A written answer before any scope
Every enquiry gets a written reply with the honest next step, including no engagement. Nothing is proposed until the evidence supports it.
Commercial Systems Design & Diagnostics
Find where the commercial system is breaking.
When growth creates drag, forecast drift, slow cycles and weak handoffs are the symptoms. Kihon Labs finds the operating condition behind them, tests what the evidence can defend and sequences what changes first.
The reality
If growth feels heavier than it should right now, that is normal.
Forecasts drift, cycles stretch, handoffs leak, and every report shows a healthy pipeline. Everyone feels the drag. No one can price it yet.
You are already paying for it.
Local fixes move the problem.
The cost disappears between reports.
You cannot fund a fix you cannot price.
Founder view
We have been in your seat.
Cem GorerFounder, Kihon Labs
Years inside B2B Sales and GTM teams, where forecasts drifted and handoffs leaked for reasons no report explained. The questions this practice works on were formed there, not in a library.
Adjunct lecturing in sales and customer experience forced the vocabulary to become precise, and an Executive DBA inquiry connected the pattern to the research that already names it: dysfunction, hidden cost, and the potential both block.
Operating experience matters as much as the method. A diagnosis reads how the commercial system actually runs, against the constraints leadership is accountable to.
Our services
Start with the condition, not the service.
Before the evidence
01Executive Workshop
Three hours with the leadership team, up to eight people who can change the system, working on what the room already knows rather than on evidence that has yet to be gathered.
Best fit: Leaders who recognise the pattern but are not ready to commit evidence to it.
- The shape of the problem, not its price
- Agreement on whether it is one problem or several
- A written follow-up, including “not yet”
- Whether the evidence a Diagnosis needs is available
Usual entry point
02Diagnosis
Establishes what is breaking, what it costs and what to change first, from interviews, the operating records you already produce and your own internal rates.
Best fit: Leaders who feel recurring strain but cannot yet locate its cause or price its consequence.
- Commercial-system map
- Financial-consequence model
- Prioritised intervention roadmap
- Leadership briefing
Foundational
03Build
Designs the first commercial operating model when none exists yet: strategy, roles, handoffs, process, data, governance and cadence.
Best fit: Companies selling successfully without a system anyone could hand over.
- A market the team can actually serve
- A name against every stage of the work
- Work that arrives ready at each border
- Something leadership can steer on
Includes the Diagnosis
04Operation
Begins with a scoped Diagnosis, then supports implementation of the roadmap through agreed responsibilities, evidence and review points.
Best fit: Teams who have the finding and need the change to actually land.
- The scoped Diagnosis
- Implementation inside your system
- Decision rights and review points
- Measurement against the baseline
Continuous
05Partnership
Connects recurring diagnosis, implementation support and capability development as the commercial system moves between growth stages.
Best fit: Companies whose commercial system keeps changing shape faster than one engagement can follow.
- Recurring Diagnosis
- Implementation support
- Measurement each cycle
- Governance and standing advisory
Capability only
06Training
Builds capability across sales execution, commercial leadership, system literacy and cross-functional coordination, against a gap that has already been named.
Best fit: Teams where the constraint is capability rather than structure.
- Sales execution capability
- Commercial system literacy
- Commercial leadership capability
- Cross-functional coordination
Why teams choose Kihon
Three commitments most advisory work will not make.
Each one is a boundary on what Kihon will say or sell. They are why a first conversation can end with "not yet", and why that answer is worth having.
Six to eight weeks to a leadership decision
A Diagnosis runs from evidence access to leadership briefing in six to eight weeks, and ends in five outputs and one decision, not a deck.
Outputs that travel without us
Findings, the cost model and the roadmap stand on their own. You can execute them with anyone, and the method is attributed to the research it comes from.
The KIHON frameworkFrom a felt problem to a decision that
From a felt problem to a decision that
leadership can defend.
Five steps decide whether a commercial problem can be named, priced and sequenced or only described. The methodology is inherited; the framework is how Kihon applies it.
- K · KEY BREAK
Key break.
Find where the system is breaking. Roles, handoffs, behaviours, routines and systems are read together, instead of treating the visible symptom on its own.
- I · INPUTS
Inputs.
Gather what the finding will have to stand on: interviews, the operating records the business already produces, and its own internal rates.
- H · HIDDEN COST
Hidden cost.
Establish what the break is costing, across time, quality and the potential it blocks — with the limits of the evidence recorded beside the figure.
- O · ORDER
Order.
Turn the supported findings into an intervention order. What changes first is a decision the evidence has to carry.
- N · NAMED OWNERS
Named owners.
Give each change an owner and a review point, so the work continues without us and can be checked against its own baseline.
FAQ
Questions that determine fit.
How do I know whether this is a sales problem or a system problem?
A sales problem responds to coaching, pipeline pressure and better execution. A system problem repeats across people who are individually competent, and returns after each local fix. The Strain Check is a two-minute way to see which pattern you recognise, and a short call tests that reading against your own evidence.
Do we need a Diagnosis before another service?
Usually, but not always. Build applies where there is no commercial system to read yet, and Training applies where the capability gap has already been named. Operation and Partnership include the Diagnosis rather than requiring one first. The fit call establishes which of the five is the honest entry point.
What evidence do you need access to?
Interviews with the people doing the work, the operating records the system already produces across pipeline, handoffs, delivery and retention, and the internal rates needed to value time and lost potential at your own numbers. Where a piece of that is not available, the finding records the limit instead of estimating around it.
What happens if Kihon concludes that no engagement is needed?
You are told in writing, with the reason. No scope is proposed where the evidence is not ready or the condition is not one this work addresses. That is a normal result of a fit call, not a failed one.
Get started
Find the structural cause before funding another symptom.
Use a short call to test the problem, the evidence available and the right next step.
Discuss the operating problemNot ready to talk? Take the two-minute Strain Check →