Free practitioner playbook ยท 25 pages ยท 2026
The Operating Partner's First 100 Days
From close to the first board meeting. Four gates, ten workstreams and one plan the board will sign.
โ Four gates: pre-close, day 30, day 60 and day 100
โ Ten workstreams, each with an owner inside the company
โ The lever ranking matrix and the kill rules
โ The Corbin bridge, worked from 24.0 to 40.8 of EBITDA
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What is inside
Every chapter ends with a Monday morning box: three things to do this week. The templates are in Appendix A, ready to use.
Gate 0, before day one
The pre-close thirty
Read the diligence for the hedges, not the conclusions. Interview the deal team with four questions, including which lever is doing the most work in the returns. Then the thesis translation memo, one page, signed by the deal partner.
Days 1 to 30
The baseline pack
Twelve interviews, five questions each, from the CFO to a former executive. Then a signed record of cash, customers, cost, operations, people and systems. Diligence numbers were negotiated. Baseline numbers are observed.
Days 31 to 60
The lever ranking matrix
Two axes, and neither of them is ease. EBITDA at exit against months to first measured proof. Ease rewards small things. The scoring sheet, the three execution tiers, and the parked list nobody reopens in month eight.
Days 61 to 100
Nine fields and a kill rule
The workstream page: objective, baseline, target, owner, first proof, milestones, investment, dependencies, kill rule. Plus the scoreboard the finance team owns and the day-100 sign-off checklist.
The structure
Ten workstreams
Cash, pricing, procurement, commercial, operations, people, finance and data, technology and AI, bolt-ons, and the exit narrative. Each with a day-30 deliverable, a day-100 commitment and a lead KPI.
Worked in full
Corbin, and how plans die
The hundred days run on the frozen case company, from 24.0 of EBITDA to 40.8, with seven commitments and their kill rules. Then the ten failure modes, each mapped to the gate that should have caught it.
The argument
The plan is not the point. The baseline is.
Most 100-day plans are written to be presented. The good ones are written to be audited. Four years later a buyer's diligence team asks which of the EBITDA gains were earned by management, which were bought through bolt-ons, and which were a rising tide. If the baseline was set in the first thirty days, in writing, with the CEO's signature, the answer is a spreadsheet. If it was not, the answer is a negotiation, and the multiple pays for it.
Walk in on Monday with a plan the board will sign
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About VCI Institute
VCI Institute is a nonprofit dedicated to building practical capability and shared standards for value creation in private equity. Its certification ecosystem, including the Certified Operating Partner in Private Equity (COPPE) and the Certified Value Creation Analyst (CVCA) tracks, serves operating partners, value creation professionals, and portfolio company leaders.