Curious About Private Equity?

At its best, it’s an environment where everyone’s interests are aligned. It’s unlikely that you will read about a private equity backed business in which successive leadership teams have been afforded bumper bonuses only for the company performance to stay static or even fall into administration.

It’s an industry that has social mobility hard-wired into its DNA, with many founder-owners having started on the ‘shop floor’. However, it is an industry that finds it challenging to evaluate an individual’s value if they haven’t already had experience and of course success, within a private equity backed environment.

That’s the classic catch-22!

We have supported a number of private equity backed businesses in exploring the value of executives with no prior experience, and watched those who have made the move and succeed.

A successful track record within private equity suggests to employers that you can not only operate within their world but flourish. It lowers the risk of leadership failure and leadership is the primary lever for value creation, so some wariness is understandable.

However, we believe, as do our clients, that an opportunity does exist to attract fresh talent into the sector, without ignoring the fact that experience helps leaders develop the behaviours required to succeed in private equity. Private equity backed businesses place great importance on the values and behaviours of the leadership teams they invest in. Could you demonstrate those behaviours without having worked in the industry?

Can you possess the behaviours desired by private equity, without having previously worked within it? 

It’s an industry that will promote capability and share rewards with those who contribute to its success. It is a full participatory sport, where there is no room for spectators, in which ownership and accountability are both required and expected.

It’s an environment that has, as others do, its challenges with diversity. However, it’s an environment that is objective, affords flexibility to those who require it, rewards in line with value creation, and embraces individuals who can impose themselves on their environment and have an impact.

It’s one of the most exciting and fulfilling environments to work in. If you are an executive or a leader who has an interest in understanding more, please let us know or alternatively, why not find out your private equity leadership behavioural PACE profile?

PACE is the only behavioural evaluation designed by private equity to develop individuals’ and teams’ behavioural complementarity. The complementarity of skills, experiences, thinking styles and behaviours is critical to developing high-performing teams who collectively elevate their impact and become greater than the sum of their parts.