Where this fits
Demand → Pricing → Cash → EBITDA → Network → Visibility → Value
Most businesses don't have a strategy problem.
They have a leakage problem.
Revenue, margin, cash and execution don't fail at once.
They fail quietly — across the system.
This diagnostic shows you where.
This isn't theory.
This is how I've run businesses across industrial distribution,
manufacturing and commercial operations.
The patterns are consistent.
The gaps show up in the same places.
And they're fixable — once you see them clearly.
Revenue is growing. EBITDA isn't.
Pricing breaks in the field, not the boardroom. Invoice by invoice. Exception by exception. By the time the P&L shows it, the margin is already gone.
If you're not measuring pricing at invoice level, you're guessing. Most businesses are wrong by 2–3%.
→ Quantify itCash is tighter than the P&L suggests.
The income statement is not the business. The cash position is. The difference is sitting in your balance sheet — stock that won't move, receivables past terms, payables on someone else's schedule.
Most businesses underestimate the trapped cash by 30–40%. They're measuring the wrong number. It's already there.
→ Find out how much is trappedThe pipeline looks full. The conversions don't.
The forecast is being managed, not measured. Numbers are adjusted at every level before they reach the top. Revenue misses are always explainable in hindsight. They are almost never predicted.
If your forecast is consistently close to target, it's being adjusted — not predicted. You're guessing at revenue. So is the board.
→ Test whether yours is realPerformance varies by branch. Nobody agrees why.
The best branches do the same things consistently. The worst have found ways not to. The gap is not market conditions. It is what happens when operating standards are described but not enforced.
If you're explaining branch underperformance with 'local conditions', you're guessing. The cause is almost always operating discipline. Most businesses know the gap exists. Almost none have measured what's driving it.
→ Model branch performanceI need to assess or improve a portfolio business
For PE partners who need commercial diligence, post-acquisition performance or pre-exit value creation. The patterns across industrial and distribution portfolios are consistent.
→ Start with Value Creation ToolsI run the business and performance isn't where it should be
For CEOs and MDs dealing with margin pressure, cash drag, execution drift or growth that's not converting to EBITDA. The problem is usually visible in the data before it appears in the board pack.
→ Run the 7-Step DiagnosticI'm looking for an executive or operating partner
For chairs, boards and firms looking for CEO, Interim CEO or Operating Partner capability in industrial and distribution businesses.
→ View Executive MandatesIf you're not looking across all seven, you're fixing the wrong problem.
Most management teams already know where the problem is.
The issue is it hasn't been measured — so it hasn't been forced.
The gaps above are not hypothetical. They show up consistently across industrial distribution, manufacturing and commercial operations.
The sequence works because it follows the actual path of value creation and destruction inside a business.
If you don't run the sequence, you'll keep fixing the visible problem — not the one actually driving it.