As part of an ongoing series, we’re sharing real-time trending topics we are hearing from our 500+ PE firm clients. In our most recent installment, one of our Managing Consultants, Scott Bellinger, talks about how leading PE firms are utilizing third parties to manage procurement issues that have been brought on due to inflation and supply chain issues roaring out of control.
Learn more about the unique ways in which PE firms are utilizing third-party procurement groups by watching the video below.
Interested in connecting with a third-party procurement group or any other type of third party? Contact us here. You can also learn more about the specific ways we drive value for PE firms by connecting them to the exact-fit resources they need by reading our case studies.
Every quarter our team analyzes the projects we work on with our 500+ PE firm clients to get a birdseye view of the market. You can request your copy here to view all of the trends that we have seen over the past quarter.
Key findings from Q1 included value creation at a historical high, deal flow reflecting 2019 versus 2021, & inflationary pressures impacting how firms thought about everything from pricing to talent.
Learn more about the insights we gleaned from the report by watching the video below.
BluWave has a unique vantage in the private equity industry, working with more than 500 of the world’s top private equity firms across thousands of projects in due diligence, value creation, and preparing for sale. From this activity, we’re able to discern unique insights regarding how and why the world works. The top insight of the first quarter of 2022 relates to value creation. A staggering all-time high record 78% of initiatives tracked in the BluWave Activity Index related to value creation. Here are a few other trends that you might find helpful. Human capital is becoming increasingly important in private equity. With the fallout from The Great Resignation still alive and well, firms are struggling to fill key roles, which has resulted in an increase in time and resources invested in human capital. Across the BluWave Activity Index, 42% is related to human capital, which is up from 36% in the previous quarter. Firms have been utilizing specialized HR resources to recruit A-level talent, retain key players, and bring in critical interim skill sets. One of the biggest trends we’re seeing in private equity and the broader global economy is inflation. We’re seeing PE take proactive measures using specialized third-parties to help them pass through rising input costs, defend against price increases, and hone the operational efficiency of their portfolio companies. For more unique private equity insights, request the BluWave Q1 Insights Report today by following the link below or by contacting us at info@BluWave.net.
A Partner at a LMM PE firm came to us with an immediate need for a board member for the manufacturing company they recently closed on. The PE firm bought the company from the founder and was in need of an experienced outside board member that could serve as a sounding board for the CEO, work on strategy to improve growth and help professionalize the organization.
The Challenge
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They were in urgent need of an individual local to the area with experience in the industry, experience in transitioning a family-owned business to a professionally managed organization and the ability to commit to more than quarterly board meetings.
How BluWave Helped
Select Pre-Vetted Board Members Presented
Leveraging our founder’s 20 years in private equity, we have extensive frameworks for assessing PE-grade board member needs. BluWave utilizes technology, data and human ingenuity to pre-map, assess, monitor and maintain deep pools of board members that uniquely meet the private equity standard. We interviewed the PE firm to understand their specific key criteria and then identified a select few pre-vetted board members from our invitation-only Business Builders’ Network that fit their exact needs.
The Result
Accelerated Profitability, High-Valuation Sale
Quickly after the initial scoping call, the PE firm was introduced to the first identified exact-fit board member for their needs. After being presented with the select few options, the client selected their ideal choice. The PE firm was able to confidently engage the individual who provided the coaching and support the portco’s CEO needed, helping professionalize the organization and providing support for their strategy and growth needs.
We are uniquely equipped to move quickly for midmarket companies. We have a network of thousands of PE-grade individuals, specifically geared for midmarket companies, that we can tap into in order to connect a firm with the exact-fit board member they need.
Our team recently had the pleasure of sponsoring the 2022 PEI Operating Partners Human Capital Forum in New York. In the below video, Katie Marchetti, BluWave Managing Director, recaps her key takeaways from the conference as a whole as well as the panel she moderated. Key takeaways include:
CHROs are on the rise at both the portco & firm level
Human capital leaders are working with deal teams more in diligence to ensure alignment
Many firms are leading with data on the human capital front
If you have a human capital need or any other need we can support, contact us here. Additionally, if you are a PE talent professional, be sure to join us and other leading PE talent professionals at our next virtual PE Human Capital Forum on May 4th by registering here.
When PE firms purchase a new portfolio company, there are specific reasons for doing so, leading to a specific set of metrics in mind that the firm wants to report on and monitor, such as customer acquisition cost, profit margins, and customer churn. The PE firm’s operations team focuses on optimizing and improving these key metrics by making changes as needed in the company’s operations, marketing, finance, and other functions. Real-time reporting on the key metrics allows an operating partner and key leaders within the business to proactively see situations coming that may require an adjustment.
Detailed reporting on each company within a portfolio, which each have different reporting systems, is a time-consuming task that inhibits the ability to look at metrics across the board in real-time as needed. In order to seek a solution to this problem, a PE firm came to us.
Challenge:
A PE firm operating partner came to us challenged by the lack of integrated systems his portfolio companies had for reporting on key metrics. Each company had different reporting measures for each of its different KPIs and digging into these metrics across each company in the portfolio was inefficient, inhibiting quick decision making, and consuming valuable time.
In order to win back time and monitor his portfolio companies with ease, he came to us in need of a third party that could ultimately create one dashboard that would report on all of the same metrics for each company across the portfolio. Immediately, they were looking for a group that could start by doing this for one portfolio company as a pilot, in order to see if it would be useful if scaled across the entire portfolio.
Solution:
Leveraging our founder’s 20 years in private equity, we have extensive frameworks for assessing PE-grade data analytics needs. BluWave utilizes technology, data, and human ingenuity to pre-map, assess, monitor, and maintain deep pools of data analytics resources that uniquely meet the private equity standard. We interviewed the PE firm to understand their specific key criteria and then connected them to a select pre-vetted data analytics group from our invitation-only Intelligent Marketplace that had the capabilities that fit their exacting needs.
Result:
The selected data analytics group got to work on providing the PE firm with the needed dashboards by first implementing ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) software that could tie all of the pilot portfolio company’s systems into a single source of truth. Once this initial step was done, they were able to begin developing dashboards through a data visualization tool. By first combining all of the systems into a single source of truth, the dashboards were created in a way that would allow them to update in real-time, allowing the PE firm to access key data points for the portfolio company at the click of a button.
This was such a success with the first portfolio company that they were able to implement the ETL software across the portfolio, bringing each company’s data to the same point of maturity and combining it into a single source of truth. This allowed dashboards to not only be created for each separate company, but also allowed for dashboards to be created that connected all of the portfolio companies’ data together in order to analyze portfolio-wide trends. This resulted in time being saved at both the portco and PE level, as well as resulted in significant business improvements being made throughout the portfolio due to trends that the dashboards highlighted.
A PE firm VP came to us with an immediate need for an interim CTO for their recent healthcare TPA acquisition. Having recently closed on the portco, they were looking for an individual that could help them remediate and roadmap the company’s tech stack. They urgently needed an individual that could modernize the tech stack and focus on cyber remediation so that the PE firm could then move forward with other value creation plans at the portco. They were in need of someone with coding skills, experience working with TPAs, experience working under HIPPA compliance, and availability to work on site.
Using pre-vetted network, BluWave identified interim CTO’s that met the exact needs of the firm
Leveraging our founder’s 20 years in private equity, we have extensive frameworks for assessing PE-grade interim CTO needs. BluWave utilizes technology, data, and human ingenuity to pre-map, assess, monitor, and maintain deep pools of interim CTOs that uniquely meet the private equity standard. We interviewed the PE firm to understand their specific key criteria and then identified three select pre-vetted interim CTOs from our invitation-only Intelligent Marketplace that fit their exact needs.
PE firm connected to exact-fit interim CTO for the portco
Within 24 hours of the initial scoping call, the PE firm was introduced to the first identified exact-fit interim CTO for their needs. After being presented with the select few options, the client selected their ideal choice. The PE firm was able to confidently engage the individual who immediately began road mapping and remediating the portco’s tech stack, allowing the PE firm to quickly move forward with further value creation plans.
As part of an ongoing series, we’re sharing real-time trending topics we are hearing from our 500+ PE firm clients. In our most recent installment, one of our Managing Consultants, Keenan Kolinsky, talks about one of the ways private equity firms are responding to The Great Resignation – Interim Executives. He shares why the need for interim executives is rising in private equity, how they can be used, and why they are beneficial especially to PE firms.
Interested in learning more about interim executives, how our clients have utilized them, and how we help? Check out our Interim Executives Hub to find case studies, scorecards, and more.
You can also learn more from Keenan in the video below.
Interested in connecting with an interim executive? Contact us here or click the “start a project” button above. We would be happy to promptly begin assisting you.
Large Cap firm needs ERP consultant with industry expertise
A VP at a Large Cap firm came to us with a critical need for an ERP consultant for one of their portcos. Since the acquisition, the PE firm knew that the company’s disjointed tech stack would need to be integrated. The portco CFO’s role specifically was lacking efficiency due to the lack of integration between systems, so the firm urgently needed an ERP consultant with industry experience that could help select and implement the new system. Knowing how critical this project was to advancing the portco CFO’s performance, he was quickly looped in as the decisionmaker.
Leveraging our founder’s 20 years in private equity, we have extensive frameworks for assessing PE-grade ERP selection & implementation needs. BluWave utilizes technology, data, and human ingenuity to pre-map, assess, monitor, and maintain deep pools of ERP consultants that uniquely meet the private equity standard. We interviewed the PE firm and portco CFO to understand their specific key criteria and then introduced them to three select pre-vetted firms that specialized in ERP selection & implementation from our invitation-only Intelligent Network that fit their exact needs.
Firm engaged ideal choice to select and implement an ERP
Within 24 hours of the initial scoping call, the PE firm was presented and introduced to the three select firms. All firms not only had a deep knowledge of ERPs but also had specialized experience in selecting and implementing ERPs for businesses in the construction industry. The portco CFO had follow-up calls with each of the firms in order to make a final decision and selected their ideal choice. They got started right away on successfully selecting and implementing an ERP for the portfolio company.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated our world’s digital transformation and has made businesses increasingly more virtual. In a tech-driven world, cybersecurity is vital to a business’ success, and it’s an area that is constantly evolving as the tech landscape shifts with new advancements. In fact, in 2021, we saw IT strategy land the number 6 spot in the BluWave Value Creation Index, signifying that cybersecurity was a top area of focus for PE firms, their portfolio companies, and proactive companies.
Staying up to date with the latest and greatest in cybersecurity is a full-time job that most companies don’t account for, causing many to fall short in digitally protecting their business. Thankfully, there are service providers out there that can take on this vital job for you and take care of your cybersecurity needs.
Curious what you may not be doing that you need to be? Trying to determine whether or not third-party cybersecurity expertise is something you need? Check out the PDF below to discover the 10 most common cybersecurity gaps companies face and how to avoid them.
If any of these gaps resonate with you, it may be time to connect with a third-party provider. We have a deep bench of PE-grade, pre-vetted service providers with specializations across various industries that we would be happy to connect you with – contact us here or use the “Start a Project Button” in the top banner.
Interested in learning more about how we can help with firms’ and companies’ digital and IT-related needs? Check out the below case studies:
As part of an ongoing series, we’re sharing real-time trending topics we are hearing from our 500+ PE firm clients. In our most recent installment, one of our Private Equity Consultants, Ryan Perkins, talks about the significant upswing COVID caused in the price of inputs. He shares two approaches companies can take in order to solve for this challenge, the negative impacts of each approach, and how BluWave can help in these scenarios.
Ryan gives an example of how we recently helped a high volume CPG business update their pricing across their product set, stay competitive with their eCommerce counterparts, and grow margins across their portfolio.
You can read another example of how we’ve helped a client with pricing strategy in this case study.
Learn more in the below video.
Do you need to get connected to a pricing analysis consultant or any other third-party resource? Be sure to click the “Start a Project” button above, or contact us here and we would be happy to get started in assisting you.
As part of an ongoing series, we’re sharing real-time trending topics we are hearing from our 500+ PE fund clients. In our most recent installment, our consulting manager, Scott Bellinger, talks about why we have seen an increase in go-to-market & growth strategy needs and how we are supporting clients with those. He shares that growth strategy is continuously increasing, with GTM being the third most used Value Creation use case in 2021, according to the BluWave Value Creation Index.
One of the most common ways we are helping clients with growth strategy needs is by connecting PE funds and their portfolio companies to senior advisors and consultants that can help them expand their reach outside of their current established market.
You can read another example of how we’ve helped a client with a go-to-market need in this case study.
Learn more in the below video.
Do you need to get connected to a GTM or growth strategy resource? Be sure to click the “Start a Project” button above, or contact us here and we would be happy to get started in assisting you.
Every quarter our team analyzes the projects we work on with our 500+ PE fund clients to get a birdseye view of the market. For Q4 of 2021, we not only pulled together our quarterly insights but also analyzed year-over-year trends dating back to 2019 to gain a deeper perspective (grab your copy here).
Key findings from our annual analysis included a sharp increase in the rise of human capital activity and rebounding of operational investment post-COVID.
Learn more about the insights we gleaned from the report by watching the video below.
