The concepts behind the iBD Ownership OS, grouped by the question you are working on. Each page explains the idea and connects it to the current modules.
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Ownership goals and choices
- Independence by Design™. Connect your business decisions to the life you want.
- The Owner-Operator Trap™. How your time, income and business value can become dependent on your continuing work inside the company.
- Independence Escape Velocity. Time, cash flow and wealth support your intended life without dependence on continuing operating labor, assessed against actual goals and evidence.
- Noble Aim. Your Noble Aim describes the life you want to live, the people you want to invest in and the contribution you want to make.
- 168-hour constraint. The 168-hour constraint is the fixed amount of time in a seven-day week: 24 × 7 = 168 hours.
- Owner’s Scorecard. The Owner’s Scorecard™ records what you want your business to make possible over five years: how you spend your time, the personal income you receive and the wealth you own.
- The Ownership Flywheel. How your Time, Cash Flow and Wealth affect one another.
- iBD Alignment Score™. The iBD Alignment Score™ is your self-reported clarity about the path to your Time, Cash Flow and Wealth goals.
- Three Lenses of Value. The Three Lenses of Value are iBD’s way of separating what the business is worth to you as an investment, what a buyer might pay for it and what a sale would actually provide to you.
- Case Study Reference. Advanced Solutions and Rockin’ Times are fictional teaching companies used to show how business economics, owner dependence and transaction terms affect ownership choices.
Planning and review
- Owner’s Roadmap™. The Owner’s Roadmap™ shows what you have installed across the 27 milestones of the iBD Ownership OS™ and what still needs work.
- Velocity Score™. The Velocity Score™ is the total of your 27 milestone scores in the iBD Ownership OS™, from 0 to 81.
- iBD North Star. The iBD North Star™ is your annual ownership plan.
- Value Growth Plan™. The Value Growth Plan™ is the written explanation of the business you have, the ownership future you want and the changes needed to connect them.
- 90-Day Game Plan. The 90-Day Game Plan™ turns one quarterly priority into three outcomes you can review each month.
- The One Thing. The One Thing is the priority you choose to advance your ownership goals over the next 90 days.
- Theory of Constraints. The Theory of Constraints is a management approach developed by Eliyahu Goldratt that focuses improvement on what most limits a system’s performance.
- Monthly Owner’s Package. The Monthly Owner’s Package is the dated financial pre-read the finance lead prepares for you and your CEO.
- Monthly Ownership Meeting™. The Monthly Ownership Meeting™ is the owner-and-CEO review that connects company performance and the current 90-Day Game Plan to your Time, Cash Flow and Wealth goals.
- Tuesday Flywheel. Three monthly functional reviews with the CEO, followed by the owner-and-CEO meeting that connects the company picture to ownership decisions.
- Quarterly Boardroom Rhythm™. The Quarterly Boardroom Rhythm™ is the prepared quarterly review that connects ownership goals, company results and leadership accountability to the next 90-Day Game Plan.
Financial planning and value
- Sustainable Financials. Sustainable Financials is the iBD capability of maintaining connected, usable financial information and using it to plan and make ownership decisions.
- Three-Statement Model. A financial model that connects the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement to explain results and test future decisions.
- Accrual vs. Cash Basis Accounting. Accrual accounting records revenue when it is earned and expenses when they are incurred under the applicable accounting rules.
- Three Income-Statement Buckets. The three operating categories iBD uses to connect revenue, delivery costs and overhead to functional responsibility.
- Budget vs. Actual (Variance Analysis). Compare recorded results with the adopted budget on the same basis, then explain the cause and choose a response.
- Rolling Forecast. A rolling forecast is an outlook that is updated with new evidence and extended as time passes, so it continues to look ahead over a defined horizon.
- Normalized EBITDA. EBITDA adjusted for supported unusual items and owner-specific costs to show earnings on a consistent operating basis.
- Free Cash Flow. A defined cash-flow measure after reinvestment, commonly operating cash flow less capital expenditure; its exact basis must be stated.
- Distributable Cash. The amount available for a proposed owner distribution after testing obligations, monthly cash needs, restrictions and the required reserve.
- Cash Conversion Cycle. The Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) estimates the days between paying for inventory and collecting the related customer cash.
- Enterprise Value vs. Equity Value. Enterprise value estimates the value of the business’s operating activities.
- Net Debt and Working Capital. Net debt measures included debt less eligible cash; working capital describes short-term operating investment or current assets less current liabilities, depending on the stated definition.
- The Multiple & WACC. A valuation multiple expresses value as a number of times a defined financial measure; WACC is a separate required-return assumption.
- Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC). The blended required return on the debt and equity funding a business, weighted by their proportions in its capital structure.
- Value Gap. The Value Gap is the difference between the value an owner needs the business to provide and the comparable value shown by the current position or forecast.
- The Four Value Levers. The Four Value Levers describe four places to examine when improving a business’s ownership value: earnings, the valuation multiple, net debt and operating working capital.
Revenue and operations
- Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). A specific description of the customer the business is best designed to serve, including fit, buying needs and clear reasons to pursue, refine or decline an opportunity.
- Winning Position. The specific, supported reason a chosen customer prefers the company to credible alternatives, including doing the work themselves or delaying a purchase.
- Total Addressable Market. The potential demand within a defined market, expressed as a count of eligible buyers and a revenue opportunity for a stated period.
- Offer Structure. The way a company maps its products and services to customer segments, with a clear promise, reason to choose and economic role for each offer.
- Revenue Architecture. The connected choices about who the company is, who it serves, why customers choose it and how those choices support its financial plan.
- Operational KPIs. Selected operating measures that help a team manage delivery, quality, capacity and cash timing.
- Business Operating System. Responsibilities, measures, meetings and shared practices that connect company execution to ownership goals.
Leadership, compensation and transition
- Functional Seat. Define the responsibility, authority and support before choosing who should hold the role.
- Number, System and Leader. The result a leader helps produce, the function they build and the capability they demonstrate.
- Functional OS Assessment. Review the systems and practices of finance, revenue or operations using actual company evidence.
- Leadership Readiness Assessment. Review what a person can demonstrate in a defined role, with evidence of their work and decisions.
- Visionary-Integrator Framework. The Visionary-Integrator Framework distinguishes two leadership responsibilities in EOS: creating direction and possibilities, and integrating the team to execute them.
- Annual Bonus Pool. How company results fund a defined opportunity for awards, with allocation and payment conditions kept clear.
- Normalized Net Operating Income (NNOI). Normalized Net Operating Income is operating profit adjusted to reflect the ongoing costs and earnings of the business on an explicitly defined basis.
- Phantom Stock. Contractual compensation linked to defined company value without issuing actual ownership at grant.
- Grant, Vesting and Payment. The separate events that establish an award, satisfy its conditions and settle the benefit.
- Decision Authority. The agreed decisions someone can make, the limits and the route for exceptions.
- Owner Identity and Significance. Understand what an operating role means to you while preparing a change in responsibility.
- Capital Allocator. Choose among reinvestment, reserves, debt repayment and distributions, then review the result.
- Ownership Governance. Connect company direction to delegated authority, reporting and decisions reserved to ownership.
- CEO Succession. Transfer company leadership through an actual appointment, handoff and review.