DAY 1 - Navigating Macro Headwinds, Harnessing Technology and Finding the Levers That Deliver
- Political disruption isn't behind us. How are operating partners across the market dealing with it?
- Instability is the new normal - what does a resilient portfolio that can weather macro and geopolitical storms look like in practice?
- Five years of compounding disruption has changed how entrepreneurs think about risk. How should that change how you buy and build companies?
- Which sectors are most exposed to geopolitical risk right now, and what are the smartest operators already doing about it?
- When the macro refuses to cooperate, how do you keep the value creation plan on track?
- Financial engineering alone is no longer suffice, multiple expansion is unreliable and leverage is expensive. Which operational levers are delivering the strongest returns across mid-market portfolios right now?
- What does a differentiated value creation model look like in 2026 and which funds are already operating it?
- Hands-on or hands-off - what does an effective operating partnership look like in practice, and how do you build a model that delivers it consistently?
- Is the way funds hire, deploy and incentivise operating partners built for what modern value creation requires?
A fund operating partner and portfolio company CEO present together on a deal where the value creation plan genuinely delivered. What was the original thesis, what changed, what were the pivotal decisions, and what drove the outcome. Followed by Q&A from the floor.
RT1: Pre-acquisition What does rigorous value creation planning look like before you own the asset, and how do you stress-test it before you sign?
| RT2: The first 100 days Practical tools and strategies for scale-up readiness; creating growth, de-risking it, and capitalising on it
| RT3: Growth
Which commercial, operational and talent levers are delivering real returns across mid-market portfolios?
| RT4: Carve-Outs Why Activity Is Picking Up, Why Disentanglement Is Getting Harder, and What Operating Partners Need to Get Right
| RT5: Turnaround When the plan isn't working, how do you spot it early enough, make the hard calls, and get the business back on track?
| RT6: Exit Readiness With holding periods extended, windows unpredictable, and buyer expectations higher than ever; how do you build and maintain a compelling equity story? |
- Average hold periods are now exceeding six years. How do you keep management teams energised, focused and incentivised when the original plan has long since been overtaken by events?
- MIP structures were designed for a four-year hold. How do you reset incentives mid-journey without demotivating the people you need most?
- At what point does continued investment stop generating returns, and how do you make the call to double down versus prepare for exit?
- When a competitor is closing in and the market hasn't moved as fast as you expected, what does a credible value creation reset look like?
- What does an AI-ready operating model look like; across processes, organisational design, technology, data and skills?
- CEOs know AI matters. Why is implementation still so hard, and how do operating partners move them from understanding to action?
- Which functions are being rebuilt from the ground up, and where are mid-market portfolios seeing real, measurable efficiency gains?
- The gap between businesses that have embraced AI and those still exploring it is widening fast. How do you close it before it becomes a valuation problem?
Three funds. Three problems. Three honest accounts of how AI was deployed, what happened, and how it led to improved results
- 1. TBC
- 2. TBC
- 3. TBC
RT1: AI inside the fund
What tools and methods are making your team more efficient, and what's just AI noise?
| RT2: AI inside the portco How do you identify where AI can genuinely add value, and how do you tell the difference between transformation and glorified automation?
| RT3: AI policy, and data governance What does a responsible AI framework look like inside a mid-market PE fund?
| RT4: AI and the commercial engine
How are funds using AI to improve pricing, sales performance and customer insight in their portfolio companies, and what's moving revenue?
| RT5: AI and talent How do you balance human capital with AI to build the most efficient and cost-effective teams across your portfolio?
|
Masterclass 1 - Cybersecurity and Digital Resilience: Protecting Portfolio Value in an Increasingly Hostile Environment A hands-on session for operating partners. Participants work through the key decisions in building a proportionate and effective cybersecurity posture across a mid-market portfolio, from acquisition assessment through to incident response.
| Masterclass 2- Value Creation Performance Management: How Do You Know If Your Operating Model Is Delivering? A hands-on session for operating partners and value creation leads. Participants work through the frameworks, metrics and governance structures that the best mid-market funds are using to track, measure and attribute the impact of their value creation activity. Practitioner-led, Chatham House Rule.
| Masterclass 3 - Strategic Write-Off vs. Restructuring: Making the Right Call Before It's Too Late A closed-door, practitioner-led session for operating partners dealing with underperforming assets. Participants work through the key decisions; when to restructure, when to cut losses, and how to manage the process without destroying relationships or residual value. Real scenarios, honest conversation, Chatham House Rule.
|
DAY 2 - The Operating Partner Advantage: People, Structure and Building a Function That Lasts
- What does building for exit from day one mean in practice and how does it change the decisions you make in the first 100 days?
- Which proof points matter most to buyers in today's market and how do you build them systematically rather than scrambling eighteen months before a sale?
- Where did the plan fall short of what the exit process demanded and what would you do differently if you were starting again?
- What did the exit process reveal about what buyers value and how has it changed the way you approach value creation on your current assets?
- How do you build a rigorous approach to assessing a management team at acquisition and diagnose the gap between the team you inherited and the team you need to deliver the value creation plan?
- Hiring C-level managers, realising they are not right, and replacing them is one of the most common and costly patterns in mid-market PE. How do you get the assessment right the first time; what tools, frameworks and instincts are reliable?
- Making a leadership change without derailing momentum- How do you know when you’ve reached the point of no return, and how do you execute a change that protects the business and the relationship?
- The CFO challenge- How do you upgrade financial leadership in a business that has never needed it before, and how do you do it in a way the founder accepts?
RT1: Commercial Excellence What does a best-in-class revenue engine look like in a mid-market portfolio company — and how do you build one?
| RT2: The Finance Function How do you transform financial reporting, forecasting and controls from a back-office function into a strategic driver of value?
| RT3: Procurement and Vendor Management How do you move from ad-hoc buying to a firm-wide procurement strategy that delivers measurable savings across the portfolio?
| RT4: Digital and Technology How do you assess, prioritise and upgrade the technology stack in businesses that have historically underinvested?
| RT5: People and HR How do you build the organisational design, compensation structures and talent pipeline that can support the value creation plan?
|
- How do you structure an operating team inside a mid-market fund to consistently deliver value across a diverse portfolio?
- How do you decide how much resource to put behind value creation inside the fund, and what does good look like at mid-market scale?
- How do you build and manage a network of external advisors and partners that genuinely adds value, rather than just adding cost?
- How do you educate an investment committee on what value creation requires, measure its impact, and make the case for continued investment in the function?
Four motions. Two sides. Five minutes each. The room votes after before every motion, and votes again at the end to see who changed their mind. No panels, no presentations, no consensus. Just the most important questions facing the operating partner community, argued out loud by the people who work on the front lines of value creation.
- Motion 1: This House Believes AI Will Make the Operating Partner Role Redundant Within a Decade
- Motion 2: This House Believes the Role of the Generalist Operating Partner Is Finished
- Motion 3: This House Believes Longer Hold Periods Are Good for Operating Partners
- Motion 4: This House Believes the Next Decade of Value Creation Will Be Won by Technology, Not People
Boardroom 1 -The VC Partner Network: How to Build, Manage and Get the Most from Your External Specialists A practical session for operating partners looking to build or strengthen their network of trusted external advisors and specialists. Participants share what works, what doesn't, and leave with a framework for building a partner network that genuinely adds value across the portfolio. Practitioner-led, Chatham House Rule.
| Boardroom 2 - Board Construction: Building a Board That Drives Growth Rather Than Just Governs It A hands-on session for operating partners. Participants work through the key decisions in board construction; composition, recruitment, structure, the entrepreneur dynamic, and knowing when to make a change. Participants leave with a practical framework they can apply to their next board appointment.
| Boardroom 3 - Managing Stakeholders in a PE-Backed Business: A Practical Framework In a PE-backed business, the stakeholder map is more complex than in almost any other ownership structure. This masterclass moves beyond theory where participants work through real scenarios, share live challenges from their own portfolios, and leave with a practical framework they can apply within their firms:
|