Just bought a business? The first 100 days decide the next five years.
You acquired a company that runs on the founder’s memory and a stack of duct-taped tools. The value-creation plan is on the clock, and the systems can’t carry it.
Here’s what most buyers miss: the acquisition itself is the unfreeze. Day one post-close, everything is fluid — habits are loose, the team expects change. That window decays fast. By day 90, the old workarounds have refrozen under new ownership. The decisive work has to happen while the organization still expects change.
The First 100 Days Build — $15K/month, six months, mapped to your clock
Embed and freeze the plan.
A week working inside the business, then the modernization strategy: ROI, success metrics, board-deck ready — delivered inside your 100-day reporting window. The founder's-head process, mapped — not how the CIM said it worked.
Ship the change while change is expected.
Core system live by day 100. Tribal knowledge becomes software. Duct tape becomes an operating platform.
Refreeze around the new system.
Harden against the edge cases, train the team, stabilize. Key-person risk becomes owned IP — an asset at exit instead of a diligence finding.
By day 100, the core system is live. By day 180, it’s yours.