AEROSPACE & DEFENSE: TOPIC AT HAND AEROSPACE & DEFENSE: VALUE CREATION LEVERS
A Framework for Protecting EBITDA & Accelerating Growth BY BOB KISH & DANIELLE GAGNON Your IT Stack Is Costing You More Than You Think
The Maturity Model That Matters The 4-step maturity model that successful sponsors focus on is simple and practical. Achieving maturity reduces integration drag and cyber risk, and keeps leadership focused on growth. Map the model to your current outcomes to assess your maturity: Heroic & Reactive: Outcomes depend on specific people; incidents are common; operations rely on “tribal knowledge;” minimal documentation. Managed: Basic SLAs, established patching cadence, some process in place, minimal KPIs. Standardized & Repeatable: Documented controls, consistent tooling, established onboarding and offboarding processes, vendor governance, and predictable delivery. Optimized & Measurable: Automation, real- time metrics, continuous control monitoring, fast integrations, and low friction for the business. “ Private Equity value creation is often just moving from “heroic” to “repeatable” across Finance, IT, and Security… because repeatable operations attract buyers. – Bob Kish, Thrive vCIO Technical Debt Weighs Down EBITDA Avoiding or mitigating low maturity models and the impact of technical debt is critical to successful value creation. Private equity firms, portfolio company operators, and private businesses considering succession, fundraising, or PE exits need to contend with this issue. There’s significant pressure for firms with portfolio
Core Concepts 1. Scale is repeatability, not just growth 2. The maturity model sponsors (investors?) should care about (simple and practical) 3. Mitigating low maturity models and technical debt 4. Lean and mean EBITDA levers that don’t break the business 5. Tech stack and minimum viable controls (MVC) that protect EBITDA and the multiple Scale is Repeatability, Not Just Growth W hen considering value creation, an oft-overlooked driver lies within the IT department: scaling and maturing security infrastructure and posture against risk. Scalability is the ability to grow revenue without linear growth in cost or risk. Maturity enables repeatable, auditable ways of operating that survive leadership changes, acquisitions, and increased threat attention that funding announcements tend to raise. Every initiative should answer: 1. Does it expand EBITDA? 2. Does it reduce operational and/or cyber risk (therefore preserving multiple)? 3. Does it increase integration speed for bolt-ons, or readiness for exit?
keeps leadership focused on growth. “
Day 1 secure. Day 30 stable. Days 90 – 120 standardized. This is the playbook that reduces integration drag and
– Bob Kish, Thrive vCIO
ACG MAGAZINE 10
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