Programs

Strategy · Facilitator-led

Quarterly Business Review

Five working documents and one simulation, over six weeks, that turn the quarter's numbers into a pack the board can trust.

A six-week program for the leadership team of a company with a board that meets quarterly, assigned by the CFO, COO or chief of staff who owns the pack, built on Renatus. Five document rooms and one simulation room · Six weeks, one room a week · Unlimited attempts · Re-run every quarter.

6 weeks · 6 rooms · Total time 2 hours 50 min

Who it's for: The CFO, COO or chief of staff who owns the board pack, and the finance, growth and operating leads who own the numbers behind it.
Cadence: 6 weeks
Format: Facilitator-led
Program sessions: 6

Who it's for

The CFO, COO or chief of staff who owns the board pack, and the finance, growth and operating leads who own the numbers behind it.

Output

Five documents built from the company's own numbers: every variance classified, the unit economics tested, the cash stress-tested, the metrics audited, and the KPIs, exceptions, risks and asks in one board report
A scored rehearsal of defending that report, with the moment that earned each score and a trajectory across every attempt
For the person running the pack, a Ren summary of the team and a team report once three have rehearsed
Scored against published frameworks: the Minto pyramid principle and Aristotelian rhetoric after Heinrichs; the documents rest on variance classification and buried-variance surfacing, contribution-margin discipline and cohort-grounded LTV, three-scenario runway discipline and the killer assumption, vanity-versus-actionable metrics and counter-metric pairing, and plan-versus-actual discipline for the board report

Program contents

Variance discipline — Budget vs Plan Variance
Unit economics discipline — Unit Economics Review
Cash resilience — Cash Runway Stress Test
Metrics discipline — Metrics audit
Reporting to the board — Board Report
Defending the pack — Presentation Under Pressure

How the program works

The rooms

Budget vs Plan Variance

Framework

Set-up: the period being reviewed, what plan it is being measured against, the headline budget lines and actuals, the variances already known to leadership, and who the review is for.

Unit Economics Review

Framework

Set-up: the business model, CAC by channel where it is available, the variable cost per unit, the retention data or the stated assumption, and the growth-spend decision the review is informing.

Cash Runway Stress Test

Framework

Set-up: current cash and monthly burn, the hiring plan, the revenue trajectory, known one-off costs, working capital, and when the next funding event is expected.

Metrics audit

Framework

Set-up: what is currently tracked, the headline metric, whose metrics these are, the behaviour they are driving, what is prompting the audit, and who it is for.

Board Report

Framework

Set-up: the period being reported, the company's stage and context, the board's composition, the headline KPIs, where things are off-plan, the decisions being requested, and the material risks the board should know.

Presentation Under Pressure

Simulation

Calibration: role title, the audience, the industry or sector, a line of working context, the scenario to rehearse, and the decisions made in the room.

Why this program exists

A leadership team closes a quarter under a fixed deadline: the board meets on a set date, and by then the team has to say what the numbers mean, name the exceptions, and ask for what it needs. This program prepares them through five working documents built from the company's own figures and one rehearsal of the pack that results. Ren builds each document from what the room's owner states, section by section, and in the last room plays the board member who has already formed a view.

What you'll achieve

Five documents built from the quarter's own numbers, in the words each owner gave Ren, ready to bring to the leadership session
The one decision the numbers demand, named early, with the options and the pattern behind it
A board report built section by section from what the CEO states, with the exceptions, the risks and the asks in one place
A scored rehearsal of defending that report, with the moment that earned each score, and unlimited attempts, each a new audience, charted against every attempt before it

At a glance

Who it's for: Leadership teams of companies with a board that meets on a quarterly cycle: venture-backed, private-equity-owned or founder-led with independent directors. The program is assigned by the CFO, COO or chief of staff who owns the pack, and its rooms are run by whoever owns that part of the business: the finance lead, the growth or marketing lead, the CFO or CEO. It assumes a plan or a budget exists for the quarter, and that finance can produce actuals within a week of the numbers closing.
Cadence: 6 weeks
1: Variance discipline · Budget vs Plan Variance · Read The Decision and Buried; read the one-page decision
2: Unit economics discipline · Unit Economics Review · Read Payback and Metric Reliability; read the growth-spend call
3: Cash resilience · Cash Runway Stress Test · Read the Crisis Case and Killer Assumption; read the Ren summary across three rooms
4: Metrics discipline · Metrics audit · Read Behaviour Rewarded and Counter-Metric; read the recommendations with a decision on each
5: Reporting to the board · Board Report · Read Exceptions and Decisions Requested; check each material risk matches an earlier room
6: Defending the pack · Presentation Under Pressure · Read Question Response and Poise; read the team report; set the ongoing plan

Session by session

Week 1: Variance discipline

Classify every material variance honestly, find what a net figure buried, and land on the one decision the pattern demands.

Budget vs Plan Variance

Week 2: Unit economics discipline

Know whether the quarter's growth spend earned its keep, in months and margins, and where the reported numbers flatter the business.

Unit Economics Review

Week 3: Cash resilience

Know how long the cash lasts under three cases, with the assumption it depends on named and the signal that would show it breaking.

Cash Runway Stress Test

Week 4: Metrics discipline

Find out what the metrics the team tracked this quarter rewarded, and decide what changes before the numbers go in the pack.

Metrics audit

Week 5: Reporting to the board

Put the quarter in front of the board in one document: the KPIs against plan, the exceptions, the decisions requested and the material risks.

Board Report

Week 6: Defending the pack

Defend the board report to a member who has already formed a view, and hold the lead argument under a hostile question.

Presentation Under Pressure

Whether a market is real, where it is growing, and where the opportunity sits

How an entire industry is structured, who controls it, and where it is heading

Who controls a market, how they compete, and where the real gaps are

Who buys in a market, what drives their decisions, and where the unmet needs are

What competitors charge in a market, how pricing is structured, and what customers will pay

Who supplies the critical inputs to a market, how concentrated it is, and what switching costs

The technology deployed in a sector, and where competitive advantage moves next

How product reaches the buyer in a market, and where channel power is shifting

Financials, leadership, strategy, and reputation on a company

Deep dive into how a company operates strategically, and where it is most exposed

Revenue, margins, cash, debt, and auditor signals on a company

How a company is perceived across customers, employees, media, and ESG

Discover a country's GDP, political environment, infrastructure, and outlook

Discover a city's GDP, economic drivers, workforce, and trajectory

Trade flows, tariffs, agreements, and friction points between two countries

Background, current state, key actors, evidence, and where an issue is heading

What a policy does, who wins and loses, and how it lands in practice

The specific risks facing a market — ranked, evidenced, and with the signals to watch

Single-source exposures, concentration, and trade-route risk for a market

Climate, governance, social, and controversy risk in a sector

Pending legislation, enforcement shifts, and where the rules are likely to change

Licensing, compliance, recent changes, and pending legislation in a jurisdiction

Government stability, policy direction, and the political risks facing a market

What a role pays — verified across named salary databases and job posting data

Whether to take a job at a company, with the evidence behind the answer

Who the credible candidates are, what they earn, and how the search will unfold

How a career in an industry works — entry, paths, pay, and prospects

The three things that will move a business forward this quarter

A 90-day plan that turns a strategy into something a team can act on Monday

Segment, positioning, channels, and pricing — tested against each other so the four hold together

A positioning the market can place — and a category claim worth defending

A pricing strategy that the market accepts and the business can defend in negotiation

Dashboard, thresholds and owners

Dashboard, thresholds and owners

Targets, thresholds and cadence

Whether an opportunity is worth pursuing — with conditions or risks named

The real problem behind the surface one, with options and a recommended next step

How a business creates, delivers, and captures value — and where it is exposed

Where work is breaking, where capability is missing, and the one structural change worth making

Build, buy, partner, or wait — with the killer assumption named

Whether a specific partnership is worth pursuing — with the asymmetries named

The right financing structure for the opportunity — tested against fit, cost, and flexibility

A fundraise structured to close on terms worth living with

Every variance classified — structural, timing, one-off or noise — with the call the pattern demands

How long the cash lasts across three scenarios, with the killer assumption named

Whether the per-unit economics hold up — with the killer assumption named

Whether the pay set serves the talent strategy, with the cost of fixing it

A board report that lands the narrative, the KPIs, the exceptions, and the decisions requested

What metrics are missing, misleading, or quietly rewarding the wrong thing

A complete business plan ready to put in front of investors, partners, or a board

A career decision weighed against criteria that matter, with a pre-mortem and a verdict

What matters most, what you would give up, and what stays true under pressure

Which option holds up under income loss, rate moves, or a downturn

A relocation decision and plan, with the trade-offs each destination forces

What the culture is like — values in practice, leadership behaviour, and where the gap sits

Strategy clarity, alignment, talent density, ways of working, and trust in leadership

What's energising people, what's draining them, and the levers that would move engagement

The patterns in how a person handles pressure, conflict, collaboration, and decisions

PENDING — product being redesigned. See Replit brief.

How a person leads — defaults, strengths, blind spots, and development areas

Real strengths backed by evidence — and the cost each one carries when overplayed

The values revealed by what a person has held the line on, refused, or regretted

What every role owns, what's silently dropped, and which handoffs are breaking

Where the team is aligned on priorities and goals, and where dangerous gaps sit

Where trust, conflict handling, and accountability are strong — and where they break

Any subject explained to a real listener, scored on accuracy, depth, audience adaptation, and handling the unknown

A presentation rehearsal scored on lead argument, evidence, question response, and poise

A stakeholder-influence rehearsal scored on reading the room, framing, negotiation, and durability

A managing-up rehearsal scored on positioning, evidence, flexibility, and outcome

A meeting rehearsal scored on structure, air-time management, progress, and closure

The conversation that's been avoided, with an assessment of how the conversation went

A saying-no rehearsal scored on clarity, rationale, alternative, and relationship

A performance-conversation rehearsal scored on clarity, ownership, empathy, and path forward

A team-conflict rehearsal scored on directness, fairness, action, and aftercare

A hiring interview rehearsal scored on question design, follow-up, bias, and assessment integrity

A leadership crisis scored on decision quality, communication, strategy, and pressure response

A negotiation rehearsal scored on preparation, anchoring, concession pattern, and pressure response

A strategic-decision rehearsal scored on framing, information use, trade-off recognition, and time horizon

An ethics rehearsal where the right path is costly, scored on recognition and response

A prioritisation rehearsal scored on triage, trade-off recognition, communication, and revisability