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Value creation bridge

Bridges today's value to the target and attributes every step of the gap to a named source, so a five-year ambition becomes four or five accountable numbers instead of one.

The printable canvas and the handoff into Claude Code are part of a paid plan. See what a plan includes. It needs the Claude desktop app on this machine, and your team and the prompt library already installed in that project — we cannot see your disk, so open it there.

Stage
03 Choose
Works at
Corporate, Business
Maturity
Established SME → Large organisation
Time
Two days

What it is

A standard private-equity technique for making a value ambition accountable rather than aspirational. Today's value and the target value are bridged by a waterfall of named sources — margin improvement, volume growth, capital efficiency, and any change in the multiple the business is valued at — so a single five-year number becomes four or five separately owned and separately trackable ones.

Starting value
Today's value on a stated, consistent basis — usually a multiple of earnings applied to current performance.
Margin effect
Value created purely by improving profitability at the current scale, holding volume and the multiple constant.
Volume effect
Value created by growing revenue at the current margin and multiple — the pure growth contribution, isolated from any margin change.
Capital efficiency effect
Value created by generating the same or greater output from less capital employed — working capital released, assets sold or better utilised.
Multiple effect
Value created or destroyed purely by the market or a buyer valuing the business at a different multiple than today's, independent of any operating improvement.
Attribution
Every segment of the bridge given a named, accountable owner and a plan for how it is achieved — a bridge with an unowned segment is a hope, not a plan.
The mistake people makePresenting the bridge as a single blended growth rate rather than the separate, attributable segments — which is exactly the compression that makes a five-year ambition unaccountable in the first place.
What it’s forA multi-year value ambition has been set and needs to be reconciled to the specific, accountable sources that would actually produce it.
What it’s not forThe business case for a single decision, rather than a whole-business value ambition, is what's needed — use the business case and driver model instead.

How you run it

  1. State today's value on a consistent basisA multiple of current earnings, applied consistently — the number every segment of the bridge will be measured against.
  2. State the target value and its dateThe ambition, specific and dated, that the bridge is meant to reconcile to.
  3. Split the gap into margin, volume, capital efficiency and multipleEach isolated from the others — margin effect calculated holding volume and multiple constant, and so on for each segment.
  4. Attribute each segment to a named ownerAn unowned segment of the bridge is a hope rather than a plan. Every segment needs someone accountable for delivering it.
  5. Test whether the segments sum crediblyDo the four or five segments actually add up to the stated ambition, and is each one individually credible given the plan's other assumptions.

The prompt

Two ways to run it

Run this tool in your own Claude

The short prompt starts your partner against the library on your disk. The long one carries everything with it and needs nothing installed.

🔒 Prompt locked

Everything above is free — what this tool is, what it is for, what it is not for, and how to run it as a workshop. Three tool prompts a month are free with an account; beyond three, and for the printable canvas, it is the paid part.

See plans — from £19 a month

Your playbook

It lands in the earliest stage this tool suits. Move it on the Playbook page.

You’ll need

  • Today's value, on whatever basis the organisation values itself — a multiple of earnings, or an equity value
  • The value ambition and the date it is meant to be reached by
  • The plan's assumptions on growth, margin and capital that the ambition is meant to rest on

You’ll end up with

  • The value gap split into margin, volume, capital efficiency and multiple effects
  • Each bridge segment attributed to a named accountable owner
  • A test of whether the segments sum credibly to the stated ambition

Runs well with

Acquisition screen and synergy thesisAI opportunity mapAssumption mappingBoard paper