Views
Nothing says “we’re modern” like a 14 point AI strategy slide no one can ship. You know the one. It appears at the end of the board deck, stapled on after the real agenda, right between “Talent” and “Other”. A handful of buzzwords, a diagram with arrows, and a
Views
Most don’t survive the first 12 months. Let that sink in. A recent-ish study of large U.S. buyouts found that 71% of companies hired a new CEO under PE ownership. (Source: Gompers, Kaplan & Mukharlyamov “The Market for CEOs: Evidence from Private Equity,” 2022/2023) And PE
Views
Not the awkward tail end you quietly ignore, the default operating model for managers who can’t raise, can’t exit, but can still invoice. Trilantic just took a very public blood transfusion: Blackstone and Neuberger putting at least $600m into a deeply discounted continuation vehicle. Call it “liquidity”. It’
Views
Everyone nods when it's presented. No one owns it when the quarter misses. Most "commercial excellence" programs in PE are theatre. They're built to look rigorous......frameworks, benchmarks, workshops. But they rarely move the needle. Why? Because they start with PowerPoint, not P&
News
Law Firms and PE Eyes Converge on MSO Model, Carving Out Back-Office Capital Private equity and litigation funders are circling U.S. law firms’ MSO (management services organization) structures as a new frontier for capital deployment. Under the MSO model, firms carve out non-legal operations (back-office, tech,
Views
Decks have become the modern currency of credibility. Consultants trade them. Bankers weaponise them. Operators tolerate them. Somewhere between analysis and action, we decided that design equals depth. That if it's animated, it must be insightful. The medium became the message......and the message got lost. In consulting,
Views
The “Value Creation Plan” (VCP) has become a kind of corporate theatre.....a glossy internal pitch deck designed to impress LPs, not to actually change how portfolio companies run. It’s full of big promises: digital transformation, pricing excellence, sales enablement. Then it disappears into the ether the moment the
Views
The old model of fundraising was built on mystique. You built a brand, hired a placement agent, assembled a glossy deck full of logos, exits, and hockey-stick IRRs, and flew around the world collecting commitments based on trust or legacy. LPs weren’t really buying performance. They were buying
Views
They ask 'How do we go digital?' They should ask 'What business are we actually in now? Most companies think digital means “we’ve got a website” or “we’re running ads.” It’s far bigger than that. Digital has fundamentally changed what business you’re in.
Views
Didn't have a title. Didn't have a playbook. Didn't even call himself an Operator. He just showed up at a struggling portfolio company, quietly watched for a few weeks, and then made the call nobody else would: the CEO had to go. No politics.
Views
And access, done right, is one of the highest-margin products on earth. Access is what turns a $100 bottle of wine into a $10,000 membership. It's what turns a hotel into Soho House, a gym into Equinox, and a handbag into Hermès. The product is just
Deals
Denny’s Corporation Goes Private in $620 Million Buyout A consortium led by TriArtisan Capital Advisors, Treville Capital, and franchisee Yadav Enterprises is taking Denny’s Corporation private in an all-cash transaction valued at $620 million, including debt. Shareholders will receive $6.25 per share, representing a 52% premium