Insights
Research, frameworks and perspectives on enterprise growth, credibility, capital and decision-making.
Latest research
Decision Intelligence
Generative AI has made a convincing bank statement, invoice or certificate cheap to produce. Lending and investing were built on documents. What replaces them is not better documents, but proof of where a fact came from.
Investment & Capital
Investors say they want exposure to growing African businesses. Those businesses say they cannot find capital. Both are telling the truth. The obstacle between them is the cost of finding out.
Leadership & Governance
The qualities that build a business to its first success are often the ones that stop it reaching its second. A generation of founder-led companies is approaching that point at the same time.
Business Credibility
Many good businesses are turned away by lenders and investors, and the reason is rarely the business. It is that nobody outside can see what is true.
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The first question
Many enterprises face more than a shortage of capital. They face an information, evidence and institutional-readiness gap that makes the quality of the business hard for capital providers to evaluate with confidence.
Everything we study starts from that gap, and from what closes it.
LAVAN framework
A structured lens for the journey from a business that depends on its founders to an institution that outlasts them. It shows where an organization stands and what must change to sustain scale.
Capability depends on key individuals. Limited formal systems.
Basic structures emerge. Processes documented but inconsistent.
Evidence systems, governance and reporting become legible to outsiders.
Governance, controls and data infrastructure can withstand institutional diligence.
Systems embedded and repeatable. Performance survives leadership transitions.
Nine dimensions, considered at every stage
A conceptual framework, not a validated assessment instrument, a maturity benchmark or a score. For a formal assessment, see LAVAN Credibility.
Research streams
Why profitable businesses struggle to scale, and what changes when they outgrow their operating model.
How institutions distinguish enterprise claims from decision-grade evidence.
The Credibility GapHow capital is assessed, structured, deployed and protected.
Why Willing Capital and Good Businesses Miss Each OtherWhat it takes to build durable U.S.–Africa business partnerships.
How leaders make better decisions under uncertainty.
When Any Document Can Be FakedBuilding management teams and controls that outlast the founder.
When the Founder Becomes the Bottleneck