Institutionalizing Innovation in Value Creation and Private Equity

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Pricing Power as the First-Order Lever: The Margin Question Most Models Miss customer power ebitda margin pricing power pricing strategy underwriting value creation Aug 17, 2026

Of all the value creation levers private equity firms can pull on a portfolio company, pricing power is the most consistently underweighted in underwriting models and the most consistently underestima...

Customer Concentration Theatre: How Diligence Reports Disguise the Real Risk customer concentration diligence revenue quality risk top customer underwriting value creation Aug 13, 2026

Customer concentration is one of the most universally measured risk metrics in private equity diligence. Every CIM addresses it. Every diligence report includes a chart of revenue by top customer. Eve...

The Carve-Out Underperformance Pattern: Why Buying From Corporates Is Harder Than the Memo Says carve out corporate spin off divestiture integration pe diligence underwriting value creation Aug 10, 2026

Carve outs have been a celebrated category of private equity deal sourcing for decades. The narrative is appealing. A subsidiary inside a larger corporation has been under-managed, under-invested, and...

The Sponsor-to-Sponsor Trap: When Buying From Another PE Firm Costs More Than It Should deal sourcing pe deals secondary buyout sponsor to sponsor underwriting value creation Aug 06, 2026

Roughly half of mid-market private equity transaction volume in 2026 is sponsor to sponsor. The buyer is a private equity firm. The seller is a private equity firm. The asset has been through one or m...

Reading the CIM Between the Lines: What Sellers Are Telling You Without Saying It cim confidential information memorandum deal sourcing pe diligence sell-side signals underwriting Aug 03, 2026

The Confidential Information Memorandum is the most carefully written document any seller produces during a sale process. Every word is chosen. Every chart is selected. Every metric is framed. Every p...

The Pre-Close Operating Veto: Underwriting Value Plans You Can Actually Execute deal execution due diligence governance ic memo operating partner underwriting value creation plan Jun 08, 2026

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

The short answer

The people who write the value creation plan and the peopl

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