Deliverable 05 · Operating Manual

Execution Playbook

How the business unit actually runs — the operating model, the cadence, decision ownership, the customer lifecycle, the delivery engine and the scorecard. This is the manual the Managing Director operates to.

01

The operating model

One unit, three engines, five programs. Everything is organised so a customer experiences a single partnership while the unit runs it as repeatable, managed delivery.

Engine 1

Commercial

MD, AEs, SDRs, pre-sales and partnerships. Owns the Top-150, the ABM motion and the number. See the Sales & Marketing playbooks.

Engine 2

Delivery

Program leads + pods delivering the five managed programs, capacity flexed through vetted partners to protect margin.

Engine 3

Success

CSMs owning retention, adoption and tier expansion — the recurring relationship that compounds into NRR.

The five programs (the delivery catalogue): 01 Digital Commerce & Trade · 02 ERP & Operations Core · 03 Growth & Demand Engine · 04 Intelligence & Automation · 05 Managed Experience & Support. Enterprise buys all five; Growth buys 2–3; Foundation buys one.

02

Operating rhythm

A fixed cadence keeps the unit accountable to the plan and surfaces problems before they hit the gate.

CadenceCeremonyOwnerOutput
DailyCommercial stand-up (15 min)Sales leadDeals moving, blockers cleared
WeeklyPipeline & forecast reviewMDStage movement, coverage vs target, risk deals
WeeklyDelivery & utilisation reviewDelivery leadProgram health, capacity, partner load
MonthlyBusiness review + board KPI packMDMRR/ARR vs plan, funnel, events ROI, NRR, margin
MonthlyCustomer success reviewCS leadHealth scores, renewals at risk, expansion pipeline
QuarterlyQBR + gate reviewMD → BoardGate decision, hiring plan, capital release
QuarterlyEvent campaign retroMarketingPipeline & closed per event; keep / cut
03

Decision ownership (RACI)

Who is Responsible and Accountable for the decisions that move the unit.

DecisionMDSalesDeliveryCSBoard
Pricing & non-standard discountAR···
Account tiering (A/B/C)AR·C·
Program scope & delivery commitmentCCA··
Partner engagement for capacityA·R··
Renewal & tier expansionCC·A·
Hiring beyond planR···A
Capital tranche release / gateR···A
Market entry (new geography)RCC·A
04

The customer lifecycle

Every account flows through six stages with a clean hand-off at each boundary. Sales owns to signature; delivery and success own the recurring relationship.

Stage 1

Target

On the Top-150, tiered, researched, assigned to an AE.

Sales
Stage 2

Engage

Executive conversation opened; qualified against tier fit.

Sales
Stage 3

Shape

Pre-sales scopes the program; business case built.

Sales + Pre-sales
Stage 4

Close

MSA + program SOW signed; kickoff scheduled.

Sales → Delivery
Stage 5

Onboard & deliver

90-day onboarding; pod delivers managed programs to SLA.

Delivery + CS
Stage 6

Grow & renew

Health tracked; expand tier; renew annually.

Customer Success
05

Delivery model

Managed services are delivered by cross-functional pods, with a fixed onboarding and clear service levels. In-house leadership; partner-flexed hands to hold gross margin as MRR scales.

Pods

One pod, one account cluster

A pod (delivery lead + specialists across the five programs) owns a small set of accounts end-to-end — continuity is the moat.

Onboarding

The 90-day standard

Discovery → systems audit → roadmap → first value shipped inside 90 days. A repeatable onboarding is what makes delivery scale.

Partners

Flex, don't fix

Baseline capacity in-house; peaks and specialist skills via vetted partners so margin holds and hiring stays disciplined.

Service levelEnterpriseGrowthFoundation
Dedicated podYesSharedPooled
Programs deliveredAll 52–31
Business reviewMonthlyQuarterlyBi-annual
Support responsePriorityStandardStandard
06

The scorecard

The unit is run to these numbers. They roll up to the monthly board pack and the CEO Dashboard.

MetricOwnerCadenceTarget
Net-new logos by tierSalesMonthlyOn plan vs ramp
MRR / ARR run-rateMDMonthly≥90% of plan · $5.6M end-2027 gate
Pipeline coverageSalesWeekly≥3× forward target
Win rate (qualified)SalesMonthly≥25%
Event ROI (pipeline)MarketingPer event≥5× cost
Delivery utilisationDeliveryWeekly70–80% billable
Gross marginMDQuarterly≥60%
Net revenue retentionCSQuarterly≥100%
07

Tooling & first 90 days

A lean, integrated stack — and a concrete launch sequence.

CRM & ABM

Pipeline & accounts

CRM + ABM/intent tooling as the single source of truth for the Top-150.

Delivery

PM & time

Project/resource management + time tracking for utilisation & margin.

Analytics

BI & scorecard

BI layer feeding the CEO Dashboard and the monthly board pack.

Success

Health & renewals

Customer success platform for health scores and renewal tracking.

The launch sequence — board sign-off → leadership + first AEs hired → Top-150 built → three-tier offer packaged → CRM/ABM live → first executive conversations → 1–2 lighthouse references — is detailed as a week-by-week plan in the Reality Check & Action Plan §08, gated by the Q1 and Q2 2026 reviews.