Where this fits

Demand → Pricing → Cash → EBITDA → Network → Visibility → Value

Where Is Value Leaking in Your Business?

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.

Patterns

The patterns that precede an EBITDA miss

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 it

Cash 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 trapped

The 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 real

Performance 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 performance
Navigate

Which describes your situation?

Private Equity

I 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 Tools
View Track Record →
CEO / Operators

I 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 Diagnostic
Quantify the pricing gap →
Chair / Board / Recruiter

I'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 Mandates
View Track Record →
Sequence

The structured diagnostic path

If you're not looking across all seven, you're fixing the wrong problem.

1 Demand & Pipeline Is pipeline real and forecastable? → 2 Pricing & Margin Where is margin leaking? → 3 Cash Conversion Where is EBITDA trapped? → 4 EBITDA Bridge Is revenue growth translating? → 5 Network & Branch Is expansion creating value? → 6 Performance Visibility Can you see it in time to act? → 7 Value Creation Is it connecting to enterprise value? →
Run the full sequence →

Most management teams already know where the problem is.

The issue is it hasn't been measured — so it hasn't been forced.

Basis

This is based on how businesses are actually run

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.

→ View track record → First 90 Days approach → Execution Cadence

If you don't run the sequence, you'll keep fixing the visible problem — not the one actually driving it.

Start the sequence now Discuss a mandate View executive mandates

Next Step

Discuss a mandate or run the full diagnostic to identify where value is leaking.

The diagnostic can help identify areas contributing to The Transferability Gap™, including financial, commercial, operational, management and ownership transferability — the five layers that determine whether a business can continue performing after ownership changes.

The diagnostic identifies where value is leaking. Private equity value creation advisory is the operating framework used to close those gaps in PE-backed businesses during the hold period.

The diagnostic identifies operational gaps. Founder exit readiness is the preparation framework that closes those gaps before buyer scrutiny applies.

The value leakage diagnostic identifies where sell-side readiness gaps are largest — pricing, cash conversion and execution discipline are all tested when a buyer runs their own diligence.

The value leakage diagnostic reveals the same categories a buyer will assess in operational due diligence readiness — running it before a process starts gives founders the opportunity to fix rather than disclose.

Operator advisory uses the diagnostic framework to provide an independent commercial view — the same picture a buyer or board would form if they examined the business without management's framing.

For founders using the diagnostic to assess performance, a common next question is whether to sell to private equity — the diagnostic reveals the operating gaps that would affect both valuation and deal structure.

The diagnostic identifies operating gaps against what private equity looks for in a business — earnings leakage, management dependency and visibility failures are the categories PE firms weight most heavily in their assessment.

The diagnostic identifies operating gaps. What buyers look for in management teams maps those gaps onto management capability — which operating failures reflect leadership depth, which reflect system design and which reflect founder dependency.

Go to next step: Start the 7-Step Sequence View full sequence