How Scout works with you and your operating leader
What happens to your company, what you hold at each step, and what your team keeps when we step back.
The three steps
- 1
“We figured out what was really holding us back.”
- Your numbers against your industry.
- Anonymous surveys of your team and your customers.
- The Truth Report and one agreed problem to solve.
What Scout Advisors does
We compare your numbers with your industry, survey your team and customers, and write the Truth Report. Your team agrees on one Strategic Problem.
What Scout it software holds
The industry comparison as the starting input, the evidence, the alignment gaps, and the Strategic Problem, with the reasoning kept.
Where You Stand TodayExampleLine You Median Top quarter Gap to median Revenue growth 4.1% 6.0% 11.2% Gross margin 27.4% 31.0% 36.5% $1,008,000 a year EBITDA margin 6.2% 9.5% 14.0% $924,000 a year Operating expenses, % of sales 21.2% 21.5% 18.0% Payroll, % of sales 24.8% 22.0% 19.5% $784,000 a year Receivables, % of assets 31% 26% 21% Six of the twelve lines. The full table is built from your numbers.
An example with made-up numbers for a made-up company. 
The evidence behind one statement in the Truth Report: what customers said, in their own words. From Scout it, shown with a demonstration company. - 2
“We chose a few changes that would make us more profitable and less dependent on me.”
- The real choices and trade-offs, in the room with your team.
- Three to five initiatives with owners, rocks, and measures.
- The projected movement in your numbers and your value.
What Scout Advisors does
We lead the choices and the trade-offs. You leave with three to five initiatives with owners, 90-day rocks, and measures, each tied to the lines it will move.
What Scout it software holds
The plan: initiatives, rocks, measures, and the target for each line, exported into the operating system you already run.
What the team takes away: the plan, the one-page plan, the rocks and KPIs for EOS or ninety.io, the customer thank-you, and the AI Leverage Report. - 3
“We got my team leading those changes and have a system to keep checking what was actually working.”
- The plan runs in EOS or the system you already use.
- A quarterly Pulse shows what moved and what did not.
- Your operating leader runs it; we come back when it matters.
What Scout Advisors does
Your operating leader runs it. The quarterly Pulse checks which lines moved and what to change. The advisor returns for significant changes.
What Scout it software holds
The Pulse: where you stand against your starting point, initiative progress, decisions taken, and the What Changed This Quarter page.
What Changed This QuarterExampleThird quarter Pulse, run by the operating leaderLines that moved
Gross margin, 27.4% to 28.6%
EBITDA margin, 6.2% to 7.0%
Lines that did not
Payroll, still 24.8% of sales
Initiatives
Price custom work for what it costs. On track.
Sell the standard line to best-fit customers. Behind.
Operating leader approves quotes. Done.
Decisions taken
Turned down a one-off order from a customer outside the core. Decided by the operating leader.
An example with made-up numbers for a made-up company.
We walk alongside you for a season of three to six months.
Scout it software is the system your team keeps running.
A Scout guide is in the room for the hard decisions: naming the problem, making the trade-offs, committing to the plan. Your leadership team makes every one of them. Along the way your team learns to run the method, and Scout it software keeps the evidence, the decisions, and the reasons, so the quarterly check is yours to run and we come back when it matters.
Inside the Truth Report
The Truth Report is where your team sees its own business in evidence, agrees on what is true, and names the problem the plan has to solve.
Every statement opens to the evidence behind it
Open a source and the team sees what customers said, in their own words, and how many of them said it. Nobody has to take the loudest voice in the room, or the facilitator, at their word.
What changes for you
- You know the one problem the strategy has to solve, from your customers, your team, and your numbers, not from the loudest voice in the room.
- The few changes you choose are tied to the lines that move profit and the value of the business, and you can see which ones moved.
- The plan runs inside EOS, ninety.io, Strety, or the system you already use; nothing new to learn or maintain.
- Fewer decisions come to you, because your operating leader has the evidence and the authority to make them.
What you will hold in your hands
The Truth Report
What your customers, your team, and your numbers show.
The Plan
Three to five initiatives with owners, rocks, and measures.
The AI Leverage Report
Where AI can help your team carry out the Plan.
The quarterly Pulse page
What changed this quarter and what was decided.
What it costs
How we work together, and what it costs, depends on your company. We cover both in the Strategy Session.
The assessment is the first step of every Scout Advisors engagement. It takes about three minutes and tells you where to look first.