If I were building a PE operating model from scratch, I wouldn't start with a value creation plan.

I'd start by killing the theatre.

Most operating models are built backwards. There's an ops team that is really a reporting team. There's a "value creation" function that is one person, a recycled PowerPoint, and a heroic ability to say "cross-functional alignment" without losing consciousness. There's an operating partner who is apparently responsible for transformation, but doesn't have a board seat, budget control, or the authority to make management do anything mildly inconvenient.

Splendid.

The model needs layers.

First, one accountable owner per portfolio company. Not an adviser. Not a visiting lecturer. Someone who can actually move resources, challenge management, and sit at the board table.

Second, a diagnostic that finds the three or four levers that really move EBITDA. Pricing. Sales conversion. Procurement. Labour productivity. Digital acquisition. Working capital. Pick the levers, then stop pretending 37 initiatives is a strategy.

Third, a data spine. One version of the numbers from lead to sale to margin to cash. If the board pack and the management dashboard disagree, you don't have insight. You have expensive stationery.

Fourth, execution capacity. Operators, analysts, vendors, and cadence. Weekly decisions. Monthly proof. No sacred cows. No "we'll revisit this next quarter" because someone's favourite initiative is dying in public.

The value creation plan should be the output of the operating model.

In most firms, it's the substitute for one.