Value creation plans that survive contact with the operating company

Diligence describes the asset. It does not describe the delivery risk

Commercial diligence tells you the market is growing, the brand travels and the margin is defensible. It rarely tells you whether the management team has ever done the specific thing the plan requires — opened a market, rebuilt a supply chain, changed a channel mix, replaced a partner.

That gap is where the first year goes. The value creation plan assumes execution capability that the business has never had to demonstrate, and the board discovers it two quarters late.

The levers that actually move consumer and retail EBITDA

In consumer, retail and brand-led assets, a small set of levers carries most of the value:

• Pricing and mix, before volume — the fastest uplift and the one most often left untouched.
• Channel economics rebuilt honestly, including returns, landed cost and the true cost to serve wholesale.
• International routes chosen on partner capability rather than on inbound interest.
• Range and SKU rationalisation, which releases working capital as well as margin.
• Removing the two or three activities that consume management attention and produce nothing.

The first hundred days, from the operating side

The useful first hundred days are not a data exercise. They are a test of which parts of the plan the business can actually deliver, which need external capability, and which should be dropped before they absorb a year of effort.

That test is best run by someone who has carried the consequences of the same decisions as an operator and shareholder, and who can say so to a management team without it becoming a governance event.

How operator support is best structured

Deal teams typically have two options: a permanent hire or a consulting workstream. A third — an experienced operator sitting alongside the CEO as board advisor or non-executive director, with a defined remit and a review date — is often faster and cheaper than either, and can define the permanent role that should eventually replace them.