The Paradox of the First 100 Days
Most search fund CEOs enter their new companies with a paradox: you have the legal authority to make any decision, but you have zero organizational capital to execute it. You own the equity, but you don't own the culture.
The biggest mistake new CEOs make is trying to prove their value too quickly through visible changes. In an SME environment—especially in Spain, where tenure and loyalty are high—rapid change is often interpreted as an indictment of the past.
Phase 1: The Listening Tour (Days 1–30)
Your primary goal in the first month is not to fix the business. It is to understand it. Your second goal is to do no harm.
Tactical Steps:
- One-on-one interviews: Meet with every employee (or every key manager in larger orgs). Ask the same three questions: What is working well? What is broken? If you were me, what would you focus on?
- Shadow the frontline: Spend days doing the actual work. Go on sales calls. Pack boxes in the warehouse. Sit with customer support. This builds credibility faster than any town hall speech.
- Financial triage: While you are listening operationally, you must be hawk-eyed financially. Verify cash controls immediately. Ensure you have daily visibility into bank balances and a 13-week cash flow forecast.
Phase 2: Establishing Cadence (Days 31–60)
Once you understand the rhythm of the business, your job is to professionalize it without choking it. Most SMEs run on informal networks and tribal knowledge. Your goal is to introduce "minimum viable process."
Key Initiatives:
- The Weekly Leadership Meeting: Instill a 90-minute weekly meeting with your direct reports. Standard agenda: Scorecard review (KPIs), Rock review (quarterly projects), and Issue solving.
- The Flash Report: Create a simple weekly dashboard that tracks the 5–7 numbers that actually matter. Revenue, cash, pipeline, backlog, customer satisfaction.
- Quick Wins: Identify 2–3 low-cost, high-visibility annoyances that you can fix immediately. Maybe it's buying new monitors, fixing the coffee machine, or killing a hated bureaucratic report. These "trust deposits" buy you runway for harder decisions later.
Phase 3: The Strategic Pivot (Days 61–100)
By month three, the team knows you, and you know the business. Now you can start to shift from observation to direction. This is when you begin to articulate the "North Star" for the next 12–24 months.
Action Items:
- Talent Assessment: You likely know by now who is on the bus and who isn't. You don't need to fire everyone immediately, but you need a mental map of your "A players" and your "cultural detractors."
- The First Board Meeting: Your first post-closing board meeting shouldn't just be a celebration. It should be a sober assessment of what you bought (vs. what you thought you bought) and a clear plan for the rest of the year.
- Pricing Review: One of the most common levers for value creation in SMEs is pricing. Many family-owned businesses haven't raised prices in years out of fear. A systematic review often reveals margin opportunity.
The Founder Transition
If the seller is staying on for a transition period, manage this relationship with extreme care. They are watching their "baby" being raised by someone else. Honor their legacy publicly. Consult them privately. But be clear that the decision-making authority has transferred.
The Golden Rule: Never criticize the past. Frame every change as "building on the foundation" rather than "fixing the mess."
"You earn your leadership not by your title, but by the quality of your questions and the integrity of your actions in the first 100 days."