The first 100 days after the deal: the one list nobody owns

The thing that goes wrong most often in the first 100 days after a deal is that nobody owns the list of promises made to the new owner. This article is for the CEO, CFO or COO of a company that has just taken a private equity investment or completed an acquisition, or is about to. It gives you a plan you can run, with a named owner for every step.

I was COO and then President of a public company that closed more than 40 acquisitions, and I ran the integration on most of them. The systems were rarely what went wrong. The promises were.

What a 100-day plan is for (and what it is not)

A 100-day plan has one job: to make sure the promises made at closing are kept, and that you find out early when one is slipping. It turns what the new owner expects into a short list of dated commitments, each with one person's name next to it.

It is not a strategy document, and it is not a list of every project the company would like to finish this year. In most deals the new owner has a version of it, the lender has a version of it, and your leadership team has a version of it. Three versions that never get compared is how a company ends up surprised by its own plan in month four.

A good plan is short enough to read in ten minutes, and specific enough that you can tell on any Friday whether each item is done, late or at risk.

The promise list: what goes on it and who owns it

When a company changes hands, or takes a private equity investment, promises get made in several places at once. They sit in different documents, with different people, and nobody has put them side by side. The promise list is that one page. It covers four things:

• The investment thesis. The reasons the new owner paid what they paid, and what they expect to see change: growth, margin, a new product, a cleaner cost base.
• Lender covenants. The financial tests in the loan agreement, and the dates they are measured.
• Reporting promises. What the new owner and the lender expect to receive, how often, and in what form.
• The 100-day plan itself. The commitments you have made to yourselves, once the first three are on the table.

The list needs exactly one owner. In practice that is usually the CFO or the General Counsel, appointed by the CEO. What matters is that it is one person, that the CEO has said so out loud, and that the list is reviewed monthly with the whole leadership team.

Why one person? Because each promise already has a natural owner, and that is the problem. The CFO knows the covenants. The CEO knows the thesis. Legal knows the contract terms. Nobody sees whether the parts conflict. A growth target in the thesis can quietly collide with a covenant test in the loan. The list owner is the person who notices.

Days 1-30: Get the facts straight

The first month is about finding out what was actually promised and who is accountable for it. Do not start new projects yet.

1. Name the owner of the promise list. Write down the investment thesis, the plan, the covenants and the reporting promises on one page. Owner: the CEO appoints, often the CFO or General Counsel.
2. Assign every number a name and a date. For each figure the new owner or the lender will ask for, write down who is accountable and when it is due. Owner: CFO.
3. Talk to your top 10 customers and your key employees. In person or by phone, say what is changing and what is not. Silence reads as bad news. Owner: CEO.
4. List the decisions that now need approval. Make a plain list of what the board or the sponsor must sign off on, so nobody learns about it after the fact. Owner: General Counsel or CFO.

Days 31-60: Make the numbers reliable

The second month is about one version of the truth. When the owner, the lender and the managers each see different numbers, the company argues about definitions instead of running the business.

1. Produce one monthly report. The owner, the lender and your managers all use it, with the same figures and the same definitions. Owner: CFO.
2. Compare actual results to the plan promised at closing. Write down every gap, with a reason. A gap with a reason is a conversation. A gap with no reason is a surprise. Owner: CFO.
3. Check the major contracts for change-of-control terms. Look for consent requirements and notice dates that the deal may have triggered. Owner: General Counsel.
4. Agree who runs each part of the plan. One person per part, one weekly check-in. Owner: COO or CEO.

Days 61-100: Hold the plan together

This is where plans quietly fall apart, because the urgency of closing has faded and daily work has returned. The task now is to prove the first two months held.

1. Run the first full-quarter close and board package on time. Then ask the owner what they want changed. Owner: CFO.
2. Review the covenant calculations against current forecasts. Do it before the lender asks. Owner: CFO.
3. Decide which roles, systems and vendors stay, change or go. Then tell people, promptly and plainly. Owner: CEO.
4. Go back to the promise list. Mark each item done, late or at risk, and report it to the board. Owner: the list owner.

If you want all of this on a single sheet with a box beside each action, that is what the checklist at the end of this article is. For the rest of the first year, area by area, see the post-merger integration checklist.

Where AI fits in the first 100 days

AI is not the headline of a 100-day plan, and it should not be. But a board, a lender or a new investor will ask about it sooner than you expect, and there are three rules that keep you from being caught without an answer.

Rule one: find out who already uses AI tools, and for what. Ask, do not audit. People who use these tools on their own are often your most capable employees, and they are rarely hiding anything. If you want a practical way to find them, the guide to spotting your AI champion walks through it. Owner: COO.

Rule two: set one data rule. No customer or pricing data goes into any AI tool unless the company has approved that tool. One sentence, in writing, sent to everyone. Owner: General Counsel or CEO.

Rule three: do not buy an AI platform until monthly reporting is stable. A new tool built on numbers nobody trusts produces answers nobody trusts, faster. Get the days 31-60 work done first. Owner: CEO.

The agenda and the ten questions are on one page: AI board briefing template.

If the board has already asked for a written answer, the AI Board Briefing is a fixed-fee written plan that covers where AI is in use, who is accountable and what should never be built.

If the deal is still ahead of you, and you are the owner preparing to sell, the questions a buyer asks about AI and data come earlier: Does AI make my business worth more when I sell?

Mistakes that repeat

• Treating the 100-day plan as the deal team's document. Once the deal closes, the people who wrote the plan move on. If the company does not own it, it stops being updated.
• Letting every promise have a different owner and no one hold the whole. The promise list exists to prevent this.
• Reporting from three sets of definitions. If "revenue" or "adjusted earnings" means different things to the owner, the lender and the managers, every meeting becomes an argument.
• Waiting for the lender to raise a covenant problem. By then the options are narrower and the conversation is harder.

Frequently asked questions

What is a 100-day plan after an acquisition?

It is a short list of dated commitments covering the first three months after closing. It makes sure the promises to the new owner and the lender are kept, that the numbers are reliable, and that the people and contracts that matter are looked after. It works best when each item has one named owner and a review date.

Who should own the 100-day plan?

The CEO owns the outcome, but one person should own the list of promises behind it. That is usually the CFO or the General Counsel, appointed by the CEO. The point is not which role it is. The point is that it is one named person, who reports its status to the board every month.

What should a new CEO do first after a private equity deal?

Get the promises on one page: the investment thesis, the lender covenants, the reporting promises and the plan. Then speak to your top customers and key employees yourself. Do both in the first 30 days, before starting any new initiative. Most surprises later come from a promise nobody had read in full.

What belongs on a post-acquisition integration checklist?

Four groups: the promise list and its owner, one reliable monthly report, a review of contracts for change-of-control terms and consents, and a covenant check against current forecasts. Add decisions on roles, systems and vendors, and a plain message to customers and staff. Give every item an owner and a date.

Where does AI fit in post-merger integration?

Late and lightly. Start by finding out who already uses AI tools and for what, set one rule about customer and pricing data, and hold off on buying a platform until monthly reporting is stable. Your board or lender may ask for a written AI position within the first hundred days, so be ready with a short answer.