Platform value creation is unquantified
The platform benefits significantly from dealer markup elimination through internal purchases, but this value is not fully quantified or compensated in MBS's P&L. The strategic question of whether MBS is a profit center or a platform enabler has no official answer. Tarik and Jay have been working to quantify the value MBS creates for the platform, but without a shared framework, MBS absorbs the cost of platform benefit silently. Everyone in the room senses this is unsustainable; no one has named it formally.
No one at Beacon or Audax has formally answered whether MBS exists to maximise its own P&L or to subsidize platform operations. This unresolved question shapes every misaligned decision — leasing, parts pricing, internal sales — without ever being named as the cause.
Verbatims
“I'm always robbing him of his buses”
“Do we want it to be a super profitable standalone entity or do we want it to be a value creator for the overall platform?”