Building a Repeatable Growth Strategy and Deal Evaluation Framework

Approach

Two Roads partnered with the client to evaluate its operating model, growth strategy, and investment decision-making processes across multiple business lines.

The engagement began with eight business-line workshops and more than 30 stakeholder interviews spanning executives, business leaders, analysts, and frontline employees. These conversations helped uncover competitive advantages, organizational pain points, and the operational realities that will shape future growth decisions.

Through a comprehensive SWOT assessment and operating model diagnostic, Two Roads identified several barriers to growth. Lean staffing structures created bottlenecks in critical functions, acquisition decisions were often made without a consistent evaluation framework, and leadership faced ongoing tension between meeting near-term operational demands and investing for long-term growth.

At the same time, emerging areas such as midstream infrastructure, power, and data centers raised important questions about how new investments could complement the company’s capital-light business model.

Drawing on expertise in growth strategy, operating model optimization, and executive decision support, Two Roads helped leadership define a unified growth strategy across surface, minerals, and water. The team also developed a repeatable evaluation framework and 12-criteria weighted scorecard that enabled leaders and Board members to consistently assess future investments against strategic, operational, and financial criteria. The framework was adopted as a repeatable methodology for evaluating future water, midstream, surface, and minerals opportunities, creating a common approach for screening and prioritizing potential investments.

Through the assessment process, Two Roads identified seven growth opportunities informed by workshop findings, business-line pain points, and operating model insights. Several opportunities validated initiatives already under consideration by leadership, providing additional confidence to move forward. Based on these findings, the Board requested a deeper evaluation of the midstream opportunity, which became a primary focus of the second phase of the engagement.

Beyond developing recommendations, Two Roads helped translate strategy into action by identifying operating model improvements and governance structures that positioned the organization to execute its growth plans with greater consistency and confidence. The work highlighted capacity constraints, clarified ownership across acquisition and growth-related activities, and introduced a more structured process for evaluating opportunities across business lines.