How we think about value creation in the middle market.
Field notes from senior operators. Structured, specific, and grounded in current engagements.
- DIAGNOSTIC
Twelve things we have learned about diagnosing middle market businesses
Most performance problems are governance problems wearing operational costumes. The constraint is rarely where the dashboard points. Twelve field notes from current engagements.
1 MIN READRead → - DIAGNOSTIC
What a real diagnostic looks like
An assessment describes what is happening. A diagnostic identifies what is causing it. The two have been conflated for so long that operators no longer expect the distinction to matter. It does.
3 MIN READRead → - DIAGNOSTIC
How to evaluate a diagnostic before you commission one
Operators commission diagnostics for consequential reasons. Most do not produce useful findings. Five questions that will predict the quality of the work before it begins.
4 MIN READRead → - OPERATIONS
Most performance problems are governance problems wearing operational costumes
When a middle market business misses a quarter, the diagnostic instinct is operational. The fix usually does not hold. The actual issue sits one layer above execution.
3 MIN READRead → - OPERATIONS
SOPs are an artifact. Operating discipline is the system.
The investment produced a binder. It did not produce a different operation. Why most SOP initiatives fail to produce operational change.
2 MIN READRead → - AI DEPLOYMENT
Most middle market AI projects are aimed at the wrong layer
Almost every initial AI deployment targets the visible layer of work when the actual leverage sits in the invisible layer underneath.
2 MIN READRead → - AI DEPLOYMENT
The integration tax will eat your AI business case unless you price it correctly
Every AI vendor pitch in the middle market understates the same line item. The model works. Then the project hits integration, and timeline and cost double.
3 MIN READRead → - TRANSACTION ADVISORY
The diligence that matters happens after the LOI, not before it
Standard diligence misses the issues that drive post-close underperformance. Operational diligence by people who have run businesses of similar size is what determines performance.
3 MIN READRead → - TRANSACTION ADVISORY
The first 100 days are decided in the last 30 before close
Post-close performance is highly correlated with pre-close preparation. The deals that struggle plan to figure it out in the first 30 days post-close.
3 MIN READRead → - EXPERIENCE & BRAND
Brand in the middle market is not what you say. It is what your operation can repeat.
Middle market businesses overinvest in the visible expressions of brand and underinvest in the operational capacity to deliver what those expressions promise.
2 MIN READRead → - EXPERIENCE & BRAND
The customer experience that compounds is the one the customer cannot articulate
Customers are reliable witnesses to their own dissatisfaction and unreliable witnesses to what would actually retain them.
2 MIN READRead →