Operating Playbook

Topic

Thoma Bravo's standardized post-acquisition strategy. It involves working with management to implement immediate and decisive cost cuts (typically 10-20%) at closing, establishing a baseline of profitability, and then focusing on top-line growth through sales and add-on acquisitions.


First Mentioned

10/16/2025, 5:08:50 AM

Last Updated

10/16/2025, 5:10:03 AM

Research Retrieved

10/16/2025, 5:10:03 AM

Summary

The "Operating Playbook" is a foundational business strategy developed and employed by the private equity firm Thoma Bravo, as articulated by its founder, Orlando Bravo. This highly effective playbook is a cornerstone of the firm's success in software investing, particularly in market-leading SaaS deals. It mandates decisive cost-cutting immediately upon the closing of an acquisition, a principle influenced by Marcel Bernard of Motorola. Following this initial step, the playbook rigorously focuses on fostering growth and executing successful fundraising efforts. This strategic approach has enabled Thoma Bravo to significantly scale its operations, transitioning from smaller transactions to major acquisitions like the Boeing Avionics Business and Day Force, and achieving successful exits such as the sale of Dinatrace to NASDAQ, thereby building substantial value.

Referenced in 1 Document
Research Data
Extracted Attributes
  • Type

    Business Strategy

  • Purpose

    To scale operations, build value, and achieve successful exits

  • Description

    A dynamic and comprehensive guide that outlines an organization's processes, practices, and strategies, integrating both explicit and tacit knowledge to ensure consistency, drive operational excellence, and achieve company vision.

  • Primary User

    Thoma Bravo

  • Core Principle 1

    Decisive cost-cutting immediately after acquisition

  • Core Principle 2

    Rigorous focus on growth

  • Core Principle 3

    Successful fundraising

  • Application Sector

    Software Investing, particularly SaaS Deals

Timeline
  • Thoma Bravo shifted its focus to market-leading SaaS Deals, where the Operating Playbook proved highly effective in guiding these investments. (Source: related_documents)

    2010

  • The playbook dictates that decisive cost-cutting measures are implemented immediately after an acquisition is finalized. (Source: related_documents)

    Upon acquisition closing

Resident Playbook

Resident Playbook (Korean: 언젠가는 슬기로울 전공의생활) is a 2025 South Korean television series created by Shin Won-ho and Lee Woo-jung, written by Kim Song-hee, directed by Lee Min-soo, and starring Go Youn-jung, Shin Si-ah, Kang You-seok, Han Ye-ji, and Jung Joon-won. It is a spin-off of the 2020–2021 series Hospital Playlist, and depicts the life and friendship of university hospital professors and doctors. It aired tvN from April 12, 2025 to May 18, 2025, every Saturday and Sunday at 21:10 (KST). It is available for streaming on Netflix in selected regions.

Web Search Results
  • What is a Business Playbook, and Why Do You Need One? - Helpjuice

    A business playbook, also referred to as a company playbook, corporate playbook, or operations playbook, is a dynamic and comprehensive guide that outlines an organization's processes, practices, and strategies. This "live" document integrates both explicit and tacit knowledge — encapsulating everything from structured, formalized internal processes and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to less tangible, experiential insights often termed 'tribal knowledge', including established best [...] Now, imagine a business playbook as the dazzling Northern Lights, covering the broad sky of your company’s operations. It's not just about the details of individual tasks, it's about your company's philosophy, its game plan, and its spirit. From marketing tactics and sales workflows to your company culture and core values, a business playbook is the wide-angle lens through which your whole business is viewed. SOPs are the keynotes in this grand symphony, but the Playbook is the conductor [...] In the ever-evolving business landscape, having a well-structured, comprehensive, and accessible business playbook can be a game-changer for your organization. Whether it's streamlining operations, improving communication, fostering a positive company culture, or ensuring compliance, the benefits of a business playbook are far-reaching.

  • A Business Playbook Can Help You Scale Your Business Faster ...

    An operations playbook is a document that describes how a business delivers its service procedures. It describes the roles of employees and the leadership team relative to their operating procedures. This document can be helpful for prospective customers, employees, and investor candidates. #### Human Resources Playbooks These HR documents capture the policies and procedures that an organization follows for the entirety of the employment lifecycle, including: [...] A business playbook is a document that outlines the key steps, strategies, and resources needed to launch and grow a successful company. A business playbook is less formal than a business plan, which describes a startup company’s goals, market opportunities, risks and projections for the purpose of securing financing and complying with regulatory requirements. These are valuable tools for entrepreneurs looking to: [...] I worked with a fleet telematics company that had an excellent marketing playbook that made it easier to find resources, understand processes for content review, and to find subject matter experts for input on different topics. #### Operations Playbooks

  • What's a Playbook? How To Create One + Examples and Tips - Scribe

    To start on this project, download our company policy template to take advantage of headings for policies, procedures, guidelines and responsibilities. ### Operations Playbook An operations playbook narrows the scope somewhat to create a document that outlines a company vision and the strategies to achieve it. It should also provide additional resources for readers, such as job aids and templates. [...] A playbook for businesses is a central resource for describing your company’s processes, guidelines and organizational structure. The purpose of a playbook is to document regulations and best practices to ensure consistency across teams. It serves as a primary source of truth the entire organization can reference whenever they need authoritative answers about policies and procedures.

  • Creating a Process Playbook That Drives Operational Excellence

    There is an operational playbook that is used to manage projects. It guides them and provides structure but also allows for true project strategy. [...] Great companies have a playbook to provide the structure to make sure everyone is working in the same manner and outcomes aren’t left to chance or individual preferences. Standard operating procedures or operations manuals are used to hold people accountable to how work is done and ensure consistent quality and outcomes. Most importantly, an operations manual must be viewed as a series of guardrails and guidelines, not optional practices.

  • The Ultimate Guide to Create a Business Playbook - Document360

    Company Playbook – this type of playbook gives a general introduction to the company and covers its mission, purpose and values. Employees can learn about the purpose of the company and how it achieves its goals. Operations Playbook – an operations playbook makes explicit how a company delivers its service to its customers. It gives insight into the different job roles of everyone in the company. [...] You may have heard of standard operating procedures. Well, a business playbook includes these and more. It will tell employees how the company operates to help them replicate procedures for themselves. Using the business playbook, employees can learn exactly who is responsible for what and why a company operates as it does. [...] Company Playbook – Mission, values, and purpose. Operations Playbook – Workflow and job roles. Sales Playbook – Selling strategies and processes. Marketing Playbook – Marketing strategies. Customer Service Playbook – Customer support guidelines. HR Playbook – Employee policies and procedures. #### What should be included in a business playbook? Company vision, roles & responsibilities, SOPs, HR policies, and operational workflows.