We work where ownership meets operation.
Someone holds the company — a public market, a family, a sponsor. Someone runs it. Strategy fails when the two rooms hold different pages. We give both the same two: one page of strategy the owners approve, one page of execution the operators run.
Size is not the test. We have worked with venture-backed CEOs and with $4B+ groups. What they share is an owner to answer to, a number to deliver, and a decision that will not wait.
Three ways to own a company. Two chairs at the table.
Find your column, then your row. The brief changes. The two pages don't.
The listed CEO
A long-term plan that has to survive an earnings call. MOVE keeps the strategy and the quarter in one conversation, with an earnings commitment the board has already tested.
Brief: an inflection point after growth stalls at scale
Situation. A listed technology company stalled at $300M. Growth had come from one channel; the board wanted a credible plan for the next leg without diluting margin.
First question. Which one product-market combination is worth 35% of your profit attention?
The two pages. A simplified growth strategy on page one — two channels, wholesale and retail, funded by exiting three sub-scale segments. Five Strategic Numbers with named owners on page two.
What moved. Beat the three-year profitability target by 20%. The company is now over $1B.
The owner-operator CEO
Decisions that carry a family name and a thirty-year horizon. The strategy has to be defensible in the boardroom and at the dinner table.
Brief: international growth, succession, portfolio reset
Situation. A family-owned packaging company with no international growth strategy and a next generation about to take the shares.
First question. If these were someone else's companies, where would you put the next dollar?
The two pages. A written strategy both generations argued over and signed: one niche, expanded country by country, with the capital allocation visible on one page.
What moved. Sales grew tenfold, $30M to $300M. The company became the #1 global leader in its niche.
The sponsor-backed CEO
A value-creation plan written at close, or a board of investors watching the runway, and a sponsor who wants proof by the next meeting. Planning in weeks, with the EBITDA line named on page two.
Brief: new CEO installed by the sponsor, clock running
Situation. A sponsor installed a new CEO into a business running at minus $200M free cash flow. The close-day plan was two years old.
First question. Which EBITDA line moves first, and who owns it?
The two pages. Strategy and execution reset with the incoming CEO in weeks, not a quarter. Page two became the board pack: owners, numbers, root cause on every variance.
What moved. 39% EBITDA CAGR and a $300M+ improvement in free cash flow.
Boards and chairs
Directors who want to test management on current assumptions, not approve last year's deck. The board approves the commitment; the executive team delivers it. Monthly and quarterly accountability after.
Brief: an annual review that produces decisions
Situation. A listed pharmaceutical group whose Latin American units were run on a strategy written for the whole company. The regional board reviewed it once a year.
First question. Which three assumptions, if wrong, break this strategy in this market?
The two pages. A customised strategy per business unit, tested against each market's reality, approved as a commitment the regional board could track monthly.
What moved. Compound growth above 14% for more than five years. EBITDA above 14%.
Owners, families and family offices
Holders of one or several operating businesses who want capital allocated by evidence rather than history, and one review that reads the same across every holding. More on family offices
Brief: a value-creation platform across the holdings
Situation. A family industrial group over-reliant on fossil-fuel customers, with a leadership team that had grown up in that market.
First question. By what date does not deciding become the decision?
The two pages. The portfolio moved toward renewables on page one. Leadership reset to match. One review the family read the same way across the businesses.
What moved. 8% revenue CAGR and EBITDA up 11%.
Sponsors, investors and operating partners
One strategic language across the fund, PE or venture. Every portfolio company on the same two pages, so the operating partner reads the same review in every board and finds the laggard early.
Brief: portfolio-wide programme, roll-up reporting
Situation. An automotive business held jointly by a sponsor and a family, with no long-term value platform and two owners reading different numbers.
First question. What shows up in EBITDA that both owners can read the same way?
The two pages. A value-creation platform and geographic expansion plan on one page; a monthly review both owners received in the same format.
What moved. Revenue doubled to $600M. EBITDA up 7%.
Three moments when owners and operators drift apart fastest.
The first hundred days
A new CEO, an organisation watching, a board or sponsor waiting to hear what has been decided. A listening tour is not a strategy. A structured system produces clarity, credibility and momentum before the window closes.
The middle of the hold
Two years in, the close-day plan is stale and the exit story isn't written. The sponsor wants the number; the CEO wants the room. The two pages get both back on the same version of the future.
The franchise system
Head office holds the brand; hundreds of operators run the units — the same gap, multiplied. One strategy at the centre, localised decisions at the unit, intelligence rolling back up.
What is in front of you this quarter?
A senior partner reads it. One page back within five working days: what we see, three questions for your team, a straight answer on fit. Confidential.
Or start alone: the five questions (PDF)