How to Improve Value Creation

How To achieve focus, flow and fulfillment at work: Try The Value Creation Habit I created The Value Creation Habit early on at Microsoft. I wanted a simple way to turn my strengths into high value creation. It gave my Deep Work hours focus flow, and fulfillment. Each week I could check how much time I was spending in my best value creation. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁? 1. A focus on spending more time in high-value activities. 2. Giving your best where you have your best to give. 3. Reducing time spent on low-impact or non-essential activities. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗜𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: 1. Helps you maximize your potential. 2. Allows you to create unique value. 3. Leads to greater fulfillment and impact. 4. Encourages Flow and mastery in your work. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁: 1. 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 • Identify your strengths and use them. • Create unique value that only you can provide. • Focus on high-impact activities. 2. 𝗗𝗼 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 • Engage in work that energizes and inspires you. • Avoid distractions that drain your passion. • Keep practicing your craft and refining your skills. 3. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 • Enjoy the present moment. • Align your activities with your values. • Serve others by giving your best where you have your best to give. 4. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 • Helping others succeed helps you succeed. • Adopt a mindset of contribution and generosity. • Leave a lasting legacy through your work. 5. 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟴𝟬/𝟮𝟬 𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲 • 20% of your actions create 80% of your results. • Identify and eliminate low-value activities. • Spend more time on what truly moves the needle. 6. 𝗗𝗼 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗗𝗼 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 • Writers, write. Runners, run. Entrepreneurs, innovate. • Play to your strengths and amplify your impact. • Add your unique twist to what you do best. 7. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗼𝗷𝗼 • Practice your craft with focus and intent. • Embrace continuous learning and improvement. • Seek feedback and refine your approach. 8. 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁 𝗮 𝗛𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁 • Focus on consistent practice and learning. • Develop routines and rituals to support your habit. • Keep getting up to bat, and compound your results over time. 𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁 1. Schedule dedicated time for value creation on your calendar. 2. Commit to the practice and track your progress. 3. Reflect, refine, and find ways to spend more time in high-value activities. 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁: Who do you want to be? The person drained by low-value tasks, or the one thriving in their element, making an impact? Embrace The Value Creation Habit. Do what makes you come alive. Multiply your impact. Create your legacy.

Value creation in a private equity environment revolves around systematically enhancing a portfolio company’s performance to achieve strong returns at exit. In my recent role as Go-to-Market Advisor for a cutting-edge AI-led health tech startup in the UK at Series B, I developed a comprehensive commercial strategy that rapidly boosted recurring revenue by 30% within 12 months. A key breakthrough emerged when we discovered extended integration timelines were deterring smaller clinics and hospital networks from adopting our solution. By designing a flexible onboarding framework, we reduced implementation time by 40% and reinvested these savings into predictive analytics features—enabling clinicians to forecast patient needs and administrators to allocate resources more effectively. Here’s a concise six-step roadmap for delivering tangible results: 1. Due Diligence: Pinpoint growth levers and operational bottlenecks pre-acquisition. 2. 100-Day Plan: Establish quick wins—revamp pricing structures, refine workflows, and optimise early partnerships. 3. Organisational Excellence: Assess leadership, align incentives with performance outcomes, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. 4. Accelerated Growth: Perfect go-to-market strategies, drive product innovation, and explore targeted acquisitions or strategic alliances. 5. Ongoing Optimisation: Monitor KPIs rigorously, remain agile, and leverage real-time data insights to pivot swiftly. 6. Exit Preparation: Ensure robust financial reporting, demonstrate sustained operational gains, and plan a smooth transition for new owners. Throughout each phase, transparency and collaboration are vital. Regular, data-driven updates to board members, management teams, and front-line staff help secure buy-in and maintain accountability. Ultimately, true value creation goes beyond financial engineering. It’s about generating sustainable growth, driving innovation, strengthening the organisation’s culture, and positioning the business for long-term success. By following a deliberate plan and staying laser-focused on top-line expansion and bottom-line efficiency, we set the stage for a transformative exit that benefits stakeholders and the broader healthcare ecosystem alike.

The biggest risk to Private Equity is the "Private" The greatest risk in private equity today isn’t macroeconomic, it’s operational opacity. The traditional PE model was built for a different era. Value came from financial engineering, multiple arbitrage, and access to proprietary deals. But that edge is eroding. In today’s environment, outperformance is operational, and operational performance depends on information flow, collaboration, and speed of execution. To drive true value creation, we need to replace secrecy with systemization. Here’s what needs to change: 1. Build Cross-Portfolio Benchmarking as Infrastructure Every portco should be benchmarked against its peers within the fund, not just in financials, but in marketing efficiency, conversion rates, hiring velocity, cost per acquisition, and customer lifetime value. If one company has cracked paid search or inside sales hiring, that playbook should become shared IP. 2. Operational Networks, Not Just Financial Controls Private equity firms love finance controls. Weekly cash reports, 13-week forecasts, capex committees. But the same rigor rarely exists on the operational side. Create centralized communities for operators, CMOs, heads of CX, GMs, who meet regularly, share dashboards, discuss tools, vendors, campaigns. 3. Institutionalize Lessons Learned Too often, learnings die when an operator leaves or a project ends. Start documenting success (and failure) systematically. Turn execution into a knowledge system so the fund learns faster than any single company can on its own. 4. Elevate Reporting from Static to Strategic Replace monthly board packs with real-time dashboards built around leading indicators and value creation metrics. Marketing ROI. Sales cycle velocity. CAC payback. Not just results, but drivers. Tie every operating initiative to value impact and make it visible across the firm. 5. Standardize the Tech Stack Across PortCos Create a preferred tech stack for analytics, CRM, call tracking, customer support, and marketing. Standardization speeds up execution and simplifies measurement. 6. Start Acting Like a Platform, Not a Portfolio Most PE firms own a portfolio but don’t operate a platform. The difference? A platform connects. It has shared services, knowledge transfer, centralized support, and execution leverage. Treat every new company not as a blank slate, but as an opportunity to plug into something bigger. The result will be speed, insight, and scale. By making the private less private, we shorten the learning curve, eliminate redundant work, and compound wins across the portfolio. The future of PE is connected, data-driven, and collaborative. The firms that unlock it will separate from the pack. Not by doing more deals, but by doing smarter work.

When I talk to portfolio CEOs, I often start with a simple question: "Where does value come from in your business?" Most answer with some version of revenue growth or margin expansion. And while those are good answers, they're incomplete. Because most private equity firms think they're buying a business, but in reality, they're buying the future decisions of a leadership team. Value creation in private equity is a three-act play: 𝗔𝗰𝘁 𝟭 - 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲. Creating value begins long before the deal closes. It starts with clarity and an understanding of the fundamental drivers of a business's worth. For founders, this usually means moving from instinct to insight. It means translating capital into capability through three levers: • Strategic focus (knowing where in the industry you'll play and how you'll win) • Operational discipline (building systems that execute) • Leadership depth (developing a bench that can execute without the CEO or Founder standing at the center). 𝗔𝗰𝘁 𝟮 - 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲. If creating value is about design, delivering value is about discipline. This is where strategy becomes execution. It's the ability to move from founder-driven heroics to institutional capability. Growth exposes weaknesses and scaling doesn't fix broken systems - it simply amplifies them. This is where the CEO earns their keep. Delivering value demands: • Operational transparency (real-time data, not anecdotes) • Process accountability (who owns what, by when, to what standard) • Talent leverage (right people, right seats, clear metrics) 𝗔𝗰𝘁 𝟯 - 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲. This is where discipline and storytelling collide. It's where decisions about timing, narrative, and positioning determine the magnitude of the outcome. To capture value, CEOs must think like investors, not operators. They must know: • Leading indicators (signals of enterprise readiness for exit) • Premium multiple drivers (metrics that command premium valuations) • Transformation narrative (telling the story that resonates with buyers) Capturing value isn't just about EBITDA. It's about momentum and credibility. Buyers pay for belief - belief that the growth story they see will continue beyond the transaction. The difference between companies that compound value and those that squander potential is rarely the deal structure. It's the discipline of leadership across all three acts. That's the journey of blood, sweat and equity.

The value creation model that transformed our client relationships: (Before: Transaction-focused. After: Long-term impact oriented.) Most firms measure client value in annual revenue. We measure it in decade-long impact. Three principles that changed our approach: 1. Long-term thinking creates different decisions → Multi-year strategy development → Future-focused solution design → Relationship investment prioritization → Lifetime value orientation 2. Value measurement extends beyond revenue → Risk reduction quantification → Operational improvement tracking → Strategic impact assessment → Opportunity cost evaluation 3. Partnership metrics reveal true success → Relationship longevity measurement → Problem resolution effectiveness → Strategic goal achievement → Client success contribution The most valuable client relationships aren't built on transactions. They're built on cumulative impact over time. How are you measuring and creating long-term value for your clients? - Want boardroom intelligence with zero noise? Every week we share curated insights that cut through the chaos and help you make the best policy decisions: Join here: https://lnkd.in/garzxSxG LION Specialty. The Leader in Institutional Insurance. 🦁

Negotiations don’t go wrong—they start wrong. Through my experience, I can often tell within the first 30 minutes whether a negotiation will take a collaborative or positional direction. The early signals—the tone, structure, and mindset of the parties—set the course for either value creation or value extraction. Too often, negotiations begin with adversarial positioning, where each side stakes out demands, focuses on "winning," and sees concessions as the primary path to agreement. This zero-sum mentality is where most negotiations start wrong. The problem isn’t what happens later—it’s how we approach the process from the outset. Do you negotiate how to negotiate before you start negotiating? This is a game-changer. Before discussing numbers or terms, set the stage for success. Consider opening with: "I am here today to help you reduce your risk, cost, and liabilities while improving your profits. Would you be interested in having me assist you with this?" This shifts the conversation from position-based bargaining to problem-solving and mutual value creation. SMARTnership® negotiation flips the traditional approach. Instead of defaulting to competitive bargaining, it starts by identifying asymmetric values, trust currency, and hidden gains that can turn the negotiation into a collaborative value-maximizing process. The real difference lies in: ✔ Mindset: Are we here to protect our own turf or explore mutual benefit?  ✔ Communication: Is the focus on claiming or creating value?  ✔ Trust: Is there openness to share real needs, costs, and priorities? If the first 30 minutes are spent staking positions, debating individual gains, or withholding critical information, the negotiation is already off track. But if we establish transparency, mutual benefit, and creative problem-solving early on, we unlock the hidden potential of the deal. Next time you step into a negotiation, ask yourself: Are we starting right? #Negotiation #SMARTnership #ValueCreation #TrustCurrency Tarek Amine Tine Anneberg Francis Goh, FSIArb, FCIArb Francisco Cosme Gražvydas Jukna Juan Manuel García P. Darryl Legault World Commerce & Contracting BMI Executive Institute #negotiationtraining Daniel McLuskie

Procurement isn’t just about cutting costs. The real game is value creation, and that’s why I like the Procurement Value Stick so much. This idea, inspired by Felix Oberholzer-Gee’s Value Stick, helps procurement teams maximise supplier relationships, optimise costs, and drive innovation. Here’s how I think about it: 🔹 Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) for Suppliers This is the maximum price procurement is willing to pay. Paying more isn’t always bad—sometimes, investing in a supplier brings: -Better service and reliability -Innovation and R&D investment -Lower long-term risk 🔹 Willingness-to-Sell (WTS) for Suppliers This is the minimum price a supplier is willing to accept. Procurement can lower this without damaging relationships by: -Improving contract terms (e.g., faster payments) -Reducing supplier costs (e.g., process efficiencies) -Offering long-term commitments 🔹 Procurement’s Role: Expanding the Value Gap The goal is to increase WTP (for strategic value) while decreasing WTS (for cost efficiency), without squeezing suppliers unfairly. This creates: ✅ More supplier-driven innovation ✅ Stronger, more sustainable partnerships ✅ Lower costs without compromising quality I’ve seen first-hand how the best procurement teams don’t just “negotiate harder.” They create win-win situations that benefit both the company and its suppliers. What do you think?

I’ve been speaking with many early-stage PE firms lately. These are firms with 10 to 30 portfolio companies, and one theme keeps coming up: a lack of true focus on value creation. Too often, portfolio companies are treated as isolated entities, rather than as part of an ecosystem that could unlock far more value. Few firms look across their holdings to identify opportunities for: Upselling into shared install bases Leveraging complementary technologies Bundling services for stronger market positioning When Value Creation Plans (VCPs) are used, they tend to become bloated multi-page documents with little prioritization, drowning in complexity rather than driving results. It’s time for PE firms to move beyond financial engineering and short-term metrics. The future lies in building playbooks that create durable value founded on cross-functional alignment, operational excellence, and strategic synergies across holdings. For smaller PE firms, this doesn’t require massive internal buildouts. Fractional or interim experts can be brought in to design and operationalize these playbooks, unlocking value faster and with more precision without overburdening the core investment team. The firms that embrace this shift won’t just generate better returns, they’ll build stronger, more resilient companies. #PrivateEquity #ValueCreation #PortfolioManagement #GrowthStrategy #OperatingPartners #BusinessTransformation #FractionalLeadership #InterimExecutives #Playbooks #CrossFunctionalAlignment #FinancialExcellence #StrategicGrowth