The task was to work out how this business genuinely fits into the global group — its offer, its proposition, and the value it can actually add to the bigger picture. I came at it as an investment proposition: a case built to convince the CEO and the board, on evidence rather than enthusiasm, that the business is worth investing in.

The honest starting position was a business unsure of its own worth. It was product-led — and products are exactly what low-cost copycats can replicate and undercut.

It was spread across more markets and more lines than it could realistically win in. And it had no quantified view of the prize, no proof its model would deliver the growth the parent wanted, and no roadmap a board could put money behind—plenty of belief; not yet a case.

We worked through a nine-step process to turn belief into a proposition the board could actually test:

1. Quantify the opportunity — the size of the prize.
2. Define the problem being solved — the real issues in the market, and where it needs the guidance and solutions this business can provide.
3. Set the strategic pivot — away from selling products and towards a value-led, problem-solving-led proposition the copycats can’t simply replicate.
4. Decide where to play and how to win — accept that you can’t win everywhere, and narrow down to three key markets and three key product lines.
5. Decide what to stop — the hard one: what to keep, what to kill, and what to trade with other parts of the group, to free up the time and resources to succeed.
6. Prove the model works — the evidence and conviction that it delivers in the market, at the scale the parent is looking for.
7. Find the gaps — the capabilities the business lacks and needs to build or buy.
8. Build the financial case — on those assumptions, the financial potential, and the period over which it pays back the requested investment.
9. Set the 24-month roadmap — building the foundations now so the real opportunity can be leveraged in years three to five.

The toughest part wasn’t the financial modelling. I

t was step five. Deciding what to stop — what to kill, what to hand to someone else in the group — is where strategy stops being a wish list and becomes a set of choices.

A business trying to be everything to everyone has nothing left to be excellent at what would actually win.

"Deciding what to walk away from is what makes everything else possible."

Conviction isn’t a case. Most businesses asking for investment lead with belief and enthusiasm — and leaders, rightly, want more than that.

The work that actually earns backing is unglamorous: sizing the prize honestly, choosing the few places you can genuinely win, and being disciplined enough to stop the things that dilute you—especially that last part.

When cheaper competitors can copy your product, the only durable answer is to stop competing on product and start competing on the value you add and the problems you solve.

Deciding what to walk away from is what makes everything else possible.