100-Day Value Creation Baseline for PE Portfolio Companies
Measure the starting line before the plan starts moving it
Every lever in the plan, whether price, retention, productivity, mix or cost to serve, needs a measured starting point. We set them in the first hundred days, so results are credited to the levers that caused them, not to the market, acquisitions or luck.
A newer offering, built on work where the baseline came first, including a 15% labor productivity gain in six months at a PE-backed tech-enabled services company. At a dental group, early evidence from a baselined no-show prediction pilot is promising.
Four questions to settle before the first lever moves
A baseline is a question of causal inference, not data plumbing. Answered at the start, these questions cost little. Answered at exit, they are expensive and less convincing.
The claim
What exactly is each lever expected to deliver?
The starting point
Where does the metric stand today, once seasonality, mix and one-off events are accounted for?
The comparison what makes attribution possible
What would have happened without the lever?
The measurement
Will the number in month eighteen mean what it meant in month one?
A baseline, not a reporting project
It uses whatever reporting exists and adds what attribution needs.
From the diligence finding to the exit evidence
What diligence measured becomes the starting point after close.
Inside-Out Commercial Diligence →Each lever is ranked by what it is worth, then measured from here so its effect can be read as it runs.
Value Levers →Churn tracked from a fixed start, so a retention program is credited with what it saves.
Churn and Retention →Exit evidence is strongest when gathered as the value is created.
Value Creation Proof →Set the baseline while it is still the baseline
The first hundred days are the cheapest time to measure where each lever starts.