Bill Canady breaks down value creation through five levers: price, cost, organic growth, M&A, and working capital. Each needs a single owner, not a committee. Most companies misalign compensation with strategy, paying executives on EBITDA while chasing revenue targets they aren't rewarded for, which kills execution.
The deliverable, the bridge, 5 levers, 1 page, price and mix, cost, organic growth, M&A, working capital. Every dollar of your gap comes out of one of these 5. There's no 6. Each one size, sequence, and carrying exactly one name, one human being, not a committee. Now, a plan without an owner on every level is simply a wishlist. Now we go to days 46 to 70. This is the uncomfortable one, so I'll be direct. Start with the comp plan. Pull the actual document. Not what you remember, the document. Your exit is priced on EBITDA. I'll bet you'll find revenue targets, MBOs, and a discretionary pool the board sizes in January. That means you're asking people to deliver a number none of them are paid to deliver. In a Q4, you'll be puzzled why the organization didn't move. Well, it moved. It moved exactly where you pointed it. You just pointed at it with the compensation document instead of the strategy document, and the compensation document wins every time.
