The Structural Drag ROI Calculator

Your Investment Is a Rounding Error. Here's the Math.

What could recovering even a fraction of your company's structural drag be worth?

Use your own revenue and assumptions to explore five years of operating improvement, plus additional enterprise value from a potential sale at the beginning of Year 6.

Start With Your Company.

Type a number, or use a shortcut. The results update automatically.

Annual company revenue

Type 25M, 125M or 1B. Commas appear when you finish.

What percentage of revenue might structural drag be costing your company? 15%

Consider wasted team effort, rework, approvals, coordination, delays, unused capacity and margin leakage. Estimate their economic burden as a share of revenue, not employee hours wasted.

How much of that drag could realistically be recovered? 25%

You don't need to eliminate all the drag. Estimate the share you could reasonably correct and turn into value.

Estimated total cost to investigate and implement changes (optional)

Include professional fees and implementation costs. Enter this to calculate net return, payback and break-even.

More Assumptions (Optional)

These are prefilled illustrative starting points. Adjust any slider to see how the results change.

How much potential recovery becomes a real financial benefit? 75%

Recovered time isn't automatically money. Count only lower costs or additional contribution the company can realize.

How many months until the full annual benefit is achieved? 6 months

Improvements build gradually rather than arriving in full on day one.

How much of that annual benefit becomes lasting operating profit? 80%

For the sale calculation, count only recurring EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) a buyer would recognize.

What multiple might a buyer pay for that added annual profit? 5.0×

Example: $1M in additional recurring EBITDA × 5 = $5M in potential added enterprise value. The 5× starting point is illustrative, not a promised multiple.

Your Modeled Economics

What Could That Recovery Be Worth?

First estimate annual economic drag. Then distinguish potentially recoverable value from financial benefit.

Enter revenue or select a revenue shortcut to begin.

Estimated annual structural drag — Revenue × estimated drag percentage

Potential annual financial benefit — After recovery and financial realization

Five Years of Improvement + A Potential Year-6 Sale

Operating Value. Then Exit Value.

Years 1–5: Cumulative Operating Benefit —

Year 6: Incremental Sale Value —

Combined Gross Economic Value —

Year-6 sale value is modeled using lasting additional EBITDA × 5.0. No separate Year-6 operating benefit is added.

Combined modeled value less investment — Appears when investment is entered

Net modeled ROI including exit — Net value ÷ estimated investment

Gross benefit per dollar invested — Five-year benefit and Year-6 sale uplift

Simple operating payback — Excludes sale value; includes implementation ramp

How Little Would You Need to Recover?

Enter an estimated total investment to calculate the share of suspected drag needed to cover it through five years of operating benefits alone.

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The Math Is a Starting Point. Not a Diagnosis.

Structural drag is modeled here as an economic burden expressed as a percentage of revenue. That differs from employee-hours wasted or revenue literally lost. The percentage is hypothetical, not a measured loss or industry benchmark. Investigation must establish the actual mechanisms, competing explanations, recoverable consequences and demonstrable financial results.

The five-year projection assumes constant revenue, a linear implementation ramp, sustained benefits and no double counting of cost savings or incremental contribution. The Year-6 amount is incremental enterprise value, not guaranteed equity proceeds, from sustainable EBITDA at the selected multiple (default 5×). No sixth year of operating benefit is added. Results are undiscounted and exclude taxes, transaction fees, financing and costs not entered above.

A Note on Fit

Your Investment Should Be a Rounding Error.

If the investment in our professional fees is not a rounding error relative to your company's annual revenue, our services are not suitable for your organization. The real decision is whether the economic opportunity justifies investigating it—and, separately, the full cost of implementing a solution.

Turn the Model Into Evidence