Chief Executive‘s August 2026 CEO Confidence Index asked 285 CEOs where they will focus for the rest of the year. Revenue and market-share growth topped the list at 55%. Only 13% named talent and organizational capabilities among their top two priorities. (Chief Executive, August 2026: https://chiefexecutive.net/in-final-stretch-of-the-year-ceos-push-for-growth-lean-into-ai/)
Read those two numbers together. More than half of CEOs are committing to growth. Almost none are committing to the capacity that delivers it. The number gets set in the boardroom, handed to sales, and never translated into what finance, operations, talent, and product need to do differently. Growth that sales generates and operations cannot deliver is not growth. It is churn with a delay.
This is the first Pillar 5 concept in the Enterprise Value Playbook, and it inherits everything from the first four. A documented strategy, accountable leaders, documented processes, and trusted financial visibility are the inputs. Pillar 5 asks whether the growth plan connects them, or whether it is a sales target with a company name attached. Revenue is an outcome. Enterprise value is the objective. A plan only one function can explain moves neither.
YOUR 2027 BUDGET IS LAST YEAR WITH A HAIRCUT.
Every October, management rolls forward last year’s run rate and negotiates percentages. That produces a budget. It rarely produces enterprise value.
This month I published a piece on why. A budget should not be a forecast of what the company will spend. It should be a decision about what the company is trying to become, and which investments will increase its value.
Before your plan goes to the board, I will run one Capital Allocation Review with your leadership team. You leave knowing where your capital is compounding and where it is habit. If we do not find at least one line you would fund differently, you have lost one hour.
I am holding a limited number for October. Reply “Capital Review” to reserve one.
THE PRINCIPLE
This week’s concept sits in Pillar 5, Accelerated Growth: you have a clear multi-year growth plan with aligned targets, metrics, and ownership across departments.
Where You Stand
Ask your CFO, your head of operations, and your head of talent to state their specific, measurable contribution to next year’s growth target. Not the sales number. Theirs. If any of them has to ask sales what the plan requires of them, that is your actual score.
The Failure Pattern
The growth plan exists as a single top-line revenue number, owned by sales alone, with no operational, financial, or talent plan built to support it. The number gets set in the boardroom, sales gets the quota, and it never gets translated into what every other function needs to do differently to make it real.
Kotter’s Step 3, Form a Strategic Vision, is the direct application. A growth target is not a vision. A vision explains how every function’s specific contribution connects to the larger outcome. Without that translation, each department is left to guess at its own role in a plan it never actually helped build. Translate the multi-year target into owned sub-targets for every function: finance’s capital and margin plan, operations’ capacity plan, talent’s hiring and development plan, product’s roadmap. Tie all of them to the same top-line number and review them together, not in departmental isolation. Budget season is the natural moment to do it, because it is the moment every function is already asking for capital.
The Win Condition
Every function leader can state their specific, measurable contribution to the multi-year growth target without needing to ask sales what the plan actually requires of them.
FROM THE CHAIRMAN
“This growth number is on the strategic plan. What does finance need to do differently because of it? What does operations need to do differently? If only sales can answer that question, this is not an enterprise growth plan. It is a sales target with a company logo on it.”
MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Three signals from this week across Venture Capital, Private Equity, Family Offices, and Capital:
Blackstone combined two defense engineering firms, Applied Systems Engineering and Technology Service Corp., into a new platform called Falcata, backed by more than $1 billion in debt and equity. Falcata builds navigation and guidance systems for interceptors that defend against missiles and drones, and Blackstone expects to add more companies to it. President Jon Gray said the firm has put $20 billion into defense and aerospace over five years and expects the pace to increase. (Bloomberg, via Advisor Perspectives, October 1, 2026: https://www.advisorperspectives.com/articles/2026/10/01/blackstone-bets-1-billion-firm-aimed-boosting-us-defense) My read: Blackstone did not buy two companies and look for a thesis afterward. It named a choke point in the defense industrial base, the guidance “brains” of an interceptor, and assembled a platform to attack it, with the next acquisitions already in the plan. Every add-on arrives with a defined role. That is a multi-year growth plan with the capacity built ahead of the revenue.
Thomson Reuters closed the sale of a 51% stake in its Global Print business to KKR-advised capital accounts, roughly $500 million in gross proceeds, and kept the other 49%. The business now operates independently as Westbridge Print, serving legal and tax professionals in 13 countries. Thomson Reuters said the transaction sharpens its focus on AI solutions for the legal, tax, audit, and compliance industries. (Thomson Reuters press release, October 1, 2026: https://investors.thomsonreuters.com/news-releases/news-release-details/thomson-reuters-and-kkr-complete-joint-venture-global-print) My read: A multi-year growth plan also decides what does not belong in it. Print has a long history and loyal customers, and no role in a plan built around AI. Thomson Reuters did not starve it inside the portfolio. It gave the business an owner with a plan of its own and kept 49% of the upside. A unit with no role in the growth plan is not neutral. It consumes management attention the plan needs.
Family offices made 42 direct investments in September, down from 52 in August, according to Fintrx data reported by CNBC, while writing into some of the largest rounds of the month: Duquesne Family Office in Fab2’s $500 million raise and Precision Neuroscience’s $250 million round, and John Doerr’s family office co-leading Mazama Energy’s $135 million Series B. (CNBC, October 1, 2026: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/01/billionaire-family-offices-back-geothermal-energy-in-september.html) My read: Fewer swings, bigger checks, and a stated preference for teams showing real-world progress. The most patient capital in the market is paying for evidence that the plan is already working, not for the plan. A founder raising from that capital should expect to be asked what the growth target requires of operations, talent, and capital, and whether that work has started.
SAM SPEAKS
Later this month I deliver “The Unrealistic Leader: Achieve Real Results by Being Unrealistic” to members of the Association of Revenue Cycle Professionals (ARCP). I speak to executive audiences on three core topics:
Scaling and Exiting the Business for Maximum Value. The leaders who capture maximum value at the table treat the exit as a strategy, not an event.
The Unrealistic Leader. The most dangerous thing a leader can do is become reasonable too early.
The Price Pressure Playbook. Buyers have a playbook. This talk gives sellers the 20 moves that counter it.
If your professional association or an upcoming conference is building its agenda to close out 2026 or plan 2027, let us connect: speaking@tipofthespearventures.com
FROM THE TIP OF THE SPEAR
Fifty-five percent (55%) of CEOs rank growth among their top priorities for the rest of the year. Thirteen percent (13%) rank talent and organizational capability there. That gap is the failure pattern in two numbers.
A growth target is not a plan. It is a number. It becomes a plan when finance knows the capital and margin it requires, operations knows the capacity, talent knows the hires and the development, and product knows the roadmap. Until then, sales carries the entire target and every other function guesses at its role.
This week the market showed what the alternative looks like. Blackstone named a choke point in the defense industrial base and built Falcata around it, with the next acquisitions already in the plan. Thomson Reuters decided its print business had no role in an AI-led growth plan and handed it to an owner that would build one. Family offices did fewer deals and wrote bigger checks to teams showing real-world progress.
Budget season is where this gets decided. The 2027 plan either translates the growth number into every function’s budget, or it rolls forward last year’s run rate and hands the number to sales again. Ask the Chairman’s question this week: What does finance need to do differently because of this growth number? If only sales can answer, you do not have an enterprise growth plan. You have a sales target with a company logo on it.
100% GUARANTEED.
Executive Performance Coaching for CEOs and senior leaders who are scaling something real. We define the results in writing before we start. If you are not satisfied with them, you do not pay.
DO NOT PAY ME UNLESS YOU GET RESULTS.
Reply “Coaching” or reach me directly: sp@tipofthespearventures.com
UNTIL NEXT TUESDAY
From the Tip of the Spear is my weekly publication for executives who are building something real. One issue, every Tuesday. A field report from active operator engagements, one principle with supporting data, and market intelligence from across my VC, PE, and family office network.
