Most private equity firms have a talent network. They maintain relationships with executives across industries, function specialists who can be deployed for specific projects, advisors who can be brou...

Most private equity portfolio company boards are performance theatre. The format is familiar. A monthly or quarterly meeting. A management presentation that tracks against the value creation plan. A d...

The most important relationship in any private equity portfolio company is between the operating partner and the CEO. It is more important than the relationship between the deal partner and the CEO, m...

The first major talent decision in most private equity deals is what to do about the CFO. The decision is not always conscious. It is sometimes triggered by a clear signal from the management team tha...

A decade ago, separately managed accounts and fund-of-one structures in private equity were rare exceptions, used mostly for the largest sovereign wealth funds and a small number of strategic LPs that...

The AI capability of available tools has improved by an order of magnitude over the past three years. The AI absorption capacity of mid-market portfolio companies has improved by perhaps thirty percen...

Most operating partners intervene before they diagnose. They arrive at a portfolio company with a playbook in their head, a set of standard interventions they have run successfully before, and a presu...

Private equity has a recurring blind spot. It pays a premium for founder-led businesses because they grow faster, decide faster, and convert customers faster than their corporate equivalents. Then it ...

The 100-day plan is one of the most universally adopted, universally underperforming artifacts in private equity. Every fund has one. Every IC memo gestures at one. Every operating partner is handed o...

Most private equity value creation plans are not designed to be executed. They are designed to win an investment committee.