The Strategic Operating Sequence: From Diagnosis to Recalibration

The order of intervention is as critical as the intervention itself. SUCCESSification prescribes a four-step operating sequence that transforms diagnosis into disciplined action.

Step 1: Read the Constraints

Utilize the Model discipline to verify the external reality of what the customer is willing to pay. This is the boundary-reading phase where you map the possibility space before acting.

Step 2: Diagnose the Binding Force

Use the Growth Ratio (Revenue Growth ÷ Spending) and the Retention Ratio (Last Year's Revenue ÷ Cost of Sales) as the system's sensing mechanisms. These two ratios tell you whether the system is bound by Drag or Weight.

Step 3: Intervene by Force Type

Address Drag with the Map discipline (aligning the vendor's portfolio to the customer's model). Address Weight with the Match discipline (eliminating redundancy). The intervention must match the force — applying composition discipline to a drag problem, or alignment architecture to a weight problem, will fail.

Step 4: Sense and Recalibrate

Establish a continuous loop to detect the complexity generated by new success. This is the adaptive feedback mechanism that prevents the system from accumulating entropy faster than it can dissipate it.

The Retention Ratio: The Ultimate Health Indicator

If the Retention Ratio is declining, the firm is "consuming its future to pay for its present mass," depleting what Penrose identified as the "surplus productive services" — the only source of growth funding. This single metric reveals whether the system is generating or destroying the capacity for future scaling.