Free one-page checklist for CEOs after a private-equity investment or an acquisition

Who owns the list of promises made to your new owner?

I was COO and then President of a public company that closed more than 40 acquisitions. What went wrong most often in the first 100 days was not the systems. It was that nobody owned the list of promises made to the new owner. This one page is the checklist: print it, put a name next to each box, review it every two weeks.

• Days 1 to 30: get the facts straight. One owner for the promise list, who answers for each number, what to tell customers and staff
• Days 31 to 60: make the numbers reliable. One monthly report everyone uses, plan against actual, the contracts with change-of-control terms
• Days 61 to 100: hold the plan together. The first full close, the covenant check before the lender asks, what stays and what goes
• Where AI fits in the first 100 days, in three lines, and what not to buy yet

The checklist is Darren Weiss's own, from running integrations as COO and then President of a public company. It is a business tool, not legal, tax, accounting or investment advice.