90 Day CEO Roadmap?

October 13, 2025

by a searcher from Stanford University - Graduate School of Business in New York, NY, USA

Any takeaways for those that just acquired a business on what was most productive during the first 90 days?

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Reply by an investor
from McGill University in San Diego, CA, USA

1. Sit in every seat to learn the ins and outs of the business. Make sure you spend much more time listening than talking. Part of listening includes thanking your employees in a thoughtful manner (hand written thank you note, a new chair, a better laptop, etc). Be careful making big changes in the first 100 days. There is often a lot of hidden institutional knowledge embedded in legacy systems and people who have been there a while but seem inefficient. Map what’s working, what’s not, and what the culture values most. Then make changes that reinforce the best of what’s there. 2. Measure before you move - as you sit in every seat, sort out what the measurable KPIs. This will enable you to set standards and treat everyone fairly/transparently. As Dave Dodson said in the Managers Handbook - “You can’t steer what you can’t measure. The fastest way to lose credibility is to make a decision without the data to back it up.” 3. Be transparent/overly communicate. Establish regular weekly meetings with your leadership team, and perhaps a daily standup if the business is operationally intense. People don’t necessarily need to agree with every decision but they do need to understand the why. 4. Get 1-2 quick wins. Identify one or two problems that are visible to the team and fix them decisively (like a broken workflow, an outdated tool, or a frustrating bottleneck). These visible improvements send a signal: the new owner gets things done.

Reply by a searcher
from Binghamton University, State University of New York in New York City, NY, USA

Move fast on people problems, slow on process changes. I've seen searchers hesitate for months on firing someone who's actively hurting the business, then rush to implement new software that creates chaos. You bought a business that works so your job isn't to reinvent it but to make it work better. Remember that when you're tempted to change everything at once.

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