Value Creation Planning
Find the operational improvements that will raise EBITDA the most.
Funds and management teams agreeing what to do first after closing, and the operating partners and CFOs who build the business case for each initiative.
The operational levers that will raise EBITDA the most
Cerenovus reads the company's own records to uncover where EBITDA can improve: the root causes behind recurring problems, incentives that pull teams in different directions, and processes that could run leaner. Before closing, the savings target comes from benchmarks and limited diligence. After closing, Cerenovus turns the operational part of that target into specific initiatives, recommends which to start first, and gives each an owner role, milestones, KPIs, and an estimate of its EBITDA impact. Each initiative links to the records it came from. In a buy-and-build, each bolt-on's cost synergies go into the same plan, with owners and timing like the other initiatives. Leverage and multiple expansion stay with the deal team.
From root causes to a plan with owners
The plan starts from the problems Cerenovus finds in the records and the root causes behind them. Each initiative is then weighed by its likely EBITDA impact and checked against what it depends on: the people it needs, the systems it touches, and the fixes that have to come first.
- 01
Uncover
Cerenovus reads the company's operational data to find where work is lost, duplicated, or delayed, and traces each problem to its root cause.
- 02
Find the opportunities
Each root cause points to an initiative: streamline a process, fix an incentive that pulls teams apart, or apply a practice that worked at another company in the portfolio.
- 03
Prioritize and sequence
Initiatives are ranked by likely EBITDA impact, with a brief estimate behind each, and put in the order the work can run.
- 04
Assign
Each initiative gets an owner role, milestones, KPIs, and decision dates.
- 05
Bridge
The initiatives add up to an EBITDA bridge from current to target EBITDA, with cash effects shown separately.
Where EBITDA can improve
Misaligned incentives
Targets that reward one team for work another has to undo, such as sales paid on bookings while operations is measured on margin.
Inefficient processes and handoffs
Work that waits between teams, loops back for rework, or needs approvals that rarely change the answer.
Bottlenecks
Where work queues up and slows throughput, such as orders waiting on a single approval or a nightly batch run.
Labor productivity and duplicated work
Manual work, re-keying, and reports or customer coverage kept by more than one team, which software or a simpler process could take over.
Margin leakage
Discounts outside policy and unenforced contract terms on the pricing side, and payments above contract rates or off-contract spend on the procurement side.
Proven practices from other portfolio companies
A fix that worked at one company, such as a pricing check or an onboarding workflow, applied where the same problem shows up.
What your team receives
Your team receives the value creation plan, the EBITDA bridge behind it, and the workplan to deliver it, in your firm's template. Each links to its sources.
Value creation plan
The ways to improve EBITDA, set out as operational levers. Each lever states the problem, its root cause, the recommended action, the estimated EBITDA impact, an owner role, and the records behind it.
EBITDA bridge
A walk from current to target EBITDA, built from the initiatives in the plan, showing which assumptions carry the most weight. Cash effects are shown beside it.
Workplan and 100-day plan
Initiatives in order, with owner roles, milestones, KPIs, one-time costs, and the 100-day plan, in your firm's template and as a board deck.
Risks the plan has to protect
The plan stays focused on raising EBITDA. It notes the few operational risks that could stall an initiative.
- Key-person riskInitiatives that depend on the same few people, spaced out so no team is overloaded.
- Single points of failureSteps, systems, or approvals with no backup that an initiative must protect.
- Decisions with no ownerRecurring decisions given an owner role in the plan.
Cerenovus recommends which initiatives to back, in what order, and with what owners. The fund and management approve the plan and own its numbers.
Build the plan on what the records show
Cerenovus reads approved company data through read-only access and ranks what it finds by value.