It is estimated that investments held by PEGs, or Private Equity Groups, in the US tops $500 billion. PEGs have a distinctive approach to making money which requires artful execution on their investments. They are viewed with envy by some for their successes, feared by others because of their actions and not trusted by some others because of their “secret ingredients”.
Whichever camp you fall into, there are great lessons to be learned from a successful, savvy and typically highly intelligent group of business barbarians (a term of endearment).
The recipe PEGs use to make money has a number of key ingredients (highlighted in bold) complete with all the proper cooking tools. They are as follows:
PEG will NEVER enter into a transaction without a clear, well thought out and analytical business plan. Next—the main ingredient to success—is the careful selection of talented “doers” who earn a seat at the table. Once a transaction occurs, a Gantt chart is instituted for every element of the business. AND, deadlines move only in one direction. No time is wasted on emotions, fluff or blame. It’s all about results and measuring successful outcomes.
While we can’t pretend to be a PEG, or to have to agree with all their business practice, there are a few things we can learn from their recipe for success and their cooking secrets and bake them into our businesses. If we learn nothing else from PEG, we must have three important ingredients in our recipe for success:
Whichever camp you fall into, there are great lessons to be learned from a successful, savvy and typically highly intelligent group of business barbarians (a term of endearment).
The recipe PEGs use to make money has a number of key ingredients (highlighted in bold) complete with all the proper cooking tools. They are as follows:
- 1 detailed cook book………..also known as a business plan
- 1 large caldron…………………..to sift through talent
- 1 cooking thermometer……..to measure the timeline
- 1 teaspoon………………….of patience
- 1 atomic scale………………to precisely measure results
PEG will NEVER enter into a transaction without a clear, well thought out and analytical business plan. Next—the main ingredient to success—is the careful selection of talented “doers” who earn a seat at the table. Once a transaction occurs, a Gantt chart is instituted for every element of the business. AND, deadlines move only in one direction. No time is wasted on emotions, fluff or blame. It’s all about results and measuring successful outcomes.
While we can’t pretend to be a PEG, or to have to agree with all their business practice, there are a few things we can learn from their recipe for success and their cooking secrets and bake them into our businesses. If we learn nothing else from PEG, we must have three important ingredients in our recipe for success:
- Ownership. Accepting an investment of capital from PEG mandates a noticeable change in behavior. Managers and teams suddenly realize that their projects need to get done accurately, timely and completely. Ownership of risk rests on their shoulders, not with PEG. And guess what happens when there is one neck to grab? Results improve noticeably.
- Urgency. Practice a discipline that celebrates a sense of urgency. Each day—strike that—each minute counts. Lose the idea that “it” will eventually get done. Hold yourself and your team accountable to agreed upon deadlines. Adopt the expression—“we’re burning daylight over here”.
- Execution. PEG is ruthless in demanding results. We should hold ourselves to that same standard. Frequently, projects are started and abandoned or executed partially. Successful execution means understanding the task that has to be done and doing it right the first time. PEG rewards seamless execution and punishes weak performers.
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