Blog

Operating Partners: From Nice-to-Have to Must-Have Over the last decade or so, Private Equity (PE) firms have been moving away from their roots in financial engineering. Since the great financial crisis, firms have focused more on operational value creation. According to research by PwC and INSEAD, operational improvements accounted for close to half of PE…

The Changing Role of the Commissioner In this blog: How has the role of commissioners changed in recent years? Why should commissioners actively seek information within the company? How can commissioners effectively respond to societal and business changes? Society is watching, and the challenges are mounting: are boards of commissioners equipped not just to survive…

A Private Equity Portfolio Company: Changes are Big and Fast Private equity portfolio companies form a growing part of the Dutch economy. However, much leadership advice is still based on CEOs of publicly traded companies, without considering the unique dynamics of private equity. Investors often have goals that impose different demands on a private equity…

The idea of a family business, of course, is that a family should be running the business. But how can a business succeed with that approach? Can the goal of running an effective, innovative, professional organisation ever be compatible with an obligation to hire any niece or nephew who needs a job? Popular culture loves…

The Silicon Valley Bank Collapse: an Executive Search Perspective In this blog What was the role of C-suite recruitment failings in SVB’s collapse? How SVB’s ‘safe’ choice of CEO, Greg Becker, went wrong Why mis-timing C-suite successions can create fatal oversights What causes a bank failure? When we look for the causes of a disaster,…

New to the family?  Family businesses account for thirty percent of jobs in the Netherlands, and more and more people are considering a career move towards family business. Their inspiring histories, strong corporate cultures, and (often) smaller scale are among the reasons that many candidates are seeking out managerial and executive roles at family firms.…

Leadership in Private Equity portfolio companies For private equity (PE) portfolio companies, leadership is an important determinant of success. Portfolio companies often lack strong inhouse leadership development capacities. That means they need to bring in leaders from outside. Unfortunately, research shows that the quality of executive selection procedures in portfolio companies remains low, with the…