New to this? What a cascade, a driver, a key result and a KPI are
You're building the chain from your top goal down to the actual work, and the tool checks that every link holds. Money is in Australian dollars. Plain English below.
- Set your owner outcome (the goal) and the EBITDA it implies, from baseline to target.
- List the operating drivers that will get you there, each with a key result and a KPI to track it.
- Under each driver, add the initiatives: the work, each with a single owner and a committed value.
- Read where the chain breaks. A missing owner, value or measure is a link that carries no load.
- Cascade
- The chain that connects your top goal down to the day-to-day work, so every task can be traced back to the outcome it serves. If a link is missing, effort leaks.
- Operating driver
- A lever of the business you can actually work on (pricing discipline, customer spread, delivery reliability) that moves the economic target above it.
- Key result
- A specific, time-boxed result that proves a driver moved this cycle, such as lifting gross margin from 32% to 38% by FY27. It has a deadline.
- KPI
- A standing meter you watch all the time (average gross margin %, top-5 revenue share %). A key result is a target you commit to; a KPI is the gauge you read it off.
- Initiative
- A concrete piece of work with one named owner and a committed dollar value: the thing someone actually does to shift a driver.
1. The goal & the number it implies
2. Your operating drivers
Each driver needs a measurable key result, a KPI to read it, and at least one initiative with an owner and a value. Keep it to a handful.
Key result (the measurable outcome that proves this driver moved)
Initiatives (the work, each with a single owner and a committed value)
Key result (the measurable outcome that proves this driver moved)
Initiatives (the work, each with a single owner and a committed value)
Cascade alignment
Broken in places
Some links hold and some don't. Where a link is broken, the value below it can't reach the goal above it. Fix the red items below first.
Do the initiatives reach the target?
Committed value covers 44% of the A$1M EBITDA gap.
Your cascade
Where the chain breaks
A Commercial Assessment builds this chain from your real numbers; the APG Platform gives each initiative an owner and a value hypothesis and reconciles it monthly, so the cascade stays connected.
A structuring aid, not a valuation. It checks that your plan connects, not that the plan is right: every link can pass and the strategy still be wrong, and a low score doesn't mean the thinking is bad, only that the chain isn't joined up yet. Committed values are your own judgements. Coverage treats each initiative's value as an EBITDA contribution for a rough read against the gap; real value cases separate EBITDA uplift from re-rating. Not financial advice.
A green scoreboard is not the same as enterprise value that moved.
The cascade only creates value when every link holds: goal to target to driver to result, and an owned, valued initiative underneath. That is the chain a Commercial Assessment builds and the APG Platform keeps connected.
Start with a Commercial Assessment →Not ready to talk? Find your constraint in 60 seconds →