The three pillars of any business. Al Casey told me this is why he could run an airline, a newspaper, and the postal service. The categories do not change.
- Marketing — how people buy. Demand, attention, leads, deals.
- Operations — how you deliver. Fulfillment, defects, ratings, capacity.
- Finance — whether you make money going forward. Pricing, margin, cash. Accounting looks backward. Finance looks forward.
A business is only as strong as its weakest pillar. Valuation is EBITDA times a multiple. You raise the number by raising revenue, margin, and the multiple. Jeff Hughes buying family-law firms is MOF in public: shared services plus a higher multiple.