Our leadership team wants to take the Value Gap Assessment from Step by Step Exit, but we know our backend operations are currently messy. Should we use AI to clean up and automate our processes before we run the assessment, or should we do the assessment first?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

You should run the Value Gap Assessment first. One of the biggest mistakes owners make is trying to clean up or automate their operations before they actually know where their value is leaking. This leads to automating processes that should actually be eliminated, simplified, or completely restructured, which is the ultimate form of technology theater.

The assessment and your resulting Business Insights Report, or BIR, will give you an objective, clear picture of your company’s current state, key risks, and valuation opportunities.

Once you have this data, you can pinpoint exactly which cumbersome processes are dragging down your valuation or keeping your employees trapped in low-value tasks.

After you have identified these specific high-risk areas in your BIR, you can prioritize your AI-powered operations-improvement projects. This ensures that you are applying technology to build system-dependent operations that directly increase your EBITDA and your exit readiness, rather than just experimenting with tools.

By running the assessment first, you establish a baseline. You can then write highly focused 90-day Rocks to automate those high-leverage areas, creating a clear line of sight between your technical improvements and your eventual exit valuation.