“The opportunity is in the simplicity. And you can start to see how, if you can create simplicity in the operation, then you can lead to extraordinary profits.”
Steve DesantoOperations Manager
The 80/20 Institute · Install
CEO Mandate
Turn your board’s number into a plan you can defend.
Self-paced recorded training · Available now
28 video lessons in six modules, with a working template for each lesson.
A six-week, self-paced Install for CEOs of private-equity-backed companies. Decode the thesis your sponsor underwrote, measure the gap between today’s business and the board’s number, build the value-creation bridge, lock your leadership team to it, and walk into the boardroom with a signed, board-ready Mandate Document.
Compare the Installs, masterclasses and the All-Access Pass →The number
What number do we owe, and does everyone own it?
- Buy it when
- Your sponsor has just set the number, a new hold has started, or the board meeting is on the calendar.
- Built for
- CEOs of private-equity-backed companies.
- You walk out with
- A signed, board-ready Mandate Document: the number, the bridge to it and a leadership team locked to it.
- Length
- 6 weeks · 28 lessons · a working template for every lesson
- Not this one if
- No sponsor or board number to answer to? Start with FORGE →
- It's the yearly planning cycle? Strategy Made Simple →
Next: FORGE. Your number is set, so start at Roadmap.
The Installs share PGOS tools, so the lesson lists look alike. The job is what differs. Need more than one? The All-Access Pass includes all four Installs, all ten masterclasses and every book. Four Installs bought one at a time cost $3,988.
Free video preview · 2:03
The sponsor exit thesis
A sample lesson on understanding the sponsor underwriting model and translating the exit thesis into a mandate.
From the lesson: The Sponsor Exit Thesis.
Read the video transcript
Automatically transcribed from the sample audio.
Most CEOs I work with cannot articulate in one sentence what their sponsor actually needs from their company to make this deal work. That is the most expensive blind spot you can have. Your sponsor did not invest in your business because they liked you. They invested because their underwriting model said, if this CEO delivers this EBITDA at this multiple in this time frame, our fund clears its hurdle and we get carried. Your job is to know that math better than they do. This lesson gives you the framework to read your CIM and your sponsor's underwriting model the way an investor reads them, not the way an operator does. Three things to know. First, the number that matters is not revenue. It is not headcount. It is M-O-I-C, multiple on invested capital. Generally, it is three times that they want, sometimes two and a half. Others want four. Whatever the number is, that is the scorecard. Everything else is an input. Second, the number is sensitive to two variables, exit EBITDA and exit multiple. If multiples compress, the EBITDA target rises. If multiples expand, you have margin to spare. You have to know the sponsor's working assumption on the exit multiple because that tells you how hard you have to push on EBITDA. Third, there is always an exit thesis. It is the story the sponsor will tell the next buyer about why your company is worth more in three years than it is today. It could be entering into new markets or higher multiples through software attachment. Geographic expansion or a platform acquisition strategy can be a great driver of growth. Don't forget operational improvement. Whatever the story is, your value creation plan has to deliver that story. What you do this week, pull your CIM, pull whatever you have of the sponsor's underwriting model, identify the entry EV, the equity check, the targeted hold period, and the exit multiple assumption. Write down the implied exit EBITDA. That number is the seat of your mandate. The companion worksheet, exit thesis decoder, walks you through the math step by step. Next lesson, we reconstruct the LBO.
Open the transcript as textClient stories
Hear it from the operators.
Owners, CEOs and their teams on what changed when they put 80/20 to work.
“I want the data to be the loudest voice within our strategy and planning compared to who told me what.”
Peter LinderGeneral Manager
“The success we're seeing from the 80/20 operating system is a lot of time management, where we're spending the right time with the right dealers, we're spending the right time with the right salespeople…”
Troy OziasSenior Director of Field Sales, Western Power Sports
Results vary by business.
Inside the Install
What you will work through.
28 video lessons in six modules, with a working template for each lesson.
Week 1 — The Board’s Number
The sponsor exit thesis, the LBO rebuilt, the MOIC conversation and the Board’s Number memo.
Week 2 — The Capability Audit
The 80/20 customer and product cuts, the Right-to-Grow Ratio, the leadership chassis and the Gap memo.
Week 3 — The Bridge
The price, mix, share, M&A and cost levers, combined into one integrated bridge.
Week 4 — The Team Lock
Comp design, quarterly gates, named-owner accountability and the replacement-needed list.
Week 5 — The Crucible
The Mandate Document, LP and sponsor objection prep, the 100-day rollout plan and the Crucible presentation.
Week 6 — The Boardroom
Board meeting choreography, the tough-question playbook and the post-presentation rhythm.
The bigger picture
One system. More ways to learn.
Explore the Installs and all ten masterclasses, take every course and book with the All-Access Pass, or choose your own books, workbooks and audio.
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