Teardown Diagnostic Sequence
When you need this method
When analyzing a company, the discussion jumps between strategy, people and tactics, and in the end the most plausible-sounding measure gets implemented. Leadership often believes it needs a new strategy when execution is the constraint. Without a fixed diagnostic order, recommendations become arbitrary.
Approach
- 1Ask the sorting question first: did the business grow organically or through acquisition? That determines the problem class.
- 2Walk the KPI chain: leads, booking rate, show rate, close rate, revenue per deal.
- 3Have leadership name their suspected constraints, then test them against the data.
- 4Hunt outliers: which channel, segment or location clearly outperforms the rest? That is where more resources go first.
- 5Finish with the honest distinction: model problem or team and execution problem; limit recommendations to low execution risk.
Typical application
A typical case: the leadership of a mid-sized company is convinced its business model is exhausted and plans a strategic overhaul. Diagnosis along the chain shows a different picture: demand exists, but a large share is lost between inquiry and attended meeting, and a single channel delivers a multiple of the rest. The recommendation is unspectacular: fix lead handling, feed the proven channel harder, postpone the overhaul. The pattern of "execution before strategy" is this sequence's most common finding.
Limits and counter-indications
The sequence comes from teardowns of service and SMB businesses; for complex B2B motions the KPI chain must be translated accordingly. It diagnoses operational constraints, not market or positioning questions. Amplifying outliers alone can create structural dependence on a single channel.
How to measure impact
Conversion rates along the chain and the variance between channels, segments or locations as the outlier indicator.
Related methods
Sources
- 1.Why Strategy Execution Unravels—and What to Do About It (opens in a new tab) · Harvard Business Review (Sull, Homkes, Sull) · 2015 · academic and scholarly literatureBelegt den letzten Schritt der Reihenfolge, nämlich die Trennung zwischen einem Problem des Geschäftsmodells und einem Problem der Umsetzung, und zeigt, wie häufig beides verwechselt wird.
- 2.Building a $5,000,000 Business for a Stranger in 42 Mins (opens in a new tab) · Alex Hormozi (YouTube) · 2025 · practitioner sourceHerkunftsquelle der konkreten Schrittfolge: Hormozi arbeitet ein fremdes Geschäft live in genau dieser Ordnung durch, vom Sortieren über die Kennzahlenkette bis zum Ausreißer.
Origin: Hormozi · Adapted from: Alex Hormozi ($100M Offers/$100M Leads, YouTube-Langform)
Last reviewed: 2026-07-25 by Dr. Oliver Gausmann