The Growth Executive Officer Masterclass · 15 lessons, 9 diagnostics you run rather than read · $99

VCI Institute · Growth Executive Officer Masterclass

Most growth plans do not fail on the arithmetic. They fail on the person carrying them.

Every other VCI Institute programme works on the business. This one works on the person running it. Fifteen lessons, nine diagnostics you run rather than read, and one company held from the first tool to the last.

Enrol for $99

$99 · One payment · 12 months of access · 7 day refund · Self paced

The Growth Executive Officer Masterclass, a VCI Institute programme

A growth plan needs three things. Firms fund the first two.

Investment committees scrutinise the thesis. Good ones also look hard at the organisation. Almost nobody underwrites the third, and the third is where plans actually die.

Funded heavily

A sound thesis

Where growth comes from, what it costs, what it returns. Modelled, challenged and defended before the deal closes.

Funded occasionally

An organisation able to execute

Structure, capability, cadence, incentives. Sometimes assessed properly, more often assumed.

Almost never funded

A leader able to hold the line

When the plan becomes uncomfortable, when the coalition wavers, when the second quarter misses. This programme works on this one.

Think of the last plan you watched drift. The arithmetic was probably fine. What went was the willingness to hold an unpopular position through the quarter where it looked wrong. That capability is trainable, and almost nobody trains it.

Why this method holds up

Diagnostics you run, decisions you make, one case held throughout

Leadership material usually fails in one of two ways: it tells inspiring stories about people who already succeeded, or it hands you a model with nothing to apply it to. This is built to make you produce an output rather than form an opinion.

Tools you run, not readNine diagnostics scored against your own situation, each producing something you can act on the same week.

Decision cases, not profilesSituations presented as choices you must make before the outcome is revealed, so you cannot reason backwards from the answer.

One company, end to endA single case runs through every tool, so the instruments connect into a method instead of nine standalone exercises.

One framework, not a tactic collectionUPCHANGE gives you a repeatable sequence, which is what survives contact with a situation the course never anticipated.

Explanations on the right answers tooThe assessment explains why a correct answer is correct, because being right for the wrong reason is the failure nobody catches.

Institutional, not personalWritten by VCI Institute, which publishes the COPPE, CVCA and CEVP certification standards.

Stated plainly: this is a tested structure, not a tested outcome. No course makes anyone a better leader by being purchased. The tools only work if you score yourself honestly, and only you will know whether you did.

What is inside the masterclass

Built around the UPCHANGE framework, so you leave with one repeatable approach to change rather than a collection of tactics that work once.

Lessons on the UPCHANGE framework

A repeatable approach to leading change, rather than a set of disconnected tactics that work in one situation and fail in the next.

Interactive diagnostics

Tools you run, not read. They score your actual situation and produce an output you can act on the same week.

Company held throughout

A single case runs every tool end to end, so the nine instruments connect rather than sitting as nine separate exercises.

Question final assessment

Instant scoring with an explanation for every answer, including the ones you got right. Being right for the wrong reason is common.

Bonus articles

Extending the material well past the lessons themselves, for the parts of the job the curriculum cannot reach.

Months of access

Long enough to rerun a diagnostic six months into a plan and compare the two scores. That comparison is where the value sits.

Most leadership material

Profiles of leaders who already succeeded, told after the outcome was known.

Frameworks presented as diagrams, with nothing to apply them to.

Assessments that tell you your type, and nothing you can do on Monday.

You finish with an opinion.

This masterclass

Decision cases where you choose before the outcome is revealed.

Nine diagnostics run against one company held from the first tool to the last.

Scores that produce an output you can act on the same week.

You finish with something written down.

Who this is for, and who it is not for

The common thread is a plan with a clock on it and an organisation that does not yet move at the speed the plan assumes.

Built for

Portfolio company chief executives carrying a plan with a hold period attached to it.
Operating partners who must influence leaders they do not manage, which is most of the job.
Founders and section heads at the point where the business has outgrown the way it has been run.
Anyone about to step up, where the gap between managing and leading is still invisible from below.

Not built for

Anyone looking for growth tactics. Pricing, channel and funnel work sits in the other masterclasses. This one is about the person executing them.
Anyone who will read the tools instead of running them. Nine diagnostics scored honestly is the whole mechanism. Skimmed, the course is worth very little.
Anyone wanting reassurance. The diagnostics will return results you want to argue with. That is the design, not a defect.

What makes this uncomfortable, said before you buy

Every other VCI Institute programme works on the business: the levers, the model, the plan, the exit. This one works on the person running it. Some of it will be unwelcome reading, and those are the parts carrying the value.

When a diagnostic returns a result you want to argue with, that reaction is information. The instinct to dismiss a score is the same instinct that lets a plan drift for two quarters before anyone names it. Sit with the result before you dismiss it.

There is also a limit worth stating plainly. No course makes anyone a better leader by being purchased. The nine tools only work if you score your own situation honestly, and nobody outside your organisation can tell whether you did. Only you will know. That is the one variable this course cannot control, and it is the one that decides what you get.

Enrol

The Growth Executive Officer Masterclass

$99

One payment, US dollars. No subscription.

Fifteen lessons built around the UPCHANGE framework, so you leave with a repeatable approach rather than a tactic list.
Nine interactive diagnostics that score your actual situation and produce an output you can act on the same week.
Decision cases presented as choices you make before the outcome is revealed.
One company held throughout, running every tool end to end so the instruments connect.
A thirty question final assessment with instant scoring and an explanation for every answer.
Twenty two bonus articles extending the material past the lessons.
A Certificate of Completion. A course credential, not a certification.
12 months of access. Self paced, no cohort dates, no live sessions.
7 day refund. Provided the artefact templates have not been downloaded.

Enrol for $99

This is a course with a Certificate of Completion. It is not a certification. Questions before you buy: [email protected]

Questions people ask before buying

Why do growth plans fail even when the strategy is right?

A growth plan needs three things: a sound thesis, an organisation able to execute it, and a leader able to hold the line when execution becomes uncomfortable. Firms invest heavily in the first, occasionally in the second, and almost never in the third. Plans die at the third far more often than at the first.

What is a growth executive officer?

Not a job title you apply for. It describes the person who actually owns the growth agenda across the whole business rather than one function of it: the chief executive of a portfolio company, the operating partner leading a value creation plan, the founder past the point where the business runs on their instincts alone.

How do you lead change when you do not manage the people?

This is the operating partner problem, and it is the hardest version of the job. The UPCHANGE framework treats influence without authority as the default condition rather than the exception, which is why the sequencing and the coalition work come before the announcement rather than after it.

What is the UPCHANGE framework?

The spine of the programme. It gives you one repeatable approach to leading change rather than a collection of disconnected tactics that work in one situation and fail in the next. Fifteen lessons are built around it, and the nine diagnostics score your own situation against it.

How is this different from the other VCII masterclasses?

Every other VCI Institute programme works on the business. This one works on the person running it. That makes it the least comfortable thing we publish, and the parts you want to argue with are the parts carrying the value.

How long does it take, and are there fixed dates?

Fifteen lessons, self paced, no cohort dates and no live sessions. Access runs for twelve months from purchase, so you can rerun a diagnostic six months into a plan and compare the two scores. That comparison is where most of the value sits.

Is there an exam, and what do I get at the end?

A thirty question final assessment with instant scoring and an explanation for every answer, including the ones you got right. Being right for the wrong reason is common and only the explanation exposes it. You receive a Certificate of Completion, which is a course credential and not a certification.

What is the refund policy?

7 days from purchase, on request, provided the artefact templates have not been downloaded. This is the standard refund window across all VCI Institute courses. Write to [email protected].

The thesis is already written. The question is whether you can carry it.

Fifteen lessons, nine diagnostics you run on your own situation, and one company held throughout. No outcome promise, on this page or anywhere else.

Enrol for $99

$99 · 12 months of access · 7 day refund · Certificate of Completion · [email protected]