What is the difference between a value creation plan and a 100-day plan in private equity?

A value creation plan is the full blueprint for growing enterprise value across the entire 3-to-7-year hold, with every lever named, sized and owned. A 100-day plan is the first stretch of that work: the prioritised quick wins, reporting build and sequencing done in the roughly 100 days after close. The 100-day plan is the on-ramp; the value creation plan is the whole road.

Why do private equity investors care more about DPI than TVPI in 2026?

DPI measures cash actually returned to investors, while TVPI includes the unrealised paper value of holdings a fund has not yet sold. With exits slow and hold periods long, LPs have grown sceptical of paper marks and focus on DPI because it reflects real liquidity that cannot be inflated.

What does an operating partner actually do?

An operating partner is a senior operator inside a private equity firm who works directly with portfolio company management on operational improvement during the hold period, rather than sourcing new deals. They typically own or co-own the value creation plan, install reporting and systems, advise the CEO and drive the day-to-day improvements meant to justify the investment thesis.

What is a value creation lever?

A value creation lever is a specific, named source of enterprise-value growth in a deal, such as pricing, sales-force effectiveness, working-capital release or add-on M&A. Strong private equity value creation plans name, size, sequence and assign an owner to each lever, rather than relying on a vague expectation of growth.

Value Creation

The Private Equity Value Creation Glossary: 14 Operating Terms PE Investors Actually Use (2026)

Q: What is an EBITDA bridge?

An EBITDA bridge is a waterfall chart that breaks down how a company's EBITDA changes from entry to exit, splitting it into drivers such as organic growth, pricing, cost reduction and M&A. Private equity firms use it to size and track every lever in a value creation plan, because it forces each claimed source of growth to be quantified and assigned an owner.

A plain-English glossary of the 14 operating and value-creation terms private equity investors actually use in 2026, each defined in two sentences with links to the full explainer.

Private equity used to make most of its money from financial engineering: cheap debt and selling at a higher multiple than it bought. Over the last fifteen years the balance has shifted, and the majority of returns in most 2026 outlooks now has to come from operational improvement, growing the business rather than re-pricing it. The vocabulary has grown with that shift, and most glossaries explaining it are written by fund-administration software vendors. This is the operator's version. Each term is defined in two sentences; click through for the full guide.

Add-On Acquisition (Bolt-On)

A smaller company bought by an existing portfolio company to expand it, rather than acquired directly by the fund. Add-ons let a sponsor buy at a lower multiple than the platform and average down the blended entry price, which is part of why M&A has returned as a leading value-creation lever in 2026.

Buy-and-Build

A strategy of acquiring a platform company and then growing it through a sequence of add-on acquisitions. The thesis is multiple arbitrage plus scale economics; the risk is integration debt if the operating model cannot absorb the deals fast enough.

DPI (Distributions to Paid-In)

The ratio of cash actually returned to investors divided by the cash they put in, the realisation multiple. DPI has become the metric LPs watch most closely in 2026 because, unlike paper marks, it cannot be inflated.

EBITDA Bridge

A waterfall chart that decomposes the change in a company's EBITDA from entry to exit into its drivers: organic growth, pricing, cost reduction, M&A and so on. It is the single document a value creation plan is tracked against, because it forces every claimed lever to be sized and owned. Full guide: What is an EBITDA bridge.

100-Day Plan

The prioritised action plan a sponsor and management execute in the first roughly 100 days after close, covering quick wins, the reporting build and the sequencing of bigger initiatives. It is the on-ramp to the value creation plan, not a substitute for it.

Fractional Executive

A senior operator (CFO, CRO, CMO and similar) engaged part-time or for a fixed period rather than as a full-time hire, used to bring capability into a portfolio company without a permanent cost. Demand has risen sharply as sponsors look to add operating muscle to lower-middle-market companies that cannot justify a full C-suite. Full guide: Operating partner vs fractional executive firm.

Multiple Expansion

Selling a company at a higher EBITDA multiple than it was bought at. Once the dominant return driver in a low-rate era, it is now the least reliable, which is why the 2026 emphasis has moved to EBITDA growth.

NAV Loan

A facility borrowed against the net asset value of a fund's whole portfolio, often used to fund distributions or follow-on investment when exits are slow. Useful for liquidity, controversial when used to pay distributions the portfolio has not yet earned. Full guide: What is a NAV loan.

Operating Partner

A senior operator inside a PE firm who works with portfolio company management on operational improvement during the hold, rather than sourcing deals. The role has evolved from early-2000s turnaround intervention into an integrated, full-life-cycle value-creation function. Full guide: What is an operating partner in private equity.

Operational Value Creation

Growing enterprise value by improving how the business actually runs, its revenue, margin, systems and talent, rather than through debt or multiple expansion. It now carries the majority of the returns burden in most 2026 PE outlooks.

Platform Company

The first, usually larger, acquisition in a buy-and-build, onto which subsequent add-ons are attached. The platform sets the operating model, management team and systems the add-ons inherit.

TVPI (Total Value to Paid-In)

The sum of realised distributions and the current paper value of unrealised holdings, divided by capital paid in. It flatters a portfolio that has not yet sold anything, which is why LPs increasingly read it alongside DPI rather than on its own.

Value Creation Lever

A specific, named source of enterprise-value growth in a deal thesis: pricing, sales-force effectiveness, working-capital release, add-on M&A and so on. Good plans name, size, sequence and assign an owner to each lever rather than asserting "growth" in the abstract.

Value Creation Plan (VCP)

The operating blueprint a sponsor and management build at or shortly after acquisition that defines every change required to grow enterprise value over the hold, with each lever named, sized, sequenced, owned and tracked against the EBITDA bridge. It is the document the operating partner and management both sign off on and run the hold against. Full guide: What is a value creation plan in private equity.

How these terms fit together

The pieces chain in a single line. The deal thesis names its value creation levers; those levers are sized on an EBITDA bridge; the bridge becomes the value creation plan; the first stretch of that plan is the 100-day plan; an operating partner or fractional executive runs it through the hold; and success is ultimately measured in DPI, the cash actually returned, not TVPI, the paper value of what has not yet sold. Read end to end, that is how operational value creation works in private equity in 2026.