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The same factories make the same things for the same customers, run by the same people. No customer notices. What changes is who owns which cash flows and who signs for them — so the prize cannot come from the operations. It comes from the market paying more for the same profits once they are legible separately, which happens, and is still an assumption. The cost is not. Two boards, two listings, two audit relationships, two of most of a center, every year for as long as both companies exist, plus a one-time bill. This pack computes the gap between the sum of the parts and the group's own value, sets it against that one-time bill and against the duplicated center capitalized at the group's own multiple, and reduces the whole decision to two figures in turns of multiple: the re-rating your own comparables imply, and the re-rating that breaks even. It also prices the cheaper thing almost nobody tries — reporting the pieces separately, which costs a formatting decision. It stops on three conditions: nobody has said what multiple the group trades on, nobody has named a comparable company for each piece, and nobody has counted what separating costs.
What is the Separation Strategy Pack
The Separation Strategy Pack is a complete decision-support kit for one question: is the company worth more in pieces than together, and by enough to pay for the pieces? It is built around one organizing claim: nothing operational changes on the day of a split, so the whole of the prize is a re-rating and the whole of the cost is countable. Sixteen files carry it: the foundations, a concept deck, a scored decision wizard, a separation model blank and worked, the moves at each position, nine sourced separations, a fit worksheet, a roadmap template, a practitioner manual, a field checklist, and an orientation page.
The test that runs through every file
Nothing operational changes on the day a company splits, so the whole of the prize is a re-rating that nobody can check and the whole of the cost is countable in an afternoon. It is the argument in the deck, it becomes the wizard’s axes, it drives the model’s inputs, and it reappears as lines on the checklist. That is what makes 16 files a product rather than 16 documents.
The model resolves to one number you can negotiate with: The separation surplus — the re-rating less what running two companies costs. It ships blank and worked, and every input is a named cell rather than a figure buried inside a formula, so the number arrives with its assumptions attached rather than on its own authority.
Why the prize of a separation is assumed and the price is not
The sum of the parts is the only number in a separation paper that no one can check. It is built out of peer multiples chosen by the people making the case, for companies that do not exist yet. Everything else is auditable: the profit, the group multiple, the costs.
This pack puts the prize and its price in front of the same meeting. It computes the gap between the sum of the parts and the group's own value, then sets it against the one-time bill and against the share of the corporate center that has to exist twice, capitalized at the group's own multiple. Then it reduces the whole decision to two figures in turns of multiple: the re-rating your own comparables imply, and the re-rating that breaks even.
What is in the Separation Strategy Pack
- Foundations. The framework: what actually changes on the day, the prize as a number, the permanent cost, and the three halts.
- Concept deck. Twenty-two slides for a board or strategy session, with nine sourced separations and what each does not establish.
- Decision wizard. Eight scored questions returning the band, the weakest answer, and either of the two halt conditions.
- Separation model. Eleven candidate re-ratings across the columns, the surplus after both costs, and the column where separating breaks even.
- Strategies and tactics. The moves at each of the four positions, what to do when the model halts, and four ways to make the next separation decision cheaper.
- Case studies. Nine sourced separations — one company that took the whole prize without splitting, one that announced six and reversed most of them, and one that paid $30m for its own name.
- Fit worksheet. The single page of record: the group multiple, the named comparables, the itemized center, and both re-rating figures.
- Roadmap template. Five phases with gates and owners, the assumptions register, a trigger and a quarterly reporting line.
- Practitioner manual. Agreeing a multiple, naming comparables, itemizing the center, capitalizing the permanent cost, the board paper, six failure modes and their indicators.
- Field checklist. The one-pager that survives outside the binder.
- About the package. What each file does and the order in which to run them.
Who the Separation Strategy Pack is for
A chief financial officer holding a sum of the parts that no one can check; a chief executive being asked to approve a separation argued in adjectives; a board member who has never seen the break-even re-rating written down; a corporate development team that would rather find the load-bearing assumption than defend it later; a private equity owner deciding whether to carve out or to report separately; and the adviser who would otherwise start from a blank page. It is worth buying when a real decision is in front of you. It is not worth buying to read.
An honest note on fit
This is a kit for running a decision, not a research report and not a valuation of either piece. Worked examples use an explicitly fictional group with numbers tuned to teach rather than to flatter. In the worked case the pieces are argued to be worth $1,665m more apart, the duplicated center capitalizes at $1,097m against a $480m one-time bill, and the separation clears its own costs by $88m — a case that turns entirely on the distance between 0.90 turns of re-rating and 0.85.
Two limits are stated on the page rather than worked around. The pack prices the financial decision and not the operating consequences of separating, which are real, usually negative, and belong in the paper as their own section: the procurement scale that goes, the customer overlap that ends, the internal capital that stops moving. And it cannot tell you what the pieces will trade on, because no one knows that before they trade, which is precisely why the re-rating goes across a grid rather than into a cell.
This decision, in two minutes
Short videos on companies that faced it, built from the casebooks this pack draws on.
The free guide to this decision
How companies ran this decision, case by case, and the method the pack is built on. Read the guide →
Questions about the Separation Strategy Pack
- What number does the model produce?
- Four. What the group is worth today against what the pieces would be worth; the gap, as argued; the two costs of separating, one-time and permanent; and the separation surplus after both. The Model tab sweeps candidate re-ratings rather than periods, so the answer is a column you can point at — the column where separating finally breaks even.
- Isn't the conglomerate discount real?
- Often. What is at issue is whether closing it is worth what closing it costs. A discount of a turn of multiple is a large number, and so is running most of a corporate center twice for as long as both companies exist — and only one of those is usually in the paper.
- What if the model says separating pays?
- Then it says so. Where the pieces are genuinely unlike each other and the center is thin, the surplus is large and the case makes itself. A pack that could only ever conclude against separating would not be worth running.
- Are the case studies real companies?
- Yes. Nine sourced separations: Ford, GE, DowDuPont, Daimler, eBay and PayPal, Alibaba, AT&T, Novartis, and Palm. Each is dated, read through what the split was argued to release and what it cost, and each states what its evidence does not establish. No disclosure separates the effect of a re-rating from everything else moving in the same period, and none of the figures is presented as doing so. The worked model, wizard, and worksheet use an explicitly fictional group, labeled as such on every file.
- We are not planning a separation. Is this still useful?
- Yes, and arguably more so. The itemized center, the named comparables, and the group multiple are worth having as standing documents, because a company that holds them can price any separation proposal in an afternoon and say no to a bad one before the advisers are appointed.
- Is this a subscription?
- No. One payment, one download, sixteen files, yours to keep and to use inside your organization under the license included in the pack.
- What is the Separation Strategy Pack?
- The Separation Strategy Pack is a decision-support kit for one question: Is the company worth more in pieces, or only worth reporting in pieces? It contains 16 files — foundations, concept deck, decision wizard, separation model, strategies and tactics, case studies, fit worksheet, roadmap template, practitioner manual, field checklist, about the package — built around a single organizing test: nothing operational changes on the day a company splits, so the whole of the prize is a re-rating that nobody can check and the whole of the cost is countable in an afternoon. It is what a leadership team uses to run the decision and leave a record of what they assumed, rather than a report about the topic.
- Who is the Separation Strategy Pack for?
- Anyone who has to make this call and answer for it: an operator or owner facing the decision, the executive team running it, the board or investor testing the reasoning, or an adviser who would otherwise build the framework from a blank page. It is worth buying when a real decision is in front of you. It is not worth buying to read.
- What is in the Separation Strategy Pack?
- 16 files in Word, PDF, PowerPoint and Excel: Foundations (Word + PDF) — The framework: what actually changes on the day, the prize as a number, the permanent cost, and the three halts. Concept deck (PowerPoint + PDF) — Twenty-two slides for a board or strategy session, with nine sourced separations and what each does not establish. Decision wizard (Excel) — Eight scored questions returning the band, the weakest answer, and either of the two halt conditions. Separation model (Excel, blank and worked) — Eleven candidate re-ratings across the columns, the surplus after both costs, and the column where separating breaks even. Strategies and tactics (Word) — The moves at each of the four positions, what to do when the model halts, and four ways to make the next separation decision cheaper. Case studies (Word) — Nine sourced separations — one company that took the whole prize without splitting, one that announced six and reversed most of them, and one that paid $30m for its own name. Fit worksheet (Word, blank and worked) — The single page of record: the group multiple, the named comparables, the itemized center, and both re-rating figures. Roadmap template (Word) — Five phases with gates and owners, the assumptions register, a trigger and a quarterly reporting line. Practitioner manual (Word + PDF) — Agreeing a multiple, naming comparables, itemizing the center, capitalizing the permanent cost, the board paper, six failure modes and their indicators. Field checklist (PDF) — The one-pager that survives outside the binder. About the package (PDF) — What each file does and the order in which to run them.
- How is the Separation Strategy Pack delivered?
- As a single download of all 16 files, immediately after payment, with the same link sent by email. It can be downloaded 3 times and the link is valid for 30 days. There is nothing to install and no account to keep.