Five questions, in order, answered by your executive team on your own numbers.
First
What are we assuming?
Written down so it can be wrong, and watched.
Second
Where will we make money?
Every product-market ranked by profit, advantage and risk. Three rise. Some get exited.
Third
Why will we win there?
The advantage, stated plainly, and the capabilities behind it. This is where AI enters.
Fourth
Which numbers prove it?
A handful per product-market, each on a P&L line, each with an owner.
Fifth
What do we do, and who owns it?
Projects with names and dates. Then, monthly, root cause and a decision. That is the board's page.
The page the board gets, ninety days later
The three notepads, answered. Pick your kind of company.
ToThe Board
FromThe CEO
ReWhere next year's $118M comes from
In June you approved $118 million against $104 million this year. In June I could not tell you where the $14 million would come from. I can now. The executive team wrote this page, and each of them owns a line of it.
1. Three product-markets carry $11 million of it
We are in twenty. Three make the money. Each now has an owner, a defensible advantage, and a number in next year's P&L.
Product-marketOwnerOf the $14M
Industrial OEM, North AmericaD. Reyes$5.2M
Aftermarket parts, all regionsM. Okafor$3.9M
Distribution, EuropeS. Lindqvist$1.9M
Exit of Retail channelThe CFO$3.0M
Total$14.0M
2. We are exiting one business
Retail loses $6 million a year with no advantage we can build. We stop funding it in Q2. The previous plan avoided this decision by spreading growth across everything.
3. AI is applied to two product-markets, not the company
Pricing intelligence in Aftermarket. Demand sensing in OEM. Each tied to a P&L line. The vendor list followed; it did not lead.
4. You get one page a month
Variance, root cause, decision, owner, date. If we are off, you know within thirty days.
5. What would make this wrong
OEM volume through the tariff review. The pricing tool landing by Q3. Both on the monthly page with a trigger.
$118 million is no longer a target. It is a set of decisions with names on them.
Illustrative. Written with MOVE, the system in the book.
ToThe Board
FromThe CEO
ReWhere next year's $92M comes from
You approved $92 million against $81 million. The old plan got there with forty new units and a same-store number no franchisee signed up for. This one gets there with 380 units, each with its own page, and five regional owners.
1. Three kinds of unit carry $9 million of it
380 addresses are not one market. Three unit types make the money. Each unit in them has its own page, competitor set and number.
Unit typeOwnerOf the $11M
Sunbelt suburban, 96 unitsRVP South$4.1M
Delivery-heavy urban, 58 unitsRVP East$2.7M
Refranchised Midwest, 44 unitsRVP Central$2.2M
No more mall openingsThe COO$2.0M
Total$11.0M
2. We stop one kind of opening
Mall units have lost money for four years. The twelve in the pipeline move to Sunbelt sites where the unit economics are proven. Franchisee capital goes where the returns are.
3. AI is applied at the unit, not head office
Local demand and pricing in urban units. Labour scheduling in the Sunbelt. Corporate strategy set once; decisions local and accountable to it.
4. Intelligence rolls up. Decisions stay at the unit.
Unit to region to me, monthly. You get the page I get: which units are off, why, what was decided, who owns it.
5. What would make this wrong
Franchisee capital in the Sunbelt pipeline. Labour cost in the urban units. Both on the monthly page with a trigger.
$92 million is no longer a system-wide hope. It is 380 pages, five owners, and one page you can read in five minutes.
Illustrative. Written with MOVE, the system in the book.
ToThe Board and the Operating Partner
FromThe CEO
ReThe value creation plan, rewritten by the people who deliver it
The plan at close called for $140 million at exit from $104 million at entry. We are at $109 million and the plan is still the deal team's spreadsheet. This is the version my team built, with the remaining $31 million assigned to people in this company.
1. Three product-markets carry $22 million of it
Managed services, recurring maintenance contracts, and the Southeast region we under-invested in during the deal. Each has an owner and a number in the exit-year P&L.
Product-marketOwnerOf the $31M
Managed services, mid-marketJ. Park$9.6M
Recurring maintenance contractsA. Moreau$7.4M
Southeast regionT. Bannerjee$5.0M
One tuck-in acquisitionThe CFO$6.0M
Exit of project workThe COO$3.0M
Total$31.0M
2. One acquisition, one exit
Six targets looked at. One fits the three above; five would have added revenue and diluted the multiple. Project work is $40 million of revenue at a loss. We exit it.
3. AI is applied to the two product-markets that set the multiple
Churn prediction in Managed services. Renewal pricing in Maintenance. Both feed the recurring-revenue quality a buyer pays for.
4. One page a month, the same page for CEO and sponsor
No separate deck for the sponsor. No separate story for the team.
5. What would make this wrong
Integration. Mid-market churn if pricing moves too fast. Both on the monthly page with a trigger.
$140 million stopped being the deal team's spreadsheet. It is decisions with names from this company on them.
Illustrative. Written with MOVE, the system in the book.
The questions are MOVE, published by Routledge in 2025. MOVE provides the questions. AI accelerates the answers. Your judgement owns the results.