as you innovate, optimize and maximize to the best of your abilities.
How do I reduce stress?
Aim for excellence and not perfection.
Focus on being the best of you in accomplish what is in your control.
How do I reach Effort-Less Effectiveness™?
Practice, practice, practice
Activate and align your body and mind, relax, affirm, and visualize daily.
