Cases & Citations

Customer-led EBITDA growth, with proof.

The cases, the research, and the citations that anchor every claim made on this site. Documented year-1 results, with the per-engagement EBITDA delta and the methodology nodes that produced it.

First documented cases land in this section as engagements close.

Citations

The research the methodology rests on.

Every claim made on this site that reaches into the academic literature is anchored to a source listed below. APA format, sorted by first-author surname.

  1. Anderson, J. C., Narus, J. A., & Van Rossum, W. (2006). Customer value propositions in business markets. Harvard Business Review, 84(3), 90–99.
  2. Armstrong, M. (2006). Competition in two-sided markets. The RAND Journal of Economics, 37(3), 668–691. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-2171.2006.tb00037.x
  3. Bain & Company (2024). The transformation playbook 2024: Why most transformations fail and how to beat the odds. https://www.bain.com
  4. Bass, F. M. (1969). A new product growth model for consumer durables. Management Science, 15(5), 215–227. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.15.5.215
  5. Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Harvard University Press.
  6. Christensen, C. M. (1997). The innovator's dilemma: When new technologies cause great firms to fail. Harvard Business School Press.
  7. Christensen, C. M., & Raynor, M. E. (2003). The innovator's solution: Creating and sustaining successful growth. Harvard Business School Press.
  8. Christensen, C. M., Hall, T., Dillon, K., & Duncan, D. S. (2016). Know your customers' "jobs to be done.". Harvard Business Review, 94(9), 54–62.
  9. Collins, J. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap... and others don't. HarperBusiness.
  10. Collins, J. (2019). Turning the flywheel: A monograph to accompany Good to Great. Harper Business.
  11. CVC (2026, January). Ten tests of a world-class private equity value creation plan. https://www.cvc.com/media/insights/2026/ten-tests-of-a-world-class-private-equity-value-creation-plan/
  12. DellaVigna, S., & Malmendier, U. (2006). Paying not to go to the gym. American Economic Review, 96(3), 694–719.
  13. Dixon, M., & Adamson, B. (2011). The Challenger sale: Taking control of the customer conversation. Portfolio/Penguin.
  14. Fader, P. S., Hardie, B. G. S., & Lee, K. L. (2005). RFM and CLV: Using iso-value curves for customer base analysis. Journal of Marketing Research, 42(4), 415–430. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.2005.42.4.415
  15. Federal Trade Commission (2025, August 12). Match Group agrees to pay $14 million, permanently stop deceptive advertising, cancellation, and billing practices to resolve FTC charges [Press release].
  16. Garcia, J. (2022, March 29). Common pitfalls in transformations: A conversation with Jon Garcia. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/transformation/our-insights/common-pitfalls-in-transformations-a-conversation-with-jon-garcia
  17. Griffin, A., & Hauser, J. R. (1993). The voice of the customer. Marketing Science, 12(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.12.1.1
  18. Gupta, S., Lehmann, D. R., & Stuart, J. A. (2004). Valuing customers. Journal of Marketing Research, 41(1), 7–18. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.41.1.7.25084
  19. Holt, D. B. (2004). How brands become icons: The principles of cultural branding. Harvard Business School Press.
  20. Hsu, G. (2006). Jacks of all trades and masters of none: Audiences' reactions to spanning genres in feature film production. Administrative Science Quarterly, 51(3), 420–450.
  21. Hsu, G., Hannan, M. T., & Koçak, Ö. (2009). Multiple category memberships in markets: An integrative theory and two empirical tests. American Sociological Review, 74(1), 150–169.
  22. Hyndman, R. J., & Athanasopoulos, G. (2021). Forecasting: Principles and practice (3rd ed.). OTexts.
  23. Keller, K. L. (1993). Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity. Journal of Marketing, 57(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299305700101
  24. Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. (2005). Blue ocean strategy: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Harvard Business School Press.
  25. Kotter, J. P. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 73(2), 59–67.
  26. Levitt, T. (1960). Marketing myopia. Harvard Business Review, 38(4), 45–56.
  27. Lusardi, A., & Mitchell, O. S. (2014). The economic importance of financial literacy: Theory and evidence. Journal of Economic Literature, 52(1), 5–44. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.52.1.5
  28. McKinsey & Company (2019). Pricing: The next frontier of value creation in private equity.
  29. McKinsey & Company (2025, November). The net revenue retention advantage: Driving success in B2B tech.
  30. McKinsey & Company (2025, October 24). Value creation: The impact counts, not the plan. https://www.mckinsey.com/uk/our-insights/uk-blog/value-creation-the-impact-counts-not-the-plan
  31. Moore, G. A. (2014). Crossing the chasm: Marketing and selling disruptive products to mainstream customers (3rd ed.). HarperBusiness.
  32. Moreau, C. P., Lehmann, D. R., & Markman, A. B. (2001). Entrenched knowledge structures and consumer response to new products. Journal of Marketing Research, 38(1), 14–29. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.38.1.14.18836
  33. Nagle, T. T., & Müller, G. (2018). The strategy and tactics of pricing: A guide to growing more profitably (6th ed.). Routledge.
  34. Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84(3), 231–259. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.3.231
  35. Oliver, R. L. (1980). A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction decisions. Journal of Marketing Research, 17(4), 460–469. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378001700405
  36. Phillips, R. L. (2005). Pricing and revenue optimization. Stanford Business Books.
  37. Pigou, A. C. (1920). The economics of welfare. Macmillan.
  38. Pontikes, E. G. (2012). Two sides of the same coin: How ambiguous classification affects multiple audiences' evaluations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 57(1), 81–118.
  39. Pontikes, E. G. (2018). Category strategy for firm advantage. Strategy Science, 3(4), 620–631.
  40. Porter, M. E. (1980). Competitive strategy: Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. Free Press.
  41. Porter, M. E. (2008). The five competitive forces that shape strategy. Harvard Business Review, 86(1), 78–93.
  42. Rackham, N. (1988). SPIN selling. McGraw-Hill.
  43. Reichheld, F. F., & Sasser, W. E. (1990). Zero defections: Quality comes to services. Harvard Business Review, 68(5), 105–111.
  44. Reinartz, W. J., & Kumar, V. (2000). On the profitability of long-life customers in a noncontractual setting: An empirical investigation and implications for marketing. Journal of Marketing, 64(4), 17–35. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.64.4.17.18077
  45. Rochet, J.-C., & Tirole, J. (2003). Platform competition in two-sided markets. Journal of the European Economic Association, 1(4), 990–1029. https://doi.org/10.1162/154247603322493212
  46. Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). Free Press.
  47. Roth, A. E. (2015). Who gets what — and why: The new economics of matchmaking and market design. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
  48. Schmitt, P., Skiera, B., & Van den Bulte, C. (2011). Referral programs and customer value. Journal of Marketing, 75(1), 46–59.
  49. Simon-Kucher & Partners (2025). Industrial and Business Services Value Creation Study 2025.
  50. Terho, H., Eggert, A., Ulaga, W., Haas, A., & Böhm, E. (2017). Selling value in business markets: Individual and organizational factors for turning the idea into action. Industrial Marketing Management, 66, 42–55.
  51. Terho, H., Haas, A., Eggert, A., & Ulaga, W. (2012). "It's almost like taking the sales out of selling": Towards a conceptualization of value-based selling in business markets. Industrial Marketing Management, 41(1), 174–185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2011.11.011
  52. Töytäri, P., & Rajala, R. (2015). Value-based selling: An organizational capability perspective. Industrial Marketing Management, 45, 101–112.
  53. Van den Bulte, C., Bayer, E., Skiera, B., & Schmitt, P. (2018). How customer referral programs turn social capital into economic capital. Journal of Marketing Research, 55(1), 132–146.
  54. Visnjic, I., Jovanovic, M., Neely, A., & Engwall, M. (2017). What brings the value to outcome-based contract providers? Value drivers in outcome business models. International Journal of Production Economics, 192, 169–181.
  55. Zeithaml, V. A., Rust, R. T., & Lemon, K. N. (2001). The customer pyramid: Creating and serving profitable customers. California Management Review, 43(4), 118–142. https://doi.org/10.2307/41166104
  56. Zuckerman, E. W. (1999). The categorical imperative: Securities analysts and the illegitimacy discount. American Journal of Sociology, 104(5), 1398–1438.