Strategy.

The framework

1. 01

   One page, fixed order, every month — comparability is the discipline.

   The value of the review is not any single month's numbers; it is the same numbers, in the same order, month after month, so the direction of travel becomes visible. Book the same hour, use the same template, and refuse the temptation to add sections — if the condition of the business doesn't fit on one page, you're reporting, not reviewing. The order matters too: money first, because cash decides how long you get to be wrong; then the engine; then decisions.

2. 02

   The money in four lines — margin, cash, break-even, resilience.

   Contribution margin tells you whether each sale is worth making; the cash conversion cycle tells you whether growth feeds you or starves you; distance from break-even tells you how much room you have; the balance sheet tells you how long you would survive a bad quarter. Give each a single line, with an arrow for direction. If any of the four takes a paragraph to explain, that paragraph is the first agenda item of the month.

3. 03

   The engine in six — pipeline, velocity, constraint, brand, price, spend.

   Is discovery producing MEDDIC-qualified pipeline or just hopeful conversations, and what did sales velocity do — with which of its four drivers responsible? Where is the constraint now — it moves, and last month's fix is this month's decoy. Then turn to the brand and the price: are you easier to think of and easier to buy than a month ago, do buyers repeat your positioning back to you, did the last value-pricing test capture more of what you create, and is spend still holding near 60/40 between brand and activation — or has short-term pressure quietly eaten the brand.

4. 04

   End in decisions — retrospective first, SCQA next, a rung for each.

   A review that produces no decisions is a ceremony. Start by running the retrospective on last month's decisions — what you expected, what happened, what you would keep or stop — because the review's honesty depends on facing its own record. Then write this month's decisions as SCQA: situation, complication, question, answer, three lines each, so the reasoning survives the meeting. Finally, give every decision an owner and a level from the delegation ladder — a decision without a named rung is a decision you will quietly take back by Thursday.