The 100-day integration framework, condensed

The first 100 days after close is the highest-leverage operating period of the entire hold. The decisions you make and the cadences you install in those 100 days determine the next five years of operating reality. Most operators waste them. The ones who do not, win.

Days 1-30: Stabilize.

Do not transform. Do not announce strategy. Do not fire anyone unless legally forced. Spend the first 30 days earning the right to act later.

Specifically: introduce yourself and your commitments on Day 1, then go quiet on directives. Run 1:1s with every direct report and every key person. Same three questions: what is working that I should not break, what is broken that I should fix, what do you need from me. Take notes. Do not commit.

Get the financial package onto a standardized monthly close inside 10 business days. Install a 13-week cash flow process that runs every Friday. Put MFA on every system that touches money or customer data.

By Day 30, you have a baseline Scorecard of 7 to 12 weekly KPIs, reviewed every Monday. The Scorecard is the heartbeat of everything that follows.

Days 31-60: Diagnose and ship 3 to 5 quick wins.

Run the structured customer interview program: 15 customers across top revenue, mid-tier, recently churned, and lost prospects. Same script for everyone. The synthesis memo of what customers actually think versus what the business says about itself is the most valuable single artifact you produce in the first 100 days.

Run the pricing audit. List vs realized price. Customer-by-customer dispersion. Three pricing recommendations on the table by Day 60 (one low-risk, one medium, one structural). Most lower-middle-market businesses are underpriced on at least one segment.

Draft the Accountability Chart. Seats first, with their 5 major accountabilities. Names second. The gap between the chart you would draw and the names you have today is the hiring plan.

Ship 3 to 5 quick wins. Visible, real, attributable to new ownership. The symbolic value of demonstrating that decisions get made and execution happens exceeds the economic value of the wins themselves.