You were handed a number. In six weeks, the CEO Mandate turns it into one signed, board-ready operating plan — your number, your bridge, your team — and you run your own deal's math, live.
of PE-backed CEOs are replaced before exit. You're statistically more likely to be fired than to cash out.
to align your board and team on one reconciled plan. Miss it and you're out of runway.
to establish credibility with your sponsor. You have to get on line fast.
Hold periods have stretched to nearly seven years. The middle is where CEOs get lost — carrying a number they haven't yet turned into a plan the board will sign.
The board gave you a target. What you don't have is one reconciled document that shows exactly how you get there — and who owns each piece.
Everyone's working hard on different versions of the plan. No single source of truth the sponsor has actually signed off on.
Credibility windows close in months, not years. Every week without a defended plan is leverage you're giving away.
FORGE is Bill Canady's complete operating system for PE-backed CEOs — from goal all the way to execution. The Mandate is the first gate: lock your number, your bridge, and your team. Get this gate right and the rest of the system has a foundation. Get it wrong, and you never reach the others.
Goal locked, capability audited, bridge reconciled, team locked — weeks 1–6.
YOU ARE HERE — THIS IS THE PROGRAM80/20 the business around the critical few that actually fund the plan.
Rule of Three leadership installed: Visionary · Prophet · Operator.
PDCA loops and OODA velocity — the operating rhythm, run at speed.
Self-paced inside a six-week window. Each week earns the right to the next — and you finish with a board-ready plan, not a binder of notes.
Anchor the exit EBITDA your target return actually requires. Run your real figures live and see the gap you're really closing.
Honestly assess whether the business — and the team — can deliver the number as it stands today.
Translate the gap into the specific levers that close it — the reconciled path from today's EBITDA to the board's number.
Get the right people in the right seats against the plan. Decide who owns each lever — and who doesn't.
Pressure-test the plan the way your board and sponsor will. Defend every assumption before they do.
Package it into one document you present, defend, and get signed — ready for implementation.
PE-backed, privately held, or publicly traded — if you own a P&L and a target, this is built for you.
You've got months to establish credibility with your sponsor. The Mandate gets you a defended plan before the window closes.
You carry a number to a parent company. The Mandate gives you the reconciled plan that makes your unit the one that delivers.
You're in the middle of the hold and the plan has drifted. Re-anchor the number and re-align the board before it costs you the seat.
Stalled or staring down a transition. You don't have time for a 12-month engagement — you need the number, the bridge, and the team locked now.
Not a better mindset — a real artifact. The reconciled operating plan your board signs and your team executes.
The exit EBITDA your target return actually requires — and the honest gap from where you are today.
The specific levers that close the gap, sized and sequenced — the path from today's number to the board's.
The right people in the right seats against each lever, with clear ownership the board can hold accountable.
Bill Canady speaks the exact language of your sponsors, the dynamics of your boardroom, and the friction on your shop floor — operator to operator. He built the Profitable Growth Operating System™ behind every 80/20 Institute program, and he's the author of The Rule of Three.
"I built the Mandate because I kept getting the same call — from CEOs handed a number, with no plan the board would actually sign. This is the six weeks I wish someone had handed me in my first seat."
You install the Mandate in six weeks. Your membership keeps you sharp — the cadence, the calls, the community. Same program at every level; the difference is how much support you get.
For the CEO who'll run the Mandate themselves.
For the CEO who wants guidance along the way.
For the CEO who wants full, hands-on support.
Not sure which level fits? Take the assessment — or book a call and we'll help you pick.
Five questions, about fifteen minutes — Bill's own diagnostic. It shows you exactly where your business stands and which level fits. Not a sales quiz.
Six weeks, self-paced inside that window. Each week is one discipline with a capstone deliverable — and you finish with a single signed, board-ready operating plan.
Sitting CEOs and presidents carrying a number — PE-backed, privately held, or publicly traded — including division and business-unit leaders who own a P&L against a parent-company target.
The live workshop is a 60-minute introduction to the ideas. The Mandate is the full six-week program where you actually build and defend the plan, with the templates, the cadence, and the support to finish it.
Yes. You bring your real figures and compute the exit EBITDA your target return requires — so you leave knowing the exact gap you're closing, not a generic example.
Inside The 80/20 Institute — your private member portal. Video lessons, every template, your deliverable worksheets, and the community, all in one place.
The Mandate is Gate 1 of FORGE, Bill's complete operating system. Lock the number, the bridge, and the team here, and the rest of the system — Strategy, Structure, Execution — has a foundation to build on.
Yes. The Advisory level includes seats for up to three team members — the Mandate installs faster with your #2 and core team in the work.
Ready? Start the Mandate today. Want to talk it through first? Book a call and we'll point you to the right level.