Company Diagnostics
Readiness Before Action.
Not a transformation plan. A decision gate before capital, scale or restructuring.
Eight lenses. One systemic view.
Weakness rarely sits in isolation. It travels across cash, leadership, governance and execution.
Who This Is For
Investors (PE/VC/ MNC);
Conducting diligence, managing portfolios, or reviewing underperforming assets. Its a decision tool before the stakes rise
Boards;
Asked to approve major decisions without confidence they have the full picture.
Founders & CEO's:
Who sense something is wrong but cannot name it — or name it but cannot fix it.
Interim Executives;
Stepping into turnaround or transformation mandates with limited runway.
The Decision Gate
Every Diagnostic produces exactly one of three outcomes. No ambiguity. No deferral.
1
Proceed
Organization is ready.
Move forward with confidence.
2
Proceed with Conditions
Commitment only after specific
named conditions are met.
3
Do Not Proceed
Commitment would destroy value
at current state. Do not proceed.
The Framework - Phase 1 - Triage
TRIAGE (Day 1-5) comes before everything. Four gates. Five days. The starting truth
All four gates must be assessed before Phase 2 begins. RED on any gate shapes everything else after.
Triage is not a preliminary step. It is the diagnostic core. The four gates below establish the factual baseline on which every subsequent finding depends. Organisations under pressure have strong incentives to present each of these as manageable. The Health Scan tests whether they actually are.
CASH
Is the real cash position visible, accurate, and stable?
Cash is the most honest number in any business — and the most consistently misrepresented. A 4-to-6 week factual cash view is built from source data, not from forecasts or budgets. When this view cannot be produced within 72 hours of request, that inability is itself a RED finding. Timing manipulation, structural complexity, and parallel reporting structures are the threemost common ways the real cash position stays hidden from investors and boards.
MARGIN
Is revenue generating sustainable economic value?
Revenue is the number everyone wants to discuss. Margin at customer and product level is the number that tells the truth. Consolidated P&L; masks the reality that in many businesses, a significant portion of revenue is sold at a loss — not because the model is broken, but because nobody has looked
OPERATIONS
Can the organization absorb what is being asked of it?
Organizations under pressure confuse intensity with effectiveness. Phase 1 identifies the top operational constraints from the past 12 months and tests whether the business has the practical capacity to execute on what is planned. Chronic bottlenecks, firefighting patterns, and the gap between what is planned and what is actually shipped are the three signals that matter most here.
AUTHORITY
Are decisions made by the people accountable for their outcomes?
The org chart shows hierarchy. It does not show who actually decides. Phase 1 maps real decision authority against formal accountability. Where these diverge — where the person who decides is not the person responsible for the outcome —execution fails predictably and repeatedly. This is the most under diagnosed cause of transformation failure in Southeast Asian businesses.
The Framework - Phase 2 - Deep Diagnostics
Eight lenses. Each tests a specific readiness condition. Use in sequence — the connections between lenses are where the most important findings are
DEEP DIAGNOSTICS (Day 5-15) Eight lenses tested in sequence deliver clarity and transparency. Findings per lens feed the synthesis in Phase 3
1. Cash & Liquidity
Can the organization absorb disruption without impairing survival.
2. Commercial Reality
Is revenue creating value, or masking structural weakness.
3. Operational Continuity
Is execution predictable, or dependent on firefighting and heroics.
4. Decision Authority
Are decisions clear, owned, and upheld under pressure.
5. Strategy & Market Reality
Is strategy grounded in constraints, not aspiration.
6. Organization & Leadership
Do structure and leadership capacity support the strategy.
7. Culture & Behavior
Do everyday behaviors reinforce accountability or avoidance.
8. System, Digital & Data Integrity
Can the organization trust its data to run the business.
Each lens produces a Green / Amber / Red verdict. Findings are carried forward into Phase 3 synthesis.
The Framework - Phase 3 & 4 - Synthesis & Decision
From findings to decision. The output is board-ready. The verdict is unambiguous.
SYNTHESIS (Day 16-26) Individual lens findings mapped as a system. Root causes identified. Sequence determined.
DECISION (Days 26–30) | Board-ready output. One of three verdicts. No ambiguity. No deferral.
SYMPTOM MIGRATION MAP
Every finding from Phase 2 is plotted on a single map to identify where problems originate — not where they surface. A margin
problem in the commercial lens may have its root in the authority lens. A governance finding may explain why operational
improvements never hold. The map makes these connections visible before anyone commits to an intervention.
BOARD OUTPUT REPORT
Findings from all four phases structured for board-level consumption. Evidence-based. Written to enable decision, not to
demonstrate analytical effort. Triage verdicts, lens findings, migration map, root point, and action plan — all in a single decision pack.
ROOT POINT LOGIC
From the migration map, one root point is identified — the first structural issue to address. Not the most visible problem. Not the
largest. The one whose resolution unlocks the others. Mis-sequencing is the single most common cause of failed intervention. Root
point logic prevents it.
THE VERDICT
Proceed / Proceed with Conditions / Do Not Proceed. One of these three. If Proceed with Conditions, the conditions are named
specifically — what must be true, by when, verified by whom. No language that allows deferral to masquerade as decision.
SEQUENCED ACTION PLAN
Intervention steps in the order they must happen. Each step has a specific owner, a measurable output, and a defined timeline.
Steps without these three elements are not action. They are aspiration.
INVESTOR COMMUNICATION PACK
For PE-backed situations: findings framed for the fund's investment committee or LP reporting requirements. Separate from the
operational board pack in tone and structure — consistent in conclusion.
RISK REGISTER
Risks that cannot be resolved before the commitment are documented with probability, impact, and mitigation. This converts vague
conditions into specific ones — the mechanism by which the Phase 4 verdict gains credibility.
TRANSITION BRIEF
If the verdict is Proceed, a transition brief is produced for the incoming leadership or execution team. Summarizes the starting truth,
the root point, the sequenced priorities, and the conditions they are working within. Eliminates the learning curve that costs the first 90 days of most mandates.
"Diagnosis before prescription. Understand what you are dealing with before you commit to dealing with it."
— Before You Commit · Ard Verloop
Situations Leaders Recognize Too Late
The Corporate Health Scan is rarely commissioned in crisis. It is deployed when the cost of being wrong begins to rise
