Our starting theory
Follow the promise through the whole system.
Revenue depends on connected decisions: which demand to pursue, what to promise, what resources to commit and what customers experience. The Revenue Creation Loop gives those connections a common language.
Four parts. One connected loop.
Purpose, strategy and capital guide the loop. Resources and the offering sit within the business's agency. Market demand sits outside it. The experience crosses the boundary.
Resources
The people, time, money and capability available to carry the work.
Value Offering
The promise the business designs and asks the customer to accept.
Value Experience
What happens when the promise is delivered and used. The business shapes the conditions; the customer helps determine the outcome.
Market Demand
Customers' needs, choices and willingness to pay. A business can sense and respond to demand; it cannot command it.
Two questions sit above the next bet.
Is it justified by our purpose? Can we afford the whole commitment as it falls due? Strategy needs a credible answer to both, with delivery capacity considered beside cash.
Purpose
What justifies this commitment?
Strategy
What is the next considered bet?
Capital
Can we carry it as it falls due?
Two gaps worth telling apart.
The promise gap
Did the customer receive what we promised?
The difference between the offer accepted and the experience delivered. It points to the work of carrying the promise.
The fit gap
Does the experience still meet what customers want?
The difference between the experience and market demand. It calls for listening, testing and reconsidering the offer.
Seven handoffs to examine.
These are proposed ways of keeping the connections dependable. They are questions for the research, not a scorecard of people.
The stand
Clear priorities, decision rights and credible backing, including for leadership's own requests.
The reading
Customer evidence that includes wins, refusals, delays and use.
The translation
A changed strategy reflected in people's capacity, authority, incentives and measures.
The slope
Conditions that make candour, help-seeking and capable work easier to sustain.
The load
Promises accepted against the people, time and funding actually available.
The delivery
The promise followed through into the customer's experience.
The return
Learning and economic return carried into the next offer and investment decision.
Six questions from the CEO's seat.
- What is actually true?
- What do we believe will happen, and why?
- What will we do if we are wrong?
- What must our people become able to do next?
- What are we prepared to expose to this bet, and what earns more?
- What repeated practice should compound over time?
A framework with boundaries.
- Trust is a judgement others make. Leaders can work on the conditions that make reliance better grounded.
- Dependable arrangements can support a bet that fails. Decision quality and outcome quality need separate examination.
- The framework does not rate a person's character or produce a composite trust score.
- Finance retains responsibility for financial forecasts, accounting and cash. The framework examines the commercial claims that feed those disciplines.
Help refine the question.
See how the proposed research begins with a CEO’s experience.