Methodology
How an assessment is scored
The four-pillar rubric, what each score means, and how Greenhouse and Mixed Ledger are decided.
What an assessment is
An assessment evaluates outcomes during and around one specific ownership period: a named owner holding a named company, over a recorded stretch of time. It is not a claim that every outcome cited in it was caused by the owner. Most PE coverage scores a deal on one dimension, financial return to investors. We score four dimensions instead, and financial return is not one of them.
Two kinds of statement appear on an assessment page, and they are not the same kind of claim.
- Documented finding
- A verified factual claim, backed by cited evidence, that has passed review and remains eligible. “HCA’s board declared a $1.751 billion distribution on 27 January 2010” is a documented finding.
- Assessment
- An editor’s synthesis of the documented findings on a pillar into one of four scores, with a short written rationale. The synthesis is editorial judgment applied to verified evidence, not itself a new verified fact.
Causation is stated only when the evidence supports it
A finding dated after an ownership period ended is evidence about the company’s later condition, cited under Durable Health, never a claim about what the owner did. A finding from before the period began is background, not a consequence of the ownership. Nothing on an assessment page attributes a finding to the owner unless the evidence specifically supports that causal link.
The Four Pillars
Pillar 1
Customer Outcome
Did the product or service measurably improve for the people who use it, during this ownership period?
Price cuts paid for out of safety or staffing are not customer improvements.
Pillar 2
Worker Outcome
Were workers materially better off, or at least not worse off, during this ownership period?
Absence of public data is scored Unknown, never assumed positive.
Pillar 3
Operational Integrity
Was the company run, or was it drained, during this ownership period?
Dividend recapitalizations, sale-leasebacks funding distributions, deferred capital expenditure, and exit ahead of the consequences all bear on this pillar, regardless of financial return.
Pillar 4
Durable Health
Years after the ownership period ended, is the company still healthy across all four dimensions, not just financially?
This is the one pillar where post-ownership evidence legitimately belongs. It is read as the company's later condition, not as something the owner is credited or blamed for.
Score Definitions
Strong
Clear, documented evidence of a positive outcome on this pillar.
Mixed
Verified evidence points in more than one direction, or positive evidence is real but carries a meaningful caveat.
Weak
Clear, documented evidence of harm or extraction on this pillar.
Not enough evidence
Verified evidence is insufficient to score this pillar with confidence, positive or negative. This is a statement about what is on file, not a finding about what actually happened, and it is not styled or treated as a negative result.
Category Rules
Greenhouse — the exact rule
All four pillars must score Strong or Mixed. At least three must be Strong. No pillar may be Weak. No pillar may be Unknown. All four conditions are required at once; any one failing keeps the ownership period off the Greenhouse regardless of the others.
Mixed Ledger
The category for a record that does not satisfy the Greenhouse rule: evidence supporting a mixed or incomplete record, whether from a Weak pillar, an Unknown pillar, or both. This is the default home for ownership periods where real value was documented on some pillars and the record on others is genuinely split or the evidence is not there yet.
Graveyard
Companies that ceased operating, filed for bankruptcy, or were liquidated under PE ownership or directly as a consequence of PE-loaded debt. See the full Graveyard →
Financial Return Is Not a Pillar
A deal that returned 10x to investors while understaffing hospitals and loading the company with debt to fund a distribution does not qualify for the Greenhouse on the strength of the return. There is no fifth pillar for financial return, and there is no single consolidation score averaging the four pillars into one number: four scores are four scores, and collapsing them would let a Strong on one pillar quietly cancel a Weak on another. Return is captured only indirectly, through Operational Integrity and Durable Health.
How “Not Enough Evidence” Is Handled
Much of the record for a given ownership period is not publicly available: wage data, turnover statistics, and internal capital-expenditure figures for the private period rarely surface in SEC filings, court records, or press coverage. When a pillar cannot be scored on currently verified evidence, it is marked Not enough evidence rather than inferred from the absence of negative coverage.
This is a genuine epistemic state, not a hedge, and it is not styled as a negative result anywhere on this site. It disqualifies an ownership period from the Greenhouse, which requires all four pillars scored and none Unknown, but it is not itself evidence of harm. If you have sources that would let us score a pillar currently marked this way, please submit them.