Concept Dictionary
The vocabulary of the iBD Ownership OS™. Every term that appears across the methodology, defined in one place. Click any concept to read its definition, see how it works in the system, and find where it shows up across the methodology.
Anchor concepts
The terms you’ll hit most often. Start here if the methodology is new.
- The Owner-Operator Trap™ — The state most owners are stuck in. The reason every other concept exists.
- Independence Escape Velocity — The destination. The state where the business funds the life without requiring the owner.
- Owner’s Scorecard™ — The five-year target across Time, Cash Flow, and Wealth.
- the iBD Ownership OS™ — The full system. 3 phases, 9 modules, 27 milestones.
- Capital Allocator — The role the owner steps into when they stop being just an operator.
- Noble Aim — The lifetime “why” that every Scorecard target serves.
Browse all concepts
| Concept | |
|---|---|
| 168-hour constraint | The fixed weekly budget every owner allocates against. |
| 90-Day Game Plan™ | The single most important constraint to resolve next quarter. |
| Accrual vs. Cash Basis Accounting | Two ways of recognizing revenue and expense, with very different cash implications. |
| Budget vs. Actual (Variance Analysis) | The monthly read of what’s drifting from plan and why. |
| Business Operating System | The execution layer (EOS, Scaling Up, OKRs) that runs the business below the Ownership OS. |
| Capital Allocator | The owner’s true role: deciding how to deploy capital across competing priorities. |
| Case Study Reference | The Advanced Solutions and Rockin’ Times case study walkthroughs. |
| Cash Conversion Cycle | How long it takes for a dollar invested to come back as collected cash. |
| Distributable Cash | The portion of free cash flow available for owner distributions after reinvestment. |
| Enterprise Value vs. Equity Value | The math difference between business value and owner-side proceeds. |
| Free Cash Flow | The cash the business actually produces after debt, taxes, and reinvestment. |
| iBD Alignment Score™ | Quarterly gauge of how aligned reality is to the Owner’s Scorecard target. |
| iBD North Star™ | The annual articulation of where the business needs to be by year-end. |
| Independence by Design™ | The brand. The philosophy. The methodology. |
| Independence Escape Velocity | The destination state where the business funds the life without requiring operator labor. |
| Monthly Owner’s Package | The financial pre-read delivered to the owner before each monthly meeting. |
| Monthly Ownership Meeting™ | The 90-minute monthly governance check between Quarterly Boardrooms. |
| Net Debt and Working Capital | The two financial structures that bridge enterprise value and equity value. |
| Noble Aim | The owner’s lifetime “why” that the entire OS serves. |
| Normalized EBITDA | EBITDA with one-time and owner-discretionary items adjusted out. The valuation engine. |
| Owner’s Roadmap™ | The Velocity Score visualization of which milestone is the current constraint. |
| Owner’s Scorecard™ | The five-year target across Time, Cash Flow, and Wealth. The OS’s primary instrument. |
| Quarterly Boardroom Rhythm™ | The 90-day governance cadence that sits above the business operating system. |
| Revenue Architecture | The five-section foundation document that sits underneath the revenue engine. |
| Rolling Forecast | A 12-18 month forward forecast that updates monthly, replacing static annual budgeting. |
| Sustainable Financials | Module 4. The financial infrastructure that produces reliable free cash flow. |
| The Four Value Levers | Revenue growth, margin expansion, multiple expansion, capital efficiency. |
| the iBD Ownership OS™ | The full operating system. 3 phases, 9 modules, 27 milestones. |
| The Multiple & WACC | The valuation math: how multiples and weighted average cost of capital interact. |
| The One Thing | The single most important constraint to resolve in any given quarter. |
| The Owner-Operator Trap™ | The state most owner-operators are stuck in. The trap the OS exists to close. |
| The Ownership Flywheel | Time → Cash Flow → Wealth → bought-back Time. The compounding loop. |
| Theory of Constraints | The Goldratt principle: find the bottleneck, open up the throughput. |
| Three Income-Statement Buckets | Revenue, COGS, Operating Expenses — the three buckets every owner should know cold. |
| Three Lenses of Value | Owner’s Value (DCF), Market Value (multiples), Transaction Value (proceeds). |
| Three-Statement Model | The integrated income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement. The financial engine. |
| Tuesday Flywheel | The four-week monthly meeting cadence (CRO / CFO / Owner / COO). |
| Value Gap | The difference between what the business is worth today and the owner’s Year-5 target. |
| Value Growth Plan™ | The annual plan that closes the Value Gap by sequencing milestones across quarters. |
| Velocity Score™ | The 0-81 score measuring how much of the OS the owner has installed. |
| Visionary-Integrator Framework | The Rocket Fuel structure: Visionary owner + Integrator who runs the operating cadence. |
| Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) | The blended cost of debt and equity. The discount rate in the DCF math. |
Concept Dictionary. Part of the iBD Ownership OS™ library. Concepts get added here as they show up across the methodology.