Lifecycle.

Every company moves through phases, and each phase changes what the value depends on.

Enterprise value is not built the same way at every stage. A company moves through a lifecycle of distinct phases, and the decisions that create value in one phase are not the ones that create it in the next. Reading which phase a company is actually in - not which it feels like, or wishes it were - is what tells you which decisions matter now, and which precedents are being set for the phase to come.

The phase sets the priority.

Because each phase changes what the value depends on, the same decision can be right in one phase and wrong in another. The lifecycle view is the discipline of matching the decision to the phase - so the trajectory compounds across phases instead of fighting itself.